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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: T-Bone on April 09, 2010, 10:40:31 PM

Title: Research
Post by: T-Bone on April 09, 2010, 10:40:31 PM

Hello All,

I have been kicking around an idea for werewolf concept for a while now and it just sounds like a rehash of other peoples stories and settings.  Alot of that is due to reading lots of novels and RPGs like Werewolf the Apocalypse. 
So I thought it might be good to get back to the roots of the legends rather than looking at someone elses interpratation of the subject.
This is proving to be a bit more difficult than I had expected and I was hoping that some of you guys might have some suggestions.

Thanks in advance! :)

Title: Re: Research
Post by: Enjorous on April 09, 2010, 11:09:20 PM

Well, I'm no expert on the werewolf, but I know that one of the places that the legends started was in Western Europe, specifically France. But you can find shape shifting stories in almost every culture. I'd suggest looking into mythology texts at a local bookstore and see what you turn up.

I know it's not terribly much but I hope it helps a little.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: Nickeris86 on April 09, 2010, 11:52:35 PM

yeah most every culture has a form of were-critter of some form, most of them are the tradinal blood thirsty monster that eats babies and rapes virgen girls, then eats them. there are some however that are actually wise nature spirets or guardians. you can always make your own mythose for your werewolves and not worry if it sounds simaler to anyone elses cause its going to happen no matter what. it all dependes on what you want the focuse of the story to be.

as far as research goes, there are a couple of books you can find at boarders or amazon.com that have a lot of lore in them, plus websites, unfortunately most of it is pop culture crap but its still useful for ideas. most of what your going to find is going to be European werewolf's.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: logarithm.and.blues on April 10, 2010, 04:00:34 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan) 18th century French werewolf legend. Probably what Enjorous was talking about.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: Enjorous on April 11, 2010, 04:53:17 PM

Well the Beast of Gevaudan is one of the later werewolf legends out of France. They date back into the middle ages and earlier iirc.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: Nickeris86 on April 11, 2010, 05:51:47 PM

there's a documentary on one of the underworld dvd's that i am sure you could find online. it has some pretty interesting history on the vampire and werewolf legends, it also delves into the popular culture werewolf and vampires. it wasn't bad.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: Quantus on April 15, 2010, 03:54:06 PM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hai-7-rtL.jpg)
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Vampires-Werewolves-Other-Monsters/dp/0816046859

I got ahold of this a while back, so far has been very informative.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: svb1972 on April 15, 2010, 04:29:40 PM

There are 3 distinct Werewolf 'genres'
European Loup-Garou style
North American "Shifter"
Asian Oni

The first thing to do, would be to decide which of those you want to follow, and then start doing research on those.

Title: Re: Research
Post by: T-Bone on April 15, 2010, 10:22:11 PM

Thanks for all the great leads everyone!

One of the books I found that was a bit disturbing but infomative was The Book of Werewolves by S.Baring-Gould. 

I guess tonight I will be getting the encyclopia and more online research. 

Title: Re: Research
Post by: Rachel Taylor on April 21, 2010, 07:49:08 PM

Bob Curran, an Irish scholar, has written a couple good books. One features undead of all types: vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. His most recent one, I believe, is werewolves and nothing but werewolves.