Werewolf curse.

[Marcus]

Personally I don't think they were werewolves. From the little I've read, no one is sure what they were, as some of the words used to describe them have multiple meanings and mis-translations or are words not fully understood and they use one particular word to describe grendel, beowulf, the mother, and I think the dragon too.

I understand it does say that Grendel and his mother are decended from Cain, which could link them to the giants and monsters that came from Cain.

From what I understand Grendel's mother is seems to be represented as somekind of watermonster/demon at worst and a fierce warrior woman at best. So rather a large scope between the two. Wiki has an interesting page on Grendel's mother and the debate about what she was.

[necrodemon]

I agree. I know the reference to Grendel was quite wolfy at times.

Has anyone read the book, "Grendel" which is just the same story as Beowulf only from Grendel's point of view?

[Marcus]

No, but I think I'll go look for it, as it sounds interesting.

[necrodemon]

The book is a great read. He really hates humans. Especially the females.

It is all from his point of view.

[mau]

I thought the old werewolf legends had nothing to do with the full moon. Dunno how true it is but I read somewhere that in the really old werewolf folklore, the wolf form was actually weaker because it took magic to transform.
And cursed or not, there are some werewolves who embrace it, but might not necessarily be heroes. Look at Fenrir Grayback in the Harry Potter series. He loved being a werewolf, and he was quite the nasty villian. In the HP series werewolves couldn't control their transformations, but Grayback would purposely put himself in the position where he'd harm people in wolf form. His favorite prey were children, and if he turned them he would coax them into joining his pack. Remus Lupin was one of his victums but like the traditional WWs he felt remorse for his actions that he couldn't control.
Personally, I like the idea that werewolves can't control themselves at first, but over time they learn to control it. But during the full moon, they have no control over their transformation.
In the end it doesn't really matter. They're mythological creatures after all.

[who]

all legends and myths have a basis of fact ,remember that when something goes bump in the night

[mau]

I don't doubt that, often times myths and legends exist to explain something in the natural world. A lot of greek myths served that purpose. But nowadays, we have science.

[Marcus]

Ahh, but science could be a giant conspiracy created by wizards.

When, they were being hunted and killed, maybe the wizards thought to themselves "This is a bit bad" and decided to hide, emerging later to call themselves scientists, and disguise their magics as devices, gradually addicting the world to their disguised magics in a slow plot to take over completely.

The fairies and such also joined in, hiding out like the wizards, only to return as "lights in the sky" and "UFOs" and "Aliens".

[who]

erm....marcus......you aren't meant to eat those mushrooms....

[hawkeyepierce]

Nov 5, 2010 4:45:02 GMT -5 Marcus said:

Ahh, but science could be a giant conspiracy created by wizards.

I'm not joking when I say that's an awesome idea for a film, can I buy the rights? ;D

[Werewolf]

Nov 5, 2010 13:05:49 GMT -5 hawkeyepierce said:

Nov 5, 2010 4:45:02 GMT -5 Marcus said:

Ahh, but science could be a giant conspiracy created by wizards.

I'm not joking when I say that's an awesome idea for a film, can I buy the rights? ;D

Sounds like something Sir Terry Prachett would write about!

[wolffine]

I would like to have the curse, there are a few places i would go into on a full moon just to transform and tear all the people to pieces, then hope i make it out alive, if so, good thing, if not, it was worth it.

But, who knows, it's always talked about as a curse, what if it was controllable?

[Moonreaper]

no not really.