Werewolf legends are some of the oldest monster stories in Europe. The basic idea is that an ordinary human transforms into a giant wolf or a wolf-human hybrid, usually when the moon is full. Most versions of the story say the change happens against the person’s will, and that they have no control over what the wolf does.
The first written werewolf stories are over 2,000 years old. Ancient Greek and Roman authors wrote about people who turned into wolves and roamed the countryside. The legend really exploded across Europe during the Middle Ages, when villages told stories of dangerous shape-shifters. Many cultures believed silver was the only thing that could kill a werewolf.
Modern movies and books love werewolves, but the legend probably grew out of two real things: wolves were genuinely dangerous in medieval Europe, and there is an extremely rare condition called clinical lycanthropy where a person actually believes they have transformed into an animal. It only affects a handful of people in the entire world.
