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The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature
Brian J. Frost. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
Brian J. Frost's book provides a comprehensive overview of werewolf fiction and nonfiction, from ancient Roman writers such as Virgil and Ovid through what Frost calls "the boom years" of the 1990s. The breadth of Frost's coverage is impressive, making this book an essential reference guide for those interested in the literary pedigree of the werewolf. Although the term "werewolf" itself is Anglo-Saxon in origin, Frost notes that stories of human beings who transform themselves into wolves (or other kinds of animals) are common in world mythology, folklore, and literature. The task Frost then establishes for himself is a formidable one: to catalogue most (if not all) of the known appearances of the werewolf in Western literature. He does so in workmanlike fashion, annotating the references as he sees fit. The end result is a book that is somewhat inconsistent in the amount of detail given in the story synopses, and the depth of its commentary on the literary significance of the werewolf. However, the book cannot be faulted for its exhaustive listings and lengthy concluding bibliography. The bibliography alone makes this volume indispensable for scholars with an interest in the subject.
Chapter one, "The Werewolf Phenomenon," situates the werewolf legends of England, France, Spain, Greece, Sweden, and other northern European countries within the larger mythological tradition of hybrid monsters. Based on such legends, Frost profiles the physical appearance of the werewolf, the duration of the transformation, and the methods (either voluntarily or involuntarily) by which one becomes a werewolf. Frost then makes a crucial distinction between the terms "lycanthrope" and "werewolf," the former referring to a person who believes that he or she is a wolf, and the latter referring to an actual shapeshifter. Frost points out that occult belief in werewolves as literal shape-shifters or psychic projections of inner savagery continued through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Frost also summarizes the Freudian and Jungian psychological explanations of the werewolf as symbolic manifestation of unspeakable internal desires.
Chapter two is entitled "A Survey of Reference Works." Frost observes that most reference works on the subject address the ontology of the werewolf tradition and/or the literal existence of...