Complete Horror Occult & Supernatural

Contents

A Book of Ghosts

The Book of Were-Wolves

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages

Cornish Characters and Strange Events

Curiosities of Olden Times

Bladys of the Stewponey

In the Roar of the Sea

Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe

The Broom-Squire

Pabo, The Priest

In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc

The Village Pulpit

Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets

Grettir the Outlaw

Old Country Life

A Book of the West

 

 

The Book of Were-Wolves, being an account of a terrible superstition

Written in 1865 but still holding up to the test of time this book ranks as a classic of European lore on lycanthropy/shapeshifting in particular pertaining to werewolves. Worth its weight in gold just for the two chapters on Scandinavian wolf lore, and the idea that the viking berserkers were werewolves/shapeshifters. But besides that there is plenty of folklore on werewolves/shapeshifting in Eastern Europe, France, and various other places in Europe. Also historical documentation of medieval serial killers who were alleged to be werewolves is recounted, as well as Baring-Goulds own encounters with local werewolf legends that had people in fear to go in the woods alone in various locales in France that he visited.

 

Bladys of the Stewponey is an historical romance of the close of the last century. The scene is laid partly near the famous Stewponey Inn, near Stourton Castle, at the time when the country on the road to Chester was infested with highwaymen, and partly at Shewsberry. The story contains the last instance of the burning of a woman for "petty treason," i.e.e, the murder of her husband, which took place at Shrewsburry in 1700. This very interesting Red Sandstone country, with its inhabited caves, the refuge of highwaymen and their confederates, is described.