Werewolves and the Middle Ages

Shape shifters or were-creatures transcend every major culture from the Aztecs, to the Greeks to the Scandinavians. The ability of turning from human into animal plays a part in much literature and writings of the past. However, the most infamous of them all is the werewolf.

Werewolf legends appeared to have originated in the German countryside around Cologne and Bedburg in the year 1591. A much different life played out in that era and the wolf stood as a representation of fear and loathing. Many claimed to have found torn limbs on their properties and scores feared to travel in their surrounding wooded areas, despite little proof that wolves attacked people unless they were rabid or starving.

One infamous case of arrest and trial of a werewolf was Peter Stubbe. He allegedly held a special strap made of human flesh, given to him by the devil, allowing him to change into a wolf and feed on humans. Charged with killing men, women and children over a twenty-five year span, he willfully confessed his entire life to the court. He spoke of murdering his own son and eating his brains. His tales of feasting on girls in the fields while they milked cows caused panic and dread in the village.

After confessing to the heinous crimes, he was sentenced to death. Put on the wheel, a torture device, they pulled the flesh from his body with red, hot pincers. Then, his legs and arms were broken and he was eventually beheaded and burned to a heap of ashes. The investigation also implicated his mistress and his daughter as accomplices. They were burned alive that day with Peter on October 31, 1589.

The Magistrate of the town of Bedburg erected a macabre shrine to Peter. One that paid tribute to his victims but also reminded the townspeople that Satan's followers would be destroyed. They placed the torture wheel upon a pole and decorated it with his severed head. Pieces of wood hung from the wheel to commemorate his victims. A pamphlet was distributed reminding those that practiced evil to take heed.

Peter Stubbe is only one of thousands of documented executions for the crime of being a werewolf. Between 1520 and 1630, over thirty-thousand people were accused in France alone. Many were burned at the stake. The madness had taken Europe by storm, pushing the pursuit of werewolves into the realm with witches and sorcerers.