in an old form of english (i am not sure which, but it is in amny placenames in a warped form) fox is Todd.
in saxon times an outcast or a brigand was declared as a wolf or a wolf's head (some times said to "carry the wolf's head" (possible implication of burden, branding?)) , this is ascosiated with the wolf bieng seen as cowardly and a loner at the time in question. any one proclaimed wolf's head was alowed to be killed on sight (like a wolf?), i have also seen reference that they are "to be brought in, dead or alive, preferably dead"
http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/hellhnds.htm
"warg, although it has similar forms in other Germanic tongues. This is a complex word: it is often used simply to mean 'wolf', but it also denotes an outlaw or the state of outlawry, in which case it refers to those who have committed crimes that are either unforgivable or unredeemable, and who are cast out from their communities and doomed to wander until they die. Outlaws were traditionally forest-dwellers, and could be legitimately killed"
"It would be easy to assume that outlaws were called warg simply because their offences were of an especially savage kind, and that they were likened to wolves, wild, bestial, and uncivilised, as a result. Anglo-Norman law, for example, stated that the outlaw would 'be held to be a wolf and . . . be proclaimed 'wolf's-head'' [7]."
"vargr to those who kill by cowardly means, and to oath-breakers; however, the term is almost always used in compounds, which suggests that the archaic point has been lost. Ultimately, a warg is an outlaw, one who has literally become a wolf in the eyes of his fellows: a warg can become what he is by being outlawed, for murder or oath-breaking; or he can be oulawed for what he already is, a warg, a worrier of corpses. "
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Outlawry
"said to be caput lupinum, or to have a wolf's head, from the fact that he might be knocked on the head like a wolf by any one that should meet him"
proverb, from latin
A wolf's head (on which a price was put). [An outlaw. A Pariah. Fair game for anybody.]
http://www.electionsuk.org/clee/sheriff.htm
"The Posse Comitatus
In one way or another, the sheriff has retained his interest, if not his responsibility for crime prevention right up to the present day. His responsibilities were handed over to the new constabulary of Sir Robert Peel in 1829 after more than eight hundred years of "preserving the King's peace." In the earliest days, the sheriff would pronounce sentence of outlawry with the words "let him bear the wolf's head." This meant that the outlaw could be hunted down and slain in the same way that marauding wolves were hunted. The sheriff could then raise "the hue and cry" officially known as the "posse comitatus" or power of the county. Not since 1830, when the sheriff of Oxfordshire raised the posse comitatus to help him quell riots over a hotly disputed enclosure award has the power been exercised. "
Ancient Indo-European animal beliefs
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seadog-driftwood
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:03 pm
- Location: Ontario, Canada
Ancient Indo-European animal beliefs
1/3 squirrel - Sciurus vulgaris (European red squirrel), or Eupetaurus cinerius (wooly flying squirrel, native to Kashmir). 1/3 stoat (mustela erminea). 1/3 human (Homo Sapiens.
All confused.
All confused.
>I thought this might be interesting to mention here. Anybody have something >to add? I'd love to learn more on this subject!
>I've done a bit of reading on the topic of lycanthropy and such because of my >interest in TF, and since I also really enjoy linguistics, I've been trying to >compare human-animal myths in the Indo-European languages to see if >there are any similar features.
You might want to also consider Asian language families. Mongolian and Turkish myths, for example, frequently feature wolves.
>I read an intersting piece written in Old Welsh (and translated - I don't know >much Welsh, being Canada-born)
The Welsh language is quite similar to Breton, the Celtic tongue spoken in the former French province of Britanny. There are many Breton myths about werewolves. The medieval lay of "Bisclavret" is especially well known.
>about King Arthur and Gorlagon, a man who was turned into a wolf with the >mind of a man by his cuckolding wife. She gets a nice reward at the end - >has to keep the severed head of her affair-lover with her at all times!
Here's a RPG website I found about "The Arthurian Werewolf."
http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/a-were.html
>There's actually evidence to suggest that those who committed a serious >enough crime or who were socially deviant (in particular, homosexual, it >would suggest) were cast out and it was said "Thou art a wolf." This >expression or at least variants of it exist in Hittite and the Germanic >languages. There was, however, a way for these outcasts to redeem >themselves - by doing a brave, valorous deed . . .
More information on this subject is posted here:
http://www.collasius.org/LITERATUR/04-H ... rewolf.htm
>I can't remember off the bat who, but there are several other examples in >other Indo-European sultures that have the fighters associate somehow with >wolves or bears.
The Dacians, an ancient group whose homeland roughly corresponds to modern Romania, had many wolf myths. They supposedly had a military initiation rite involving transformation of a soldier into a wolf. See
http://www.angelfire.com/in/cih/dacians.html
Note - this website also mentions some ancient Iranian wolf lore.
Wikipedia has an article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Europeans,
claiming that early Indo-Europeans had a separate warrior class of wolf-men. No real evidence is cited, making one wonder if this is an analogy to "Dog Soldier" groups found among American tribes, for example.
>While the bear was called something the souded like hhurt-kyos, spelled by >convention *h2r.tk^os (really the dot's supposed to be a circle under the r, >and the ^ is supposed to be on top of the k), it was often referred to by other >names, such as "the brown one", from whence we get the English "bear" >and "bruin". Another big reference was "the honey-eater," as it is called in >many Slavic languages.
"Medved," the current Russian word for -- bear --, is an example. A more accurate translation may be -- honey-knower --, as bears not only eat honey but also know where to find it.
>Supposedly, there were only bears in the north.
While some bears are found in the tropics, wolves do not naturally occur in tropical habitats. Ethiopian wolves occur in tropical Africa, but only high in the mountains where the climate is temperate.
>I've done a bit of reading on the topic of lycanthropy and such because of my >interest in TF, and since I also really enjoy linguistics, I've been trying to >compare human-animal myths in the Indo-European languages to see if >there are any similar features.
You might want to also consider Asian language families. Mongolian and Turkish myths, for example, frequently feature wolves.
>I read an intersting piece written in Old Welsh (and translated - I don't know >much Welsh, being Canada-born)
The Welsh language is quite similar to Breton, the Celtic tongue spoken in the former French province of Britanny. There are many Breton myths about werewolves. The medieval lay of "Bisclavret" is especially well known.
>about King Arthur and Gorlagon, a man who was turned into a wolf with the >mind of a man by his cuckolding wife. She gets a nice reward at the end - >has to keep the severed head of her affair-lover with her at all times!
Here's a RPG website I found about "The Arthurian Werewolf."
http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/a-were.html
>There's actually evidence to suggest that those who committed a serious >enough crime or who were socially deviant (in particular, homosexual, it >would suggest) were cast out and it was said "Thou art a wolf." This >expression or at least variants of it exist in Hittite and the Germanic >languages. There was, however, a way for these outcasts to redeem >themselves - by doing a brave, valorous deed . . .
More information on this subject is posted here:
http://www.collasius.org/LITERATUR/04-H ... rewolf.htm
>I can't remember off the bat who, but there are several other examples in >other Indo-European sultures that have the fighters associate somehow with >wolves or bears.
The Dacians, an ancient group whose homeland roughly corresponds to modern Romania, had many wolf myths. They supposedly had a military initiation rite involving transformation of a soldier into a wolf. See
http://www.angelfire.com/in/cih/dacians.html
Note - this website also mentions some ancient Iranian wolf lore.
Wikipedia has an article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Europeans,
claiming that early Indo-Europeans had a separate warrior class of wolf-men. No real evidence is cited, making one wonder if this is an analogy to "Dog Soldier" groups found among American tribes, for example.
>While the bear was called something the souded like hhurt-kyos, spelled by >convention *h2r.tk^os (really the dot's supposed to be a circle under the r, >and the ^ is supposed to be on top of the k), it was often referred to by other >names, such as "the brown one", from whence we get the English "bear" >and "bruin". Another big reference was "the honey-eater," as it is called in >many Slavic languages.
"Medved," the current Russian word for -- bear --, is an example. A more accurate translation may be -- honey-knower --, as bears not only eat honey but also know where to find it.
>Supposedly, there were only bears in the north.
While some bears are found in the tropics, wolves do not naturally occur in tropical habitats. Ethiopian wolves occur in tropical Africa, but only high in the mountains where the climate is temperate.