Origins of WerewolfsMany authors have speculated that werewolf and vampire legends may have been used to explain serial killings in less rational ages. This theory is given credence by the tendency of some modern serial killers to indulge in practices commonly associated with werewolves, such as cannibalism, mutilation, and cyclic attacks. The idea (although not the terminology) is well explored in Sabine Baring-Gould's seminal work The Book of Werewolves.
Until the 20th century, wolf attacks on humans were an occasional, but widespread feature of life in Europe. Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shape shifters. This is said to be corroborated by the fact that areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; werehyenas in Africa, weretigers in India, as well as werepumas ("runa uturunco") and werejaguars ("yaguaraté-abá" or "tigre-capiango") of southern South America.
Writer Ian Woodward theorized in his The Werewolf Delusion (1978) that the werewolf legend first developed when the Greeks, Romans, Celts and Germanic tribes were still in good relation with one another;
“When one race began to partition off its particular identity from the other, the superstition became slightly modified- in some cases intensifying its grip on the ancient imagination-according to local needs and cultures. With the growth of culture, too, came the growth of supernaturalism, from the roots of which grew werewolfery.”
—“The Werewolf Delusion”, Ian Woodward, Paddington Press, 1978
However, some scholars, both modern and historical trace the origin back to the Paleolithic, specifically from Ircània, a region in ancient Persia, south-east to the Caspian Sea.
In his Man into Wolf (1948), anthropologist Robert Eisler drew attention to the fact that many Indo-European tribal names and some modern European surnames mean "wolf" or "wolf-men". This is argued by Eisler to indicate that the European transition from fruit gathering to predatory hunting was a conscious process, simultaneously accompanied by an emotional upheaval still remembered in humanity's subconscious, which in turn became reflected in the later medieval superstition of werewolves.
Some spiritualist authors have proposed that historical werewolves, rather than being physical entities, were the astral projections of certain people’s hatred or anger. These authors have argued that the comparatively fewer cases of lycanthropy in modern times has nothing to do with the extermination of wolves, but rather, is a manifestation of modern mans more evolved spiritual state.
Some modern researchers have tried to explain the reports of werewolf behavior with recognized medical conditions. Dr Lee Illis of Guy's Hospital in London wrote a paper in 1963 entitled On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves, in which he argues that historical accounts on werewolves could have in fact been referring to victims of congenital porphyria, stating how the symptoms of photosensitivity, reddish teeth and psychosis could have been grounds for accusing a sufferer of being a werewolf. This is however argued against by Woodward, who points out how mythological werewolves were almost invariably portrayed as resembling true wolves, and that their human forms were rarely physically conspicuous as porphyria victims.
Others have pointed out the possibility of historical werewolves having been sufferers of hypertrichosis, a hereditary condition manifesting itself in excessive hair growth. However, Woodward dismissed the possibility, as the rarity of the disease ruled it out from happening on a large scale, as werewolf cases were in medieval Europe. People suffering from Downs Syndrome have been suggested by some scholars to have been possible originators of werewolf myths. Rabies has been suggested as being a likely originator of werewolf lore, seeing as how the symptoms of rabies bear some similarities to those manifested by werewolves. The Roman poet Ovid described the symptoms of Lycaon, one of the first mythological werewolves;
In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant
His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted
For blood, as he raged among flocks and panted for slaughter.
His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked;
A wolf-he retains yet large trace of his ancient expression,
Hoary he is afore, his countenance rabid,
His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury
These symptoms are argued by Woodward as having remarkable similarities to those shown by rabies victims, despite the fact that Ovid was describing what was then considered a werewolf. According to some European traditions, being bitten by a werewolf could result in the victim turning into one. Being bitten by a rabid wolf or person would have spread the condition in the same way. To the medieval mind, a rabid wolf or person would have been seen as a werewolf, especially if a person was attacked by one and subsequently developed rabid symptoms.