Customer Reviews

The Werewolf in Lore and Legend (Dover Occult)

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I'm honestly surprised that the only other reviews for this book are as unfavorable as they are. Sure, Montague Summers was a religious zealot and his contempt for the "devilish" practice of werewolfry (not to mention witchcraft, black magic and any similar occult activities) shines through bright and clear in his writing. It is also unfortunate that, as has been noted, he very often quotes from Greek, Latin, French, German and other languages while providing no English translation of those quotations. This practice is a bit irksome for a layperson not versed in these languages, and I for one would appreciate an annotated version in which the quotations have been translated.

However, Summers often gives enough of a review (or at least a critique) of the non-English quote to alert the uncultured reader (i.e. probably most of us nowadays) to what he has missed. I would also argue that a literal understanding of his albeit many and varied quotes does not largely detract from the work as a whole. There's still a great plenty of valuable information to be found in this early 20th century work, even if, like me, English is your first--and only--language.

Regarding Summer's staunch Christian standpoint--yes, it's very much there--I can only argue that such a standpoint, fanatical and dogmatic though it may be, hardly impacts the veracity (inasmuch as this word can be applied to tales of werewolves) of the multitude of cases of werewolfry that he relates. He may (and very often does) pass judgment on the person on whom a certain story centers, but the point, for me, is that he relates each case more or less as he finds it in the literature (and of course the original case was, very often, first recorded by another religious fanatic...).

In other words, regardless of Summer's zest for denouncing werewolfry as a despicable, evil practice meriting the very worst condemnation in hellfire, he nevertheless does a fantastic job of presenting within this book's pages just what its (modern) title promises: a record of The Werewolf in Lore and Legend.

With these few minor quibblings out of the way, I must comment on what I found to be most impressive in this book: Summer's astonishingly thorough and far-reaching research. Summers, Christian zealot though he may have been, was also amazingly well-read; his plethora of sources are both millennia- and globe-spanning. With them he paints a picture of The Werewolf as it was known--and feared--in those bygone eras when it was acknowledged as a real entity, untainted by its modern, Hollywood-contrived attributes, to which we have now grown accustomed (and indeed mistakenly taken for granted as original lore). There are only a couple of references to a full moon having anything to do with werewolves; similarly, silver is only mentioned twice, and even then merely as an effective ammunition against practitioners of witchcraft in general, not against werewolves specifically (silver bullets are not mentioned at all).

If you're looking for a secular, politically correct overview of the history and lore of werewolves, this is certainly not the book for you. Montague Summers not only believed in the phenomena of (apparent) shape-shifting and werewolfry, he was also quick to condemn them as evidence of dealings with devils. But the breadth and depth of Summer's research can't be beat, and I for one would gladly wade through the morass of Christian overtones in this book than bother with a modern account of werewolves As Described And Reinvented By Modern American Culture. If you're looking for werewolves--the original werewolves--Summers is about as close to The Real Thing as it gets.

A detailed and seemingly well-researched book that is very hard to read and understand because most quotations from non-English sources were left in their original language.

I hoped for the best when I opened this book, and found the first page quite allright.
Then it changed.
Dont get me wrong, i found this book ok, but it has many flaws.
Firstly, all the quotes are in their original language, and unless you have a interest in reading old Greek or "German", you will usually skip those.
Might not sound too bad, but there is alot of quotes and M. Summers comments on these quotes, so you feel abit left out since Summers is ranting about what this guy said and you have no clue what hes talking about.
Because of this, most will read the book in a very irritating way, jumping from page 4. to page 5. and trying to find the place where the english is-Needless to say, it destroys the main reason for buying this book.

Second, M. Summers book is, as with many religious writers, horribly tainted by his beliefs.
If you think about buying this book for the werewolf lore, dont.
This is more or less the summary:
"Werewolves are evil hell-spawned creatures that eat corpses and come from the devil himself to lure men into enternal suffering and pain so that they may not join us and our father in heaven"

Some might like that, but I managed to read some of the quotes, and Summers is picking his flavour only based on this religion, not because there is more or less proof or anything close.

So if your looking for a narrow-minded book with strong marks of fundamentalism in it, go ahead and buy it.

But if your looking for real research looked upon in a "Neutral point of view" this isnt the book for you, though you might buy it just to have it for reference to other books if your into that sorta thing...

Last but not least, its not that very important, but it became pretty annoying about the way summers writes-He seems to not be able to write a sentence without refering to "our holy father".

Short said, Summers has written a odd mix of foreign quotes and religious opinions in one package that may at first glance seem to be sort of a "Werewolf exorcize handbook".

This book is written like a thesis paper. It's littered with so many quotes (and all are in the original language) and personal anecdotes by the author that you are left frustrated and utterly lost.

I picked up this book because I enjoy the lore and legends behind things that go bump in the night, but this written well above the average readers comprehension level.

This book is definitely for those who enjoyed De Litanea Minore.


Didn't get that? My point exactly.