BY THE LIGHT OF THE FULL MOON

Lycanthropes! Werewolves! Shapeshifters! Skinchangers! There are as many names as there are cultures. Were-creature legends cover the Earth. This website is dedicated to the stories about were-beasts. You won't find detailed histories or sources of the legends. These you can find in the Links section. This site is dedicated to the great stories and novels that feature werewovles, were-bears, were-cats, fox women and many more strange and unusual lycanthropes.

IN The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce gives his definition:

"WEREWOLF, n.  A wolf that was once, or is sometimes, a man.  All werewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form to gratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are as humane and is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh.  Some Bavarian peasants having caught a wolf one evening, tied it to a post by the tail and went to bed.  The next morning nothing was there!  Greatly perplexed, they consulted the local priest, who told them that their captive was undoubtedly a werewolf and had resumed its human for during the night.  "The next time that you take a wolf," the good man said, "see that you chain it by the leg, and in the morning you will find a Lutheran."

Of course, Mr.  Bierce is having some fun with us, but he still pin-points the greatest appeal of the werewolf story, the transformation.  The creature that is a man sometimes, walking among us, but also a terrible man-eater when the moon is full. I've divided up the centuries of werewolf fiction and tales into some broad categories. These aren't written in stone and many cross over each other.