Beast of Gevaudan - Werewolf or a Huge Wolf Like Beast?

In June 1764, in the Gevaudan region of southeastern France, a young woman was tending cows and saw a horrid beast lumbering towards her. It was the size of a donkey, but it resembled a wolf. Her dogs ran away in terror, but the cattle chased the beast away with their horns.

This was the first sighting of what became known as the Beast of Gevaudanan. The woman was fortunate. Others were not so lucky. Men, women and children were killed, their bodies, savaged and mangled by the beast. The first victim, in July, 1764, was a young girl whose heart was ripped out. The slaughter resumed later that summer. Soon, the beast was attacking groups of men. It showed no fear. The people believed it was loup-garou, werewolf.

Werewolves: Legends, Cases, Theories

The wereanimal belief or legend is universal. In the European and American cultures, the predominant theme is that the werecreature is a wolf. In other cultures, there are were- panthers, werejaguars and werebears. Some societies believed that the person shape shifted and appeared to be the animal while others believed the person became the animal.

During the Middle Ages, people in Europe believed in werewolves. Some believed the creature was a wolf whose body was possessed by a demon. Others believed the devil put the person in a trance and transported the soul into a wolf’s body. Another theory was that a demon got into a wolf’s body and charmed the person into believing that he or she committed savage acts that were revealed in dreams. Another theory believed that the person actually changed into a wolf and that the devil substituted a human form in the werewolf’s place.