'Were' is Old English for man and in the study of werewolves it became apparent that many of them were bound up in sorcery and black magic. The legend of the werewolf is global and can be traced back to antiquity. According to legend, the werewolf is a living being who either voluntarily or involuntarily changes, or is metamorphosed, into the apparent shape of a wolf; becoming possessed of all the characteristics, ferocity, cunning, strength and swiftness of that animal.
Many people actually wanted to become werewolves and went through some elaborate rituals in the hope of doing so. The right moment for such a change was at midnight by the light of a full moon. A werewolf that is killed or wounded immediately becomes human again. Usually the creature can be caught and destroyed like an ordinary wolf but the most effective way is to shoot it with a silver bullet!!
In the late 16th Century the case of a werewolf named Peter Stubbe caused a great stir all over Europe. There had been many wolf attacks in the Cologne area. After a wolf attacked a group of children, nearly tearing the throat out of one of them, a hunt was organised. The wolf vanished but the hunters found a man, Peter Stubbe, walking towards Cologne in the area where the wolf had apparently vanished. Stubbe later confessed to being a werewolf, claiming that he was a witch and that the devil had provided the power that had enabled him to transform himself. He also admitted incest with his sister and daughter, with whom he had produced a child. He claimed that he had killed many children as well as large numbers of sheep, lambs, and goats, over a period of twenty-five years. He was eventually tortured on the wheel and decapitated.