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A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope (from the Greek ''lykánthropos'': , ''lykos'', "wolf", and , ''anthrōpos'', "man"), is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. via a bite or scratch from another werewolf). Early sources for belief in lycanthropy are Petronius and Gervase of Tilbury. The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore which developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland (especially the Valais and Vaud) in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of werewolfery being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials.〔Lorey (2000) records 280 known cases; this contrasts with a total number of 12,000 recorded cases of executions for witchcraft, or an estimated grand total of about 60,000, corresponding to 2% or 0.5% respectively. The recorded cases span the period of 1407 to 1725, peaking during the period of 1575–1657.〕 During the early period, accusations of lycanthropy (transformation into a wolf) were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp (1589) led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe. The phenomenon persisted longest in Bavaria and Austria, with persecution of wolf-charmers recorded until well after 1650, the final cases taking place in the early 18th century in Carinthia and Styria.〔 Lorey (2000) records six trials in the period 1701&1725, all in either Styria or Carinthia; 1701 Paul Perwolf of Wolfsburg, Obdach, Styria (executed); 1705 "Vlastl" of Murau, Styria (verdict unknown); 1705/6 six beggars in Wolfsberg, Carinthia (executed); 1707/8 three shepherds in Leoben and Freyenstein, Styria (one lynching, two probable executions); 1718 Jakob Kranawitter, a mentally retarded beggar, in Rotenfel, Oberwolz, Styria (corporeal punishment); 1725: Paul Schäffer, beggar of St. Leonhard im Lavanttal, Carinthia (executed).〕 After the end of the witch-trials, the werewolf became of interest in folklore studies and in the emerging Gothic horror genre; werewolf fiction as a genre has pre-modern precedents in medieval romances (e.g. ''Bisclavret'' and ''Guillaume de Palerme'') and developed in the 18th century out of the "semi-fictional" chap book tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern pop culture. ==Names== The word ''werewolf'' continues a late Old English ''wer(e)wulf'', a compound of ''were'' "man" and ''wulf'' "wolf". The only Old High German testimony is in the form of a given name, ''Weriuuolf'', although an early Middle High German ''werwolf'' is found in Burchard of Worms and Berthold of Regensburg. The word or concept does not occur in medieval German poetry or fiction, gaining popularity only from the 15th century. Middle Latin ''gerulphus'' Anglo-Norman ''garwalf'', Old Frankish '' *wariwulf''.〔 "Werwolf" in Grimm, ''Deutsches Wörterbuch''. (【引用サイトリンク】title=online version )〕〔 〕 Old Norse had the cognate ''varúlfur'', but because of the high importance of werewolves in Norse mythology, there were alternative terms such as ''ulfhéðinn'' ("one in wolf-skin", referring still to the totemistic or cultic adoption of wolf-nature rather than the superstitious belief in actual shape-shifting). In modern Scandinavian also ''kveldulf'' "evening-wolf", presumably after the name of Kveldulf Bjalfason, a historical berserker of the 9th century who figures in the Icelandic sagas. The term ''lycanthropy'', referring both to the ability to transform oneself into a wolf and to the act of so doing, comes from Ancient Greek λυκάνθρωπος ''lukánthropos'' (from λύκος ''lúkos'' "wolf" and ἄνθρωπος, ''ánthrōpos'' "human". The word does occur in ancient Greek sources, but only in Late Antiquity, only rarely, and only in the context of clinical lycanthropy described by Galen, where the patient had the ravenous appetite and other qualities of a wolf; the Greek word attains some currency only in Byzantine Greek, featuring in the 10th-century encyclopedia ''Suda''.〔In the entry on Marcellus of Side, stating that this 2nd-century author wrote about the topic of lycanthropy. (cited after A. Adler, '' Suidae lexicon'', Leipzig: Teubner, 1928-1935); see (Suda Online )〕 Use of the Greek-derived ''lycanthropy'' in English occurs in learned writing beginning in the later 16th century (first recorded 1584 in ''The Discoverie of Witchcraft'' by Reginald Scot, who argued ''against'' the reality of werewolves; "Lycanthropia is a disease, and not a transformation." v. i. 92), at first explicitly for clinical lycanthropy, i.e. the type of insanity where the patient imagines to have transformed into a wolf, and not in reference to supposedly real shape-shifting. Use of ''lycanthropy'' for supposed shape-shifting is much later, introduced ca. 1830. Slavic uses the term ''vlko-dlak'', literally "wolf-skin", paralleling the Old Norse ''ulfhéðinn''. However, the word is not attested in the medieval period (Polish ''wilkołak'', Czech ''vlkodlak'', Slovak ''vlkolak'', Serbo-Croatian ''вукодлак'' - ''vukodlak'',〔Karadžić in 1818) records вукодлак (werewolf) вампир'' (vampire) are synonyms, a man who returns from his grave for purposes of fornicating with his widow.〕 Slovenian ''volkodlak'', Bulgarian/Macedonian върколак ''vrkolak'', Belarusian ваўкалак ''vaukalak'', Ukrainian вовкулака ''vovkulaka''), loaned into modern Greek as ''Vrykolakas''. Baltic has related terms, Lithuanian ''vilkolakis'' and ''vilkatas'', Latvian ''vilkatis'' and ''vilkacis''. The name ''vurdalak'' (вурдалак) for the Slavic vampire ("ghoul, revenant") is a corruption due to Alexander Pushkin, which was later widely spread by A.K. Tolstoy in his novella ''The Family of the Vourdalak'' (composed in French, but first published in Russian translation in 1884). Greek λυκάνθρωπος and Germanic ''werewulf'' are parallel inasmuch as the concept of a shapeshifter becoming a wolf is expressed by means of a compound "wolf-man" or "man-wolf". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Werewolf」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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