The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings

by Brad Steiger

Book Overview

A compendium of comparative mythology and folklore. It delves into the 15th century to uncover the origins of the werewolf legend. It takes the reader on an eye-opening, blood-pounding tour through the ages, landing on the doorstep of creatures like hirsute mass-murderer Charles Manson and canine-directed Son of Sam.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578590787
• ISBN13: 9781578590780
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press
• Length: 397 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Encylopedia of SHAPE SHIFTING BEINGS.

Of all those who seemed to have knocked this book, I wonder if they have read the second half of this title, if any of it at all. This is not a book only about werewolves, but an overview of all sorts of shapeshifting beings. The book begins with a chronology, beginning with the theoried time when humans first took wolves into their caves, beginning the split in genetics which eventually brought us the dog, and ends up with the 1999 failed attempt to register human-animal hybreds (actual) with the U.S. pattant office. The main part of the book focuses on an A to Z encylopedia of werewolves, shape shifting beings from every culture, filography, the actors who have played werewolf parts in film, authors and yes, even the demented people who have either declared themselves as lycanthropes or associated with lupine behavior in one way or another. The book ends with filmography of titles including shape shifting beings, and other books on the topic. This book is not a comprehensive study on werewolves...if you are looking for that, you may want to check out other titles. This book is a coliapy of condensed information on anything to do with shape-shifting, written for those who want referances to everything involving this topic, from those with mild intrest, to researchers looking for multiple takes on the subject, to film buffs trying to find titles of shape-shifter movies up to the published date (titles from every country included). I understand a more comprehensive and updated second addition may be coming up in the near future. Goth scene wannabees and gamers, you would be better off sticking to titles aimed toward your scene. This book is aimed to give you a short introdution on a myrid of topics related to shape-shifting. This book is an excelent tool to expand horizons and point you toward any aspect of the subject; wirdos and serial killers are there for a spacific purpose, and those included are interesting, to say the least, to give a prospedctive of the modern world psychology link to the subject. On the basis of veriety and referance, I highly reccomend this book. If you are interested in lycanthropy, use it to lead you to books more comprehensive on whatever aspect of lycanthropy that piquts your interest.

Great resources and information.

Not only does this book have great resources for shape-shifter movies and books but lots of legends from all over the world! This book focuses on all kinds of shape-shifting legends not just werewolves. The creatures are described as good and evil depending on the legend unlike many werewolf books that paint them as evil or tragic.I have read tons of material on this subject and am very pleased with this book. Most books about werewolves tell the same legends over and over but this one gets into some that I have never come across. The language used is simple and effective. This is a solid book which I love to read.

Steiger pens perfect Werewolf Encyclopedia!

Aahwroooo! Beware - werewolves are everywhere! Especially betweenthe pages of Brad Steiger's new howler, "The Werewolf Book." Ifyou think that blood thirsty beasties are only a legend from "theold country long, long ago," you could be mistaken. Steiger'sencyclopedia of werewolves is the only one of its kind. It containssummaries of written and dramatized lore from around the worldrelating to these fanged furry shape-shifters. Most interesting of all are his accounts of recent, true-life cases of bloody savagery thathave ocurred in our own time, our own country, and perhaps our ownneighborhoods. Notorious mass-murderers such as Charles Manson,Richard Speck and Jeffrey Dahmer seem to fit the description of"werewolves", because of the grizzliness of their attacks uponvictims with whom they had no previous relationship. There wasseemingly nothing to gain. Werewolves are men who temporarily behavelike rabid wolves. They unsettle us because they cross the boundariesbetween the darkest side of mortal life and the light of the immortalsoul. The ultimate taboo is to regard our fellow human beings as nomore than packaged meat. This denies our divine human potential, andwe are all lost in the dark prison of the wolf's den. Steiger hasbeen collecting werewolf lore since the age of 11. As an adult, he wasinitiated into a Native American wolf clan. This clan embraces thepositive aspects of wolfiness - strength, courage, and the socialprotocol of the pack. Wolves take down the weak, the sick, and theold, and have earned an honorable place in the food chain. This is afar cry from brutal savagery to fulfill demented psychotic drives anddecrepit morality. Perhaps it is only fitting that Steiger should bethe one who inadvertently invites the reader to make a distinctionbetween wolves and werewolves. The Bible states that one day, eventhe animals shall speak. Who are the werewolves and who are the sheep? Laura Joseph, "Fate" book reviewer from Minnesota

Absolutley loved it

This totally goes along with The Vampire Book I got last Christmas. I'm a big fan of the Metaphysical Like Vampires and Werewolfs This is one of the best books I have ever read.