As the Chinese might say, my times have been "interesting" lately, and it slipped my mind that I've been settled in my corner of the Werewolf Cafe for over a year! I decided to celebrate my first anniversary with a short essay on the strangest bit of lycanthropic folklore yet:
Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) was the world's first real anthropologist. His major work on the subject was Primitive Culture (1873) in two volumes. In Vol. 1 he gives a quite interesting overview of the subject of lycanthropy and therianthropy, but one line made me look twice:
"The Danes still know a man who is a werewolf by his eyebrows meeting, and thus resembling a butterfly, the familiar type of the soul, ready to fly off and enter some other body." (p. 313)
I'd heard of the connecting eyebrows as a sign of a werewolf since I was a little child. I thought it might have been something made up for the movies, like the pentagram in the palm bit, but apparently it's an authentic piece of were-lore.
The idea of the soul appearing as a moth or butterfly is a motif I've also come across occasionally -- in "The Devil and Daniel Webster," the movie and short-story by Stephen Vincent Benet, for instance. It's also mentioned in the 2002 movie "The Mothman Prophecies." The idea that the soul can leave the body as a tiny creature was common in ancient and medieval times, the form chosen usually being a mouse or small snake (The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm carries a few such tales). I would never have though of mixing them all together, however.
But from now on, when I see flittering forms dancing over flowers or swirling around a streetlight, I'm going to say, "Look at all those werewolf eyebrows!"
(Especially those really ratty, dusty gray moths attracted to porch lights. Those have to be werewolf eyebrows!)
Last edited by Amarok (2008-08-22 01:14:19)
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The day after I wrote the above I hopped into my car to prowl around town, and there were three or four moths fluttering around my rear view mirror. I lock up my car tight every night (no telling who might try to get in), and I've rarely come across any kind of insect in it in the morning, let alone four. I can only figure that some of the Cafe members sent their 'brows out to buzz me! :0
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That is actually quite fascinating. I always find it interesting how Moths would end up in a TRANCE when approached with light. I had never heard of this legend. "Is there anymore details to it?"
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The Wikipedia entry for "Unibrow" mentions werewolves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unibrow
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. . . And this folklore article tells of moths and butterflies representing the separable soul:
http://www.socyberty.com/Folklore/Moth- … ore.228371
I haven't found anything more on were-eyebrows = moth-soul, though. I never thought of comparing the caterpillar-to-moth transformation (a quite remarkable physical change, you must admit) to lycanthropy, at least in this subject. They kind of go together . . .
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And here's the YouTube "Cat Talking to a Moth," no doubt a werewolf-moth it knows!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYxDM1BQoOw
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Amarok wrote:
As the Chinese might say, my times have been "interesting" lately, and it slipped my mind that I've been settled in my corner of the Werewolf Cafe for over a year! I decided to celebrate my first anniversary with a short essay on the strangest bit of lycanthropic folklore yet:
Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) was the world's first real anthropologist. His major work on the subject was Primitive Culture (1873) in two volumes. In Vol. 1 he gives a quite interesting overview of the subject of lycanthropy and therianthropy, but one line made me look twice:
"The Danes still know a man who is a werewolf by his eyebrows meeting, and thus resembling a butterfly, the familiar type of the soul, ready to fly off and enter some other body." (p. 313)
I'd heard of the connecting eyebrows as a sign of a werewolf since I was a little child. I thought it might have been something made up for the movies, like the pentagram in the palm bit, but apparently it's an authentic piece of were-lore.
The idea of the soul appearing as a moth or butterfly is a motif I've also come across occasionally -- in "The Devil and Daniel Webster," the movie and short-story by Stephen Vincent Benet, for instance. It's also mentioned in the 2002 movie "The Mothman Prophecies." The idea that the soul can leave the body as a tiny creature was common in ancient and medieval times, the form chosen usually being a mouse or small snake (The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm carries a few such tales). I would never have though of mixing them all together, however.
But from now on, when I see flittering forms dancing over flowers or swirling around a streetlight, I'm going to say, "Look at all those werewolf eyebrows!"
(Especially those really ratty, dusty gray moths attracted to porch lights. Those have to be werewolf eyebrows!)
Eyebrows meeting in the middle and the meaning behind the nature of this has been debated and depicted in lore and pop culture-there are many theories linked to how and why this 'belief' came about ranging from fear of 'outsiders' to the connection between wild men and thier sexual drives-all of which acted as a means to warn young women off (to avoid any form of sexual awakening outside of marriage)
The notion of souls travelling via butterflies/moths might be attributed to the historical reason why we say 'bless you' when someone may sneeze. way back when, it was thought that demons/evil beings travelled around searching for hosts (sometimes in the form of moths etc). Often these beings would enter the body of someone when they opened thier mouths to sneeze. The custome of saying 'bless you' was believed to stop the being taking root in its host, and is still practised today! (obviously out of being polite rather then the whole demon thing!)
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did you know that if you were to kill the familiar you would be comitting murder (knowledge courtesy of a folktale)?
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Amarok wrote:
"The Danes still know a man who is a werewolf by his eyebrows meeting, and thus resembling a butterfly, the familiar type of the soul, ready to fly off and enter some other body." (p. 313)
I think this has more to do with the shape of the eyebrows, which would make the person appear rather sinister, rather than any true connection to butterflies and moths. From everything brought up about butterflies and moths, they seem fairly benign when it comes to superstition.
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