The Bizarre 1691 Werewolf Trial

You've heard of the witch trials, but have you heard of the werewolf trials?! This fascinating history takes us to back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when panic spread through villages in mainland Europe leading to a number of people being tried and executed as werewolves. What evidence did they have? How did they believe you turned into a werewolf? And why did one man in 1691 claim to be a werewolf fighting evil? 0:00 Introduction 1:02 Welcome to After Dark 2:49 Werewolves in early folklore 3:51 Regional variations in werewolf beliefs 5:50 Overlap with European witch trials 8:47 Real wolf threats and rural anxieties 10:17 Early modern ideas of transformation 19:51 The 1521 French werewolf trial 28:49 The 1589 trial of Peter Stump 37:52 Sensational broadsides and print media 45:33 The 1691 Livonian werewolf trial 50:35 Why werewolf trials happened 55:27 Gender, male violence, and werewolf folklore This episode was edited by Anna Brant. Produced by Stuart Beckwith and McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer was Freddy Chick. After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds. History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™ #HistoryHitPodcast #AfterDark #Werewolf