Tag: real life wesen

Real Life Wesen 02: Wulver

In this new series, we’re gonna be looking at some of the folklore and history behind some of the Wesen, gangs and other monsters of Grimm.


This week, we’re gonna look at the Wulver, a friendly werewolf type creature who must have inspired Monroe’s character.

The Wulver, said to have never been a man and instead is an immortal spirit, is said to be non-aggressive, provided you leave it alone.

It comes from Scotland, but is not a shapeshifter. It has the head of a wolf and a man’s body, and is most known for leaving fish on the windowsills of poor people.

Despite the legends saying it is an immortal spirit, sightings of it have only been recorded for about 100 years. However, rumours have gone back much further.

One rumour is that they often appear in places where gold or treasure is hidden. Another is that they are an omen of impending death – but another story suggests that rather than bringing death, they hang forlornly around the property of someone who’s terminally ill to give comfort, rather than fear.

They often rescue frightened travellers, silently beckoning to follow and leaving the traveler at the edge of the nearest town.

There are many theories about the real life existence of Wulvers, and that’s something that we will look at next week, along with real life examples of werewolves, weredogs and other shapeshifting stories that may be true…

Sources:

http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/scottish-myths-wulver-the-kindhearted-shetland-werewolf-1-4025249

http://monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Wulver

http://thedemoniacal.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/wulver.html

Real Life Wesen 01: The Rat King

In this new series, we’re gonna be looking at some of the folklore and history behind some of the Wesen, gangs and other monsters of Grimm.

This week we’re gonna be looking at the Rat King, and as David Giuntoli said ‘Don’t Google images of real life rat kings.’ Below the cut is talk of animal injury and animal death.

There is a lot of superstition surrounding the rat kings and why or how they are made, or even operate.  It’s long asserted that they are purely mythical, but a living one of squirrels was found in 2013. They were melded together by the sap from the tree they lived on, and moved as one giant animal instead of several squirrels tied together.  Apparently this is not uncommon. The picture through the link is of them being untied.

So what is a rat king? It’s, nominally, a group of rats tied together at the tails. The creepy thing is, instead of moving as seven (or 16, or 32 depending on which story you’re reading) rats/mice/squirrels, it appears to move as one monstrous creature.

The appearance of a rat king is a bad omen, probably due to the connection between rats and the plague.

It is said that rat kings appear naturally, like the squirrel king above, but evidence shows them sometimes being tied together with things like horsehair, which doesn’t appear in rat nests.

Terry Pratchett comes up with the most logical idea in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents – “down the ages some cruel and inventive people have had altogether too much time on their hands".

Yeah, they don’t look like that. In fact, it’s worse.

Further Reading:

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, which was one of my most favourite books as a kid. Featuring talking rats, cats and dastardly plans, it’s actually one of Pratchett’s scarier books, especially of his children’s books.

Metro Article about the squirrels – has a picture of them being untied, but it’s not bloody or gory. YMMV.