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I was wondering where this werewolf legend came from...

If you kill the original werewolf, or the werewolf that you have been bitten by, you shall turn back to a human and be free of the curse.

Is that a real legend from folklore? Or did it come from 'An American Werewolf in London' and the people coping it?

Silverclaw wrote:I was wondering where this werewolf legend came from...

If you kill the original werewolf, or the werewolf that you have been bitten by, you shall turn back to a human and be free of the curse.

Is that a real legend from folklore? Or did it come from 'An American Werewolf in London' and the people coping it?

Haha, that's originally a vampire legend.
Where ever you had seen it, must have just copied it over to werewolves.

Silly writers. You're confusing classical elements with originality in story themes. Tricks are for kids!

That seems to be the common cure these days for werewolf films. I remember they used that in Cursed. Not sure if it's really from a legend or a creative thought. Gotta research it.

I think American Werewolf in London was the first mainstream werewolf storyline to use the idea. It came up again in the 80s Werewolf TV series. It sank into the popular culture lore that way, and from there Cursed picked it up.

It doesn't surprise me that it's originally from vampire lore; it sounds vampiric. I'm also glad it's not a major part of either lore, as, though useful as a plot device for a one-time story, it really kills that sense of transformation and permanance.

I do have an as yet unwritten story concept about a person who thinks it's the case, even though it isn't, who thinks that he can cure himself by assassinating one of my lead characters, Elodea Taylor, the first of her lineage.

Yeah, it's a seventies Hollywood made-up thing for a movie; "Lost Boys" I think it was.
It has NO credence in Vampire legends prior to that time and none in Werewolf legends either.

Think about it: you kill the Werewolf that made you a Werewolf; you have just killed the one person that might be able to help you: and you can forget about joining up with a Pack (if one existed).

You gaurantee that you'll die at the end of the movie.

*chuckle* True, and considering that there's at least one show I can think of that is so bad it might be considered good... or not.

I don't believe that would work because it's transmuted thru the fluids as most commonly known. so why would killing the gift giver be the reason to for change?

ditto on that it has no "true" source in folklore or myths.

the closist thing I can think of that inspired this was the idea that killing a witch undid any spells she put on people (including animal transformations).

That, plus it's an import from the Vampire movies...there is no evidence that doing anything to anyone would change your "Fuzzy-Toothy" rebuild.

I still say that killing the Wulf that made you would be about the stupidest thing you could do. There would be a reason that you were Crossed-Over, and the one that made you would know why. It might be important...like it was done to save your life. It might have been the only way that a certain someone could be with you.
There are a thousand reasons to seek, and none to kill.

RedEye wrote:That, plus it's an import from the Vampire movies...there is no evidence that doing anything to anyone would change your "Fuzzy-Toothy" rebuild.

I still say that killing the Wulf that made you would be about the stupidest thing you could do. There would be a reason that you were Crossed-Over, and the one that made you would know why. It might be important...like it was done to save your life. It might have been the only way that a certain someone could be with you.
There are a thousand reasons to seek, and none to kill.

I agree I mean maybe the wolf that changed you is somebody whos in love with you and just wants to be with you (sorry thats just what my mind first goes to) maybe you had cancer and they were trying to save your life some dogs can sense cancer

An American Werewolf in London did NOT use a "kill the original werewolf, you're cured" storyline. In fact, the werewolf that bites David is shot at the beginning of the movie, and David can't convince anybody that it was actually a wolf that attacked him. In fact, there was no way to cure yourself, you were stuck, which is why Jack kept telling David to kill himself throughout the movie. You guys are confusing it with the s*** sequel An American Werewolf in Paris, which had a ridiculous thing where eating the werewolf's heart cures you. God I hate that movie.

If I recall correctly, David's death would allow "those cursed to walk the earth in limbo" like Jack and David's victims to rest in peace, it would do nothing for David himself or I would assume anyone who survived an attack by David to become a WW themselves. All of David's victims died so that was never an issue. If a sequel had been done properly as I see it, it would have featured the offspring of David and the nurse, Alex. I know the dismal AAW in Paris sort of implied that, but did not say it outright and I can't stand that movie for so many reasons.

I also would wonder if Alex herself became a WW in such a sequel. Most on this site would think so due to the "fluid exchanges" between David and Alex, so two common issues would be dealt with. Those being a human mother to a were wolf and if lycanthropy can be transmitted to the one's partner through sex. In an "I want it all" kind of way, I would want the offspring to be part WW but Alex to remain human. That's just my own "wish" I admit and how I am trying to work things in my own shapeshifter story I am working on. In mine though the shape shifting would be purely a genetic trait.

Where the idea of "kill the original WW in the blood line end the curse" came from I don't know. I only first heard of it in AAWIL, and also see how it just makes no sense no matter of the lycanthropy comes from an infection, heredity or both. Just like even if it were the first creature that had rabies, killing it would not cure me if it bit me.

well it depends what version you are thinking of.

If you go by the crazy classical magic werewolf ideas than it would be plausible.

However if you go with the science backed versions it doesn't make any sense. You'd just be killing things.

Watch the movie, Cursed. The pretty crappy werewolf movie.

Kill the werewolf who cursed all of you, then they become normal again.

IndianaJones wrote:Watch the movie, Cursed. The pretty crappy werewolf movie.

Kill the werewolf who cursed all of you, then they become normal again.

Which could lead to some pretty embarassing moments; the Werewolves weren't wearing anything in that movie.

Well to me I think that is original an old Vampire legand. I remeber that well from Lost Boys. I think even Queen of the Damned had something simmilar. (the book). I don't recall werewolves until Cursed.

That doesn't make sense to me. I was bored and was looking up sites that have different takes on mythology. One had that it doesn't matter and that it'd be like getting typhoid, then killing the person responsible. You still have typhoid. (The site used AIDs as an analogy; but some guy murdered someone who gave him AIDs...So yeah... ) That sounds accurate with being bitten by a werewolf. If you're bitten by one, killing it won't help you. You'd still be stuck as a werewolf.
Unless there's something about magic and curses...
Now I'm confused.

As far as I can remember, the business of "Kill the Original (your favorite name here), and your curse of (Your least liked situation here) will vanish;" goes back to Anne Rice"s Vampires.
And no further.
It never applied to Werewolves until it was incorporated in a movie as an attempt at originality. Bad idea, that.
As you point out: it wouldn't work that way.
Vampirism is a classical sort of Magical State, wherein the Dead come back to life and prolong that life by draining life out of the living; sort of like visiting in-laws from hell.
Lycanthropy, however, is most often seen as an Infection of some sort; rather of like a head-cold with fangs. You catch it, you have it: Period.

I just can't wait to see the Werewolf disintegrate when exposed to sunlight; since that will signal the death of creativity in Hollywood Horror. It may have already happened, for all I know.

I think Anne Rice wrote her Lestat series after The Lost Boys. I recall the movie being mentioned as one of her influences.

Furthermore, The Lost Boys came out in the mid-eighties. American Werewolf in London came out in 1981.

Hints of reversal or at least broken interdependencies are brought up in some versions of Dracula. In some versions, it takes three bites from a vampire to "seroconvert," and if you kill the vampire who bit you and you've had less than three bites, you get to start over.

As cliche as I think it is now, I sounds like it was once a quite elegant vengeance/redemption literary mechanism.

Killing the original wolf gives the protagonist hope of becoming human once more.

The problems with that idea are:
1: Killing the original Werewolf might require a lot of travelling. Said Wolf could be anywhere.
2: Convincing the cops that the guy you just killed was a Werewolf...original or not.

A were-wolf thats lived that long, and turned so many people is not going to just open his arms and let you get in a good clean shot. Who knows, it might have even been cooked up by a were-wolf as a means to root out anyone comming after them.

It's popularity probably stems from its usefulness as a plot device. Getting "cursed" with lycanthropy is the plot hook that initiates the story, and the "kill the founder of the line" becomes the character's goal.

Remember, most people are more or less interested in being normal; those of us who actually want to be werewolves are outliers. And, many of us would rethink our interest in lycanthropy if it were more like the contemporary depiction of transforming into an ugly monster that wants to kill for no good reason rather than our own more idealic image of metaphysical retro-evolution. Thus, we're supposed to feel happy for the guy (usually it's a male lead) when he shoots the founder with a silver bullet and gets his humanity back.

If someone wants to do a really good horror movie, have the person think werewolves are horrific monsters, but after going on a quest of self-discovery while trying to find the founder, find along the way that being a werewolf does not make one a monster afterall. Show some of the real monsters out there, and have the lead person decide at the last minute, silver bullet-loaded gun in hand, not to shoot.