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The Lycian Sanctuary
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References for the idea of the "Wolf Clans"
"Skin-changers" were universally believed in once, in Iceland no less than elsewhere, as see Ari in several places of his history, especially the episode of Dufthach and Storwolf o' Whale. Men possessing the power of becoming wolves at intervals, in the present case compelled so to become, wer-wolves or "loupsgarou", find large place in medieval story, but were equally well-known in classic times. Belief in them still lingers in parts of Europe where wolves are to be found. Herodotus tells of the Neuri, who assumed once a year the shape of wolves; Pliny says that one of the family of Antaeus, chosen by lot annually, became a wolf, and so remained for nine years; Giraldus Cambrensis will have it that Irishmen may become wolves; and Nennius asserts point-blank that "the descendants of wolves are still in Ossory;" they retransform themselves into wolves when they bite. Apuleius, Petronius, and Lucian have similar stories. The Emperor Sigismund convoked a council of theologians in the fifteenth century who decided that wer-wolves did exist." -- Volsunga: Chapter8
http://omacl.org/Volsunga/chapter8.html
"And in many instances the power or necessity of transformation is ascribed, not to individuals, but to clans or nations. Thus the aboriginal Naga tribes of India seemed to the Aryans to take the form of serpents; the Neuri seemed to the Scythians, and the Hirpini to the Romans, to become wolves, as also did the native Irish of Ossory to the early Christian priests... In mediaeval times Blois had a special celebrity for were-wolves, and persons named Garnier or Grenier were generally assumed to be lycanthropists.
When we find that these three distinct classes of primitive facts regarding lycanthropy are all referable to a common origin, there seems good reason for regarding that as being in truth the origin of lycanthropous belief. And thus we are led to refer lycanthropy to the more general facts of primitive Totemism (q.v.), for the facts recited are as undoubtedly characteristic of the latter as the former. Where the totem is an animal, it is regarded as the ancestor of the tribe; all animals of its species are revered, and are never willingly killed; however dangerous to life, they are feigned by the tribe to be friendly to them, and hostile only to their enemies." --The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes, p. 91.
"The identification of wolves with young warriors being trained in fighting and hunting skills is deeply rooted in the tradition of various peoples descended from the Indo-European group and found far beyond the limits of Celts and Germans, but among these two peoples it was certainly well established." --Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions by H. R. Ellis Davidson, p.79.
"In 1692 the trial of an elderly man, Thiess, who was more than eighty years old, took place in Jurensburg. Thiess declared that he had been a werewolf and had been to hell with his companions in order to bring back seeds that had been taken away by a sorcerer named Skeistan. The reader will find the translation of this text in appendix 3. Those who have studied the minutes of the trial, H. von Bruiningk, Hofler, and C. Ginzburg, retained from it only what is related to the secret brotherhoods and the mythic battle between winter and spring and summer, the exact counterpart of what is told in the story of the Benandanti -- without paying any particular attention to the name assumed by Thiess and company: werewolf (werwolf).
Livonia, a Baltic province of European Russia, bordered on the north by Estonia and on the east by Lake Peipus, has continually been an important intersection where exchanges, both commercial and cultural, take place. At the end of the nineteenth century there still existed a very high proportion of Swedes in this country. While what we are calling a werewolf was considered a common phenomenon in the Scandinavian countries, metamorphosis of the Double became little by little fixed on the wolf, from which comes, for example, the introduction of a new word in the Norse lexicon, vartilfr (wolfman), under the influence of the Norse translation of the Lays by marie de France. Even Germany werwolf first meant 'he who knows how to change form,' that is, to double himself. If we stick strictly to the facts, Thiess has this name because it refers to his ability." --Witches, Werewolves and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages by Claude Lecouteux, p.119.
"The old man emphatically rejected this notion: the werewolves were anything but the servants of the devil. The devil was their enemy to the point that they, just like dogs -- because werewolves were indeed the hounds of God -- pursued him, tracked him down, and scourged him with whips of iron. They did all this for the sake of mankind: without their good work the devil would carry off the fruits of the earth and everyone would be deprived as a consequence. The Livionian werewolves were not alone in their fight with the devil over the harvests: German werewolves did so as well, although they did not belong to the Livonian company and they journeyed to their own particular hell; and the same also was true of Russian werewolves who that year and the one before had won prosperous and abundant harvests for their land." --The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agragrian Cults of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Carlo Ginzburg, p. 29.
"The confessions of Jacques Bocquet, Francoise Secretain, Caluda Jamguillaume, Clauda Jamprost, Thievenne Paget, Pierre Gandillon and George Gandillon are very relevant to our argument, for they said that, in order to turn themselves into wolves, they first rubbed themselves with an ointment, and then Satan clothed them in a wolf's skin which completely covered them, and that they then went on all-fours and ran about the country chasing now a person now an animal according to the guidance of their appetite. I remember once asking Cluada jamprost how she was so well able to follow the others, even when they had to climb up rocks, seeing that she was both old and lame, and she answered me that she was borne along by Satan." -- A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture by Charlotte F. Otten, p. 87.
"Giraldus Cambrensis tells us (Opera, vol. v. p. 119) that Irishmen can be “changed into wolves.” Nennius asserts that the “descendants of wolves are still in Ossory,” and “they retransform themselves into wolves when they bite.” (Wonders of Eri, xiv.) These Ossory men-wolves are of the race of Laighne Fxlaidh." --E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. http://www.bartleby.com/81/17583.html
"Of the Prodigies of our Times, and First of a Wolf Which Conversed With a Priest by Giraldus Cambrensis (1187).
I now proceed to relate some wonderful occurrences which have happened within our time. About three years before the arrival of Earl John in Ireland, it chanced that a priest, who was journeying from Ulster towards Meath, was benighted in a certain wood on the borders of Meath. While, in company with only a young lad, he was watching by a fire which he had kindled under the branches of a spreading tree, lo! a wolf came up to them, and immediately addressed them to this effect: "Rest secure, and be not afraid, for there is no reason you should fear, where no fear is!" The travellers being struck with astonishment and alarm, the wolf added some orthodox words referring to God. The priest then implored him, and adjured him by Almighty God and faith in the Trinity, not to hurt them, but to inform them what creature it was that in the shape of a beast uttered human words. The wolf, after giving catholic replies to all questions, added at last, "There are two of us, a man and a woman, natives of Ossory, who, through the curse of one Natalis, saint and abbot, are compelled every seven years to put off the human form, we assume that of wolves. At the end of the seven years, if they chance to survive, two others being substituted in their places, they return to their country and their former shape. And now, she who is my partner in this visitation lies dangerously sick not inspired by divine charity, to give her the consolations of your priestly office."
At this word the priest followed the wolf trembling, as he led the way to a tree at no great distance, in the hollow of which he beheld a she-wolf, who under that shape was pouring forth human sighs and groans. On seeing the priest, having saluted him with human courtesy, she gave thanks to God, who in this extremity had vouchsafed to visit her with such consolation. She then received from the priest all the rites of the church duly performed, as far as the last communion. This also she importunately demanded, earnestly supplicating him to complete his good offices by giving her the viaticum. The priest stoutly asserted that he was not provided with it, the he-wolf, who had withdrawn to a short distance, came back and pointed out a small missal-book, containing some consecrated wafers, which the priest carried on his journey, suspended from his neck, under his garment, after the fashion of the country. He then intreated him not to deny them the gift of God, and the aid destined for them by Divine Providence, and, to remove all doubt, using his claw for a hand, he tore off the skin of the she-wolf, from the head down to the navel, folding it back. Thus she immediately presented the form of an old woman. The priest, seeing this, and compelled by his fear more than his reason, gave the communion, the recipient having earnestly implored it, and devoutly partaking of it. Immediately afterwards, the he-wolf rolled back the skin, and fitted it to its original form.
These rites having been duly, rather than rightly, performed, the he-wolf gave them his company during the whole night at their little fire, behaving more like a man than a beast. When morning came, he led them out of the wood, and, leaving the priest to pursue his jouney, pointed out to him the direct road for a long distance. At his departure, he also gave him many thanks for the benefit he had conferred, promising him still greater returns of gratitude, if the Lord should call him back from his present exile, two parts of which he had already completed. At the close of their conversation, the priest inquired of the wolf whether the hostile race which had now landed in the island would continue there for the time to come, and be long established in it. To which the wolf replied:--"For the sins of our nation, and their enormous vices, the anger of the Lord, falling on an evil generation, hath given them into the hands of their enemies. Therefore, as long as this foreign race shall keep the commandments of the Lord, and walk in his ways, it will be secure and invincible, but if, as the downward path to illicit pleasures is easy, and nature is prone to follow vicious examples, this people shall chance, from living among us, to adopt our depraved habits, doubtless they will provoke the divine vengeance on themselves also" (Otten 57-58). Also here: http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:R1qQw-87vRwJ:www.mabinogi.net/sections/ch%25201/Shape-Shifting_in_Late-twelfth_century_Ireland_and_Wales.pdf+ossery+myth+wolf+OR+wolves+OR+werewolves&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us
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