The Book of Were-Wolves | Page 5

he traced to
the following circumstance:--The natives were a pastoral people, and
would consequently suffer very severely from the attacks and
depredations of wolves. They would naturally institute a sacrifice to
obtain deliverance from this pest, and security for their flocks. This
sacrifice consisted in the offering of a child, and it was instituted by
Lycaon. From the circumstance of the sacrifice being human, and from
the peculiarity of the name of its originator, rose the myth.

But, on the other hand, the story is far too widely spread for us to
attribute it to an accidental origin, or to trace it to a local source.
Half the world believes, or believed in, were-wolves, and they were
supposed to haunt the Norwegian forests by those who had never
remotely been connected with Arcadia: and the superstition had
probably struck deep its roots into the Scandinavian and Teutonic
minds, ages before Lycaon existed; and we have only to glance at
Oriental literature, to see it as firmly engrafted in the imagination of the
Easterns.
CHAPTER III.
THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH.
In Norway and Iceland certain men were said to be eigi einhamir, not
of one skin, an idea which had its roots in paganism. The full form of
this strange superstition was, that men could take upon them other
bodies, and the natures of those beings whose bodies they assumed.
The second adopted shape was called by the same name as the original
shape, hamr, and the expression made use of to designate the transition
from one body to another, was at skipta hömum, or _at hamaz_; whilst
the expedition made in the second form, was the hamför. By this
transfiguration extraordinary powers were acquired; the natural strength
of the individual was doubled, or quadrupled; he acquired the strength
of the beast in whose body he travelled, in addition to his own, and a
man thus invigorated was called hamrammr.
The manner in which the change was effected, varied. At times, a dress
of skin was cast over the body, and at once the transformation was
complete; at others, the human body was deserted, and the soul entered
the second form, leaving the first body in a cataleptic state, to all
appearance dead. The second hamr was either borrowed or created for
the purpose. There was yet a third manner of producing this effect-it
was by incantation; but then the form of the individual remained
unaltered, though the eyes of all beholders were charmed so that they
could only perceive him under the selected form.

Having assumed some bestial shape, the man who is eigi einhammr is
only to be recognized by his eyes, which by no power can be changed.
He then pursues his course, follows the instincts of the beast whose
body he has taken, yet without quenching his own intelligence. He is
able to do what the body of the animal can do, and do what he, as man,
can do as well. He may fly or swim, if be is in the shape of bird or fish;
if he has taken the form of a wolf, or if he goes on a gandreið, or
wolf's-ride, he is fall of the rage and malignity of the creatures whose
powers and passions he has assumed.
I will give a few instances of each of the three methods of changing
bodies mentioned above. Freyja and Frigg had their falcon dresses in
which they visited different regions of the earth, and Loki is said to
have borrowed these, and to have then appeared so precisely like a
falcon, that he would have escaped detection, but for the malicious
twinkle of his eyes. In the Vælundar kviða is the following passage:--
I. I.
Meyjar flugu sunnan From the south flew the maidens Myrkvið
igögnum Athwart the gloom, Alvitr unga Alvit the young, Orlög drýgja;
To fix destinies; þær á savarströnd They on the sea-strand Settusk at
hvilask, Sat them to rest, Dró sir suðrnar These damsels of the south
Dýrt lín spunnu. Fair linen spun.
II. II.
Ein nam þeirra One of them took Egil at verja Egil to press, Fögr mær
fíra Fair maid, in her Faðmi ljósum; Dazzling arms. Önnur var
Svanhvít, Another was Svanhwit, Svanfjaðrar dró; Who wore swan
feathers; En in þriðja And the third, þeirra systir Their sister, Var i
hvítan Pressed the white Háls Völundar. Neck of Vlund.
The introduction of Smund tells us that these charming young ladies
were caught when they had laid their swan-skins beside them on the
shore, and were consequently not in a condition to fly.
In like manner were wolves' dresses used. The following curious

passage is from the wild Saga of the Völsungs:--
"It is now to be told that Sigmund thought Sinfjötli too young to help
him in his revenge,