Pages

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Werewolves of Ossory


One of the most well known stories of werewolves in Ireland was documented by Giraldus Cambrensis, a royal clerk to the king of Britain during the 1100s.  He told about the story of a werewolf couple who apparently attacked a priest.

It is interesting to know that the totem of Ossory would be a wolf.  Based on the legends, Ossorians have the ability to shape shift in a form of a wolf during the old times.  Once they were able to take the form of the wolf, their human body must stay at home.  Their human vessel would remain lifeless until the return of the spirit of the wolf.  If a werewolf would sustain a wound during a hunt, the similar wound would be found in the human body that would be easier for someone to distinguish a true werewolf.

Now back to the story, although the couple was Christians, their family has been placed under a curse and doomed to walk the earth as a wolf for 7 years.    But during those seven years, the wife was suffering from an inevitable death so the husband went to a travelling priest to perform the rite of viaticum to his wife.  Both of them were still in wolf form.

The priest gives in to the wish of the male wolf.  After that, the priest told his experience to the local bishop who requested Giraldus for counsel.  But Giraldus was unable to make it; instead he sent a letter to the bishop.  Eventually the news about the werewolf couple reached the Pope.


Is there a relation on this incident and the monk named Natalis who cursed a family for an unknown reason.  Is it just a co-incidence that the curse of Natalis matched the curse of the Werewolves of Ossory, that each members of the family is destined to become a wolf for seven years?

No comments:

Post a Comment