THE PACK Message Boards

Neither. The bipedal werewolf we see in modern culture is just that a modern notion. There are very view myths if any at all that say that a werewolf stands upright.

A werewolf would only have a wolf form. Being a above average sized wolf and either have a tail or no tail.

YA i would like to be able to stand on two legs or on all fours when i want to sprint fast to chase my pray so hunch over would be ideal.

I like 'em both.

BTW, that Rowsby.com pic is *very* cool. I saved and filed it in my Photo Reference folder for the costume I'm building.

Personal bias = werewolf would not be hunched over. Well, maybe a little, but not by much.

neoritter wrote:Neither. The bipedal werewolf we see in modern culture is just that a modern notion. There are very view myths if any at all that say that a werewolf stands upright.

A werewolf would only have a wolf form. Being a above average sized wolf and either have a tail or no tail.

not completly. You do see the occasional old European image of them standing up right, and Native American ones could always stand up right.

When the European werewolf tales got mixed with Native American ones we ended up with uniquelly American werewolves. and these became the basis in part for the early movies (that can costume limitations) and we have just stuck with it ever sense.

I believe some werewolves of old legend had tell-tale signs of their human origin, such as the lack of tail, or human hands or faces or something like that, if I remember my readings correctly...

Rhuen wrote:

neoritter wrote:Neither. The bipedal werewolf we see in modern culture is just that a modern notion. There are very view myths if any at all that say that a werewolf stands upright.

A werewolf would only have a wolf form. Being a above average sized wolf and either have a tail or no tail.

not completly. You do see the occasional old European image of them standing up right, and Native American ones could always stand up right.

When the European werewolf tales got mixed with Native American ones we ended up with uniquelly American werewolves. and these became the basis in part for the early movies (that can costume limitations) and we have just stuck with it ever sense.

The only European story I know of bipedal werewolves is the portugese version. And they are little pussycats. That are too afraid to do much of anything. Bipedal werewolves in European stories are rare. Now the Native American take is not the same in terms of myth. Its not just wolves that people can shift into, and this fits more with the animist religions they practice. They give their animals anthropomorphic qualities, such as standing on two legs and talking. Though what you would see talking to you would be real wolf or fox standing on its hind legs.

It is still correct to say that the bipedal, hybrid man-wolf is a creation of Hollywood.

neoritter wrote:

Rhuen wrote:

neoritter wrote:Neither. The bipedal werewolf we see in modern culture is just that a modern notion. There are very view myths if any at all that say that a werewolf stands upright.

A werewolf would only have a wolf form. Being a above average sized wolf and either have a tail or no tail.

not completly. You do see the occasional old European image of them standing up right, and Native American ones could always stand up right.

When the European werewolf tales got mixed with Native American ones we ended up with uniquelly American werewolves. and these became the basis in part for the early movies (that can costume limitations) and we have just stuck with it ever sense.

The only European story I know of bipedal werewolves is the portugese version. And they are little pussycats. That are too afraid to do much of anything. Bipedal werewolves in European stories are rare. Now the Native American take is not the same in terms of myth. Its not just wolves that people can shift into, and this fits more with the animist religions they practice. They give their animals anthropomorphic qualities, such as standing on two legs and talking. Though what you would see talking to you would be real wolf or fox standing on its hind legs.

It is still correct to say that the bipedal, hybrid man-wolf is a creation of Hollywood.

Bipedal partially-transformed ("wolfman" or gestalt form) werewolves do exist in the folklore of pretty much every geographic region, but they are always far rarer than the four-legged regular wolves. The other kind of bipedal werewolf, a completely normal wolf that happens to spend part of its time walking on its hind legs, are also rare, but not quite as rare as the afore-mentioned kind of bipedal werewolf. The second kind of bipedal werewolf seems to be most common in South American legends, but it is found in quite a number of places.
The werewolf without a tail in wolf form is common in legends, but not extremely common (I'd estimate much less than half of all legends). One reason it gets over-emphasized is because it was over-emphasized by demonologists, because of technical theological reasons (they felt that all werewolves were created by the devil, but they were terrified of attributing powers to the devil that seemed too much like God's power of creation, so they said that the devil could only create imperfect animals, such as a werewolf without a tail).
When people say that the Hollywood stereotype is a mix of European and Native American werewolf lore, what they say is kind of true. The full moon and the movie-style amnesia comes from Italian legends (and almost nowhere else), the idea that the werewolfism is terribly contagious and the creature turns into a hairy, bipedal monster instead of a real wolf is borrowed from windigo legends (not the Native American werewolf, which is a different creature altogether) and nearly everything else is filled in with French lore. However, as far as I can tell, this exact mix of characteristics never appeared in genuine American folklore, even though American folklore tended to mix characteristics from different cultures.

Whether were's stood upright or hunched would be dependant on whether their spinal column retained the Human "S" shape, or shifted to the Canid "C" shape.
We stand upright because we have a double curve in our spines that enables our back and stomach muscles to balance the mass of our upper torso on our pelvic girdle, the "S" shape is the result of this balancing act.
Canids and any other horizontally designed mammals have an inverse "C" shape to their spinal columns; designed to 'hang' the organs off of and support the gut between the ribcage and the pelvis.
My opinion is this: If the Were' is a Faculative Bi-ped (Upright, but able to go on all fours at need) then the back would be "S" shaped and straight.
If the Were' is a Faculative Quadruped (Four-legged but able to stand upright), then the spine would be the inverse "C" shape and they'd have a stooped posture when upright...just like a lot of young people today do...Hey! you don't suppose that....

A werewolf should look like an Overgrown wolf on all four, not like a human stuck in limbo.

I like the van helsing werewolf best of all he was a little hunched over to look more feral but at times he was standing up stright. I just love watching him transform...eventhough it was too fast, i like a drawn out transformation like in AWWIL. ohh ya hunched over when it calls for it like when im grawing at roaring at somthing or ready to kill.