Werewolf timeline
75,000 BC
Earliest human altars, including evidence of prehistoric bear-cult.
10,000 BC
Domestication of dog.
6,000 BC
Catal Huyuk cave-drawings depict leopard men hunting.
2,000 BC
Epic of Gilamesh written down (first literary evidence of werewolves).
850 BC
Odyssey written down (includes many traces of werewolf beliefs).
500 BC
Scythians recorded as believing the Neuri to be werewolves.
400 BC
Damarchus, Arcadian werewolf, said to have won boxing medal at Olympics.
100 - 75 BC
Virgil's eighth ecologue (first voluntary transformation of werewolf).
55 AD
Petronius, Satyricon.
150 AD
Apuleius, Metamorphosis composed.
170 AD
Pausanias visits Arcadia and hears of Lykanian werewolf rites.
432 AD
St. Patrick arrives in Ireland.
600 AD
Saint Albeus [Irish] said to have been suckled by wolves.
617 AD
Wolves said to have attacked heretical monks.
650 AD
Paulus Aegineta describes "melancholic lycanthropia".
900 AD
- Hrafnsmal mentions "wolf coats" among the Norwegian Army.
- Canon Episcopi condems the belief in reality of witches as heretical.
1020
First use of the word "werewulf" recorded in English.
1101
Death of Prince Vseslav of Polock, alleged Ukrainian werewolf.
1182 - 1183
Giraldus claims to have discovered Irish werewolf couple.
1194 - 1197
Guillaume de Palerne composed.
1198
Marie de France composes Bisclavret.
1250
Lai de Melion composed.
1275 - 1300
Volsungasaga, Germanic werewolf saga, written down.
1344
Wolf child of Hesse discovered.
1347 - 1351
First major outbreak of the Black Death.
1407
Werewolves mentioned during witchcraft trial at Basel.
1450
Else of Meerburg accused of riding a wolf.
1486
Malleus Maleficarum published.
1494
Swiss woman tried for riding a wolf.
1495
Woman tried for riding a wolf at Lucerne.
1521
Werewolves of Poligny burnt.
1541
Paduan werewolf dies after having arms and legs cut off.
1550
Witekind interviews self-confessed werewolf at Riga Johann Weyer takes up post of doctor at Cleve.
1552
Modern French version of Guillaume published at Lyon.
1555
Olaus Magnus records strange behavior of Baltic werewolves.
1560
First publication of Della Porta, Magiae naturalis.
1563
First publication of Weyer, De praestigus daemonum.
1572
St. Bartholomew's Day of Massacre, intensification of French civil war.
1573
Gilles Garnier burnt as werewolf.
1575
Trials of the benandanti begin in the Friuili (and will continue for a century).
1580
Rebellion at Romans with cannibalistic overtones.
1584
Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft published.
1588
Alleged date of Auvergne female werewolf (Boguet).
1589
Peter Stubb executed as werewolf at Cologne.
1598
- Roulet tried as werewolf, his sentence commuted.
- "Werewolf of Chalons" executed at Paris
- Gandillon family burnt as werewolves in the Jura.
1602
Second edition of Bouget, Discours des sorciers.
1603
Jean Grenier tried as werewolf and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1610
- Two women condemned as werewolves at Liege.
- Jean Grenier dies.
1614
Webster's Duchess of Malfi published.
1637
Famine in Franche-Comte: cannibalism reported.
1652
Cromwellian law forbids export of Irish wolfhounds.
1692
The Livonian werewolf Theiss interrogated.
1697
Perrault's Contes includes "Little Red Riding Hood".
1701
De Tournefort sees vampire exhumation.
1764
Bete de Gevaudon starts werewolf scare in Auvergne.
1796 - 1799
Widespread fear of wolves reported in France.
1797
Victor of Aveyron first seen.
1806
French population falls below 2000.
1812
Grimm Brothers publish their version of "Little Red Riding Hood".
1824
Antoine Leger tried for werewolf crimes and sentenced to lunatic asylum.
1828
Death of Victor of Averyon.
1830
Souix warriors reported hunting in wolfskins.
1857
- Accusation of being "wolf leader" ends in court in St. Gervais
- G. W. M. Reynolds, "Wagner the Wehr-Wolf" published.
1880
Folklorist collects werewolf tale in Picardy.
1885
Johann Weyer's book reprinted at Paris.
1886
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde published.
1906
Freud lists Weyer's book as among ten most significant ever published.
1913
The Werewolf [film] using real wolf in transformation scene.
1914
Freud publishes "wolf man" paper.
1920
- Kamala and Amala, the Orissa wolf children, discovered
- Right-wing terror group "Operation Werewolf" established in Germany.
1932
Jekyll & Hyde (film) starring Frederic March.
1935
Werewolf of London (film).
1941
Wolf Man (film) starring Lon Chaney Jr.
1943 - 1944
- Childhood autism first described
- LSD discovered.
1944
House of Frankenstein (film) includes mention of silver bullet.
1951
Outbreak of ergotism at Pont-Saint-Esprit.
1952
Ogburn & Bose, On the trail of the Wolf-Children published.
1957
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (film).
1972
Shamdeo discovered living among wolves in India.
1975
Surawicz & Banta publish first two modern cases of lycanthopy.
1979
An American Werewolf in London (film) includes first four-footed werewolf.
1985
- Death of Shamdeo
- Teen Wolf (film).
1988
- Monsieur X arrested
- McLean Hospital survey published.
1990
- "Werewolf rapist" jailed
- McLean Case 8 full report published.
1991
"The Wolfman" escapes from Broadmoor