A Brief History Of Europe's Werewolf Trials

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Werewolf eats a baby. Johan Jakob Wick, 1580.

Werewolves, or lycanthropes if you're feeling fancy, have been around in myth form since time immemorial, but there was a period in Europe when they were taken entirely too seriously. Not only were they believed to be real, suspected werewolves were subjected to trial in the much the same way as the accused witches of Salem. Let's take a look at the mass hysteria surrounding werewolves, the odd (and occasionally sexist?) relationship between their trials and the witch trials of the same period, and the oh-so-unsurprising link between drugs and madness.