Traditional Bogymen, by Francesca Quarto
No child was more afraid of
the dark than I.
Truth be told, I still get a
shiver when the sound of a creak penetrates the gauzy fabric of my dreams, with
the force of a thunderclap.
It’s rather an embarrassment to
admit, but the bogyman that occupied the closet in my childhood bedroom, has used
my imagination to hitchhike a ride into my adulthood.
I have
long ago given up on using rational thinking to disabuse myself of such a silly
notion as monsters creeping about in the shadows. I now subscribe to the modern outlook of
embracing life and all it holds.
Sometimes, when I swear something has bumped my bed, this open-armed
acceptance means allowing the bogyman a little time to cavort while I shrink
myself into a four year old girl and wait.
Every
society has produced its share of fanciful creatures. Many of these monsters have even crept over
from one culture to another.
While doing some research on
the existence of Skin Walkers for the first book in my “Witch of Appalachia”
series, I discovered that this “Shape Shifter” creature can also be found among
some European folklore. I believed this
powerful being was only found in Native American cultures; primarily the
Navajo.
Werewolves and Vampires have
been spreading their particular brand of blood-letting over the course of
centuries. Let’s just concentrate this brief study on the much maligned (likely
had an awkward childhood) Werewolf.
Werewolf / Lycanthrope …the word from Old
English: wer, “man” and Greek: lykos, “wolf”.
Tradition teaches that this
mythical creature is a human, with the ability to shapeshift into a really big,
bad, wolf! Belief in this dreadful
monster mash-up can be traced back to Petronius (27-66 BC) and Gervase of
Tilbury (1150-1228 AD).
(Don’t worry, I looked all
that up…)
The werewolf has existed in
European folklore in many forms, all directly related to the interpretation of
the Christian churchmen on such matters.
Of course, much of this
folklore developed during the medieval period; a grim time one could say, with
lots of ugly things like plague and witch burnings taking a toll on general
morale.
Belief in werewolves would
eventually spread to the New World with colonization. These outpost of civilization really couldn’t
be called “new” since the brave colonizers took all the preconceived notions of
Bogymen into the very heart of their society. Remember, witches? The belief in witchcraft sprang up around the
same time as the werewolf.
We humans do have a propensity
toward the superstitions of the day.
Likely driven by the fear of our own mortality, we go to extraordinary
measures to eliminate threats to our continued existence; even burning old
women who looked too unclean, or, like poor Esmerelda, had a dancing goat! (A
respectful nod toward Victor Hugo to bring class to this scribbling…)
In what is now Switzerland, in
the early 15th century, trials of suspected werewolves were the
social rage. And rage they did!
These caught on like the
fagots used to burn the unfortunates, throughout the rest of Europe and only
peaked in the 17th century, finally ebbing like a bloody tidal wave,
in the 18th century.
Even Elvis didn’t have that
long a run!
But lest we forget, we humans
have other qualities besides being gullible and suspicious of warts on old
ladies noses.
Case in point; the werewolf
became a subject of interest in folklore studies and to the dark, Gothic genre.
We can find this fascination in the werewolf fiction, in some ground-breaking
(as genres go) medieval romances. This carried over as a genre into the 18th
century.
So, this hybrid human has been
tearing up (literally) the citizens in many a country over a long span of time. Traditionally, he hasn’t been well received
among the peasantry, but in modern times, found a place among the readers and
movie mavens who look for monsters that can scare them without doing actual
bodily harm.
After all, who doesn’t like to
be scarred witless? Outside of Presidential
elections, nothing gives me goose bumps like:
“A powerful, hairy arm
wrapping around my slender waist.
Pulling me closer to a slavering mouth, filled with yellowed fangs, bits
of flesh from his last victim dangling like bloody cords…”
You get the picture. Oh, I made that part up about the “slender
waist”!
Francesca Quarto, Author
“Wolf Master of Iron Mountain”
Book 1
2 comments:
Wonderful post, Francesca! Very interesting and informative. And you did NOT make up that slender waist...LOL!
I'm one of those believers that the things that go bump in the night hold at least shreds of reality. How else would all those myths come into creation?Author imaginations aside, of course. :) Fun post!
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