[HPforGrownups] Lycanthropy

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 32451

Jennifer Boggess Ramon wrote:

> At 3:38 AM +0000 12/31/01, mullsym255 wrote:
> >I'm sorry if this has been discussed before (I did a search and
> >nothing came up), but just what does a werewolf look like when it
> >transforms?
> 
> Lupin, at least, seems to go directly from Homid to Hispo and back,
> with none of the intermediate stages.
> 
> Oops.  Sorry.  That's terminology from the _Werewolf: the Apocalypse_
> role-playing game.  Translation: he seems to go from his "normal"
> human form to a Dire Wolf-like form - larger and fiercer than a
> normal wolf, the same size as Sirius's dog-form (which is itself
> described as bear-like).  He doesn't seem to have a wolf-man hybrid
> form at all, except perhaps as a stage in the transformation.

As far as I can tell, the "wolfman" form is purely a creation of
the movies (presumably so they could have a human actor play the
monster rather than having to mess with trained animals) and has
no basis whatsoever in folklore.  Werewolves in folklore are
people who turn into wolves, period.  And that seems to be what
Lupin does, more or less.

Larger than a natural wolf . . . conservation of mass, anyone? 
:)


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>