“The Werewolf”Captain Frederick Marryatt
(1839)
Although most of the traditional monsters of hor-
ror fiction have appeared in a number of classic
stories, the werewolf, or lycanthrope, has generally
been relegated to a less interesting, formulaic list of
titles. Most of the werewolf stories that prove
memorable usually involve some sort of transfor-
mation of the original legend, sometimes changing
it almost completely. It could be argued, for exam-
ple, that DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE(1886), by
Robert Louis Stevenson, is a kind of werewolf
story, and Dean R. KOONTZrationalized the con-
cept of shape-changing creatures in Shadowfires
(1987) and Midnight(1989). The best traditional
werewolf story is THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS(1933),
by Guy Endore, but a close runner-up is this much
shorter but very effective piece by the author of
The Phantom Ship(1839), the best story ever writ-
ten about the Flying Dutchman.
Krantz is a serf who flees his native Transylva-
nia after he catches his wife scandalously enter-
taining a nobleman and kills them both. He is
accompanied by his three children, Caesar, Mar-
cella, and Hermann, the last of whom is the narra-
tor. His experience has made him somewhat
misogynistic, and he frequently mistreats Marcella.
They are living in a remote part of Germany when
a wolf appears outside their cabin. Krantz pursues
it, but it eludes him. Instead, he meets a man and
his daughter, Christina, who are also exiles from
Transylvania. He offers them shelter for the night,
becomes obsessed with Christina, and eventually
asks to marry her. Her father agrees, but only if he
is allowed to perform the marriage rite, which in-
cludes references to evil magic and a curse should
Krantz ever harm her.
The children are not pleased with their step-
mother, but life continues tolerably until they no-
tice that Christina sneaks out of the cabin at night,
and later they can hear a wolf outside their win-
dow. Eventually Caesar, the oldest, follows her, but
he never returns. His mangled body is retrieved in
the morning. Krantz is grief stricken and buries the
boy deep in the ground, but during the night the
grave is disturbed and the body even further muti-
lated. Only the children suspect that Christina was
involved, but even they fail to grasp the full truth.
Some time later Krantz and Hermann are
working outdoors when Marcella is attacked inside
the cabin by a white wolf, which escapes before
Krantz can shoot it. The girl dies soon after and is
buried beside the remains of her brother. Hermann
instinctively understands now that Christina and
the wolf are the same, so he waits, and when she
ventures outside that night he wakens his father,
who surprises his wife in the act of devouring the
girl’s body. He shoots and kills her, after which he
learns that the curse is unavoidable and that retri-
bution will be visited on Hermann as well.
Marryatt was writing before the modern in-
terpretation of the werewolf legend was formu-
lated, so Christina is vulnerable to ordinary
bullets rather than silver ones. The reference to
Transylvania as the source for inhuman creatures
predates Bram STOKER’s use of that region by
more than half a century. Despite the age of the
story, it is as readable today as it was when it was
first published.The Werewolf of ParisGuy Endore(1933)
Guy Endore was an American novelist and
screenwriter whose sole memorable work is this
still-unequaled werewolf story, which mixes the
supernatural with satirical humor. Supposedly, the
novel is based in part on an actual French maniac
and serial killer who cannibalized his victims.
Bertrand Caillet is the werewolf, apparently born
in 19th-century France already subject to the
taint, although Endore never offers any real expla-
nation for his condition other than a suggestion
that it is the consequence of vague sins committed
by his ancestors. As a child he began to exhibit
bizarre behavior, including howling like a wolf,
and as he grows older he becomes increasingly bel-
licose, violently attacking other people and scan-
dalizing his family. He also begins to alter his
shape after darkness and hunts like an animal.
The protagonist is another Frenchman, Aymar
Galliez, who makes largely ineffectual efforts to
moderate Bertrand’s behavior. The Franco-Prussian
War breaks out, Paris is under siege, and Bertrand
finds the chaos and violence particularly well suited
for his needs. He claims human as well as animal
victims and occasionally stores grisly snacks under376 “The Werewolf”