The belief in werebeasts, the best known being the werewolf, is present in almost every culture. What modern pop culture considers to be tropes of werewolfism (turning during the full moon, being killed by a silver bullet, feuding with vampires) are relatively modern inventions. For instance, many Slavic folk beliefs state that shamans, powerful wizards and vampires could turn into werewolves for a variety of reasons, ranging from to travel somewhere quickly to cause general mayhem. The origins of the basic werewolf beliefs are often very confused and muddled. Often, these ideas evolved in a very natural manner, except for the use of silver to kill a werewolf. This idea stems from the legend of The Beast of Gevaudan, a wolf-like creature who terrorized the Auvergne region in France from 1764-1767.
La Bête, as the beast was called, wandered the countryside of southwest France, killing close to one hundred people. La Bête was described as having large teeth, a long tail, reddish brown fur, an incredible intelligence and the ability to jump great distances. She caused so much damage that the king sent his best huntsman to kill it. The king’s huntsman did end up killing a very large wolf, but the attacks continued. In 1767, a man named Jean Chastel, a local hunter, killed the beast with a silver bullet blessed by a local priest. This is said to be the first use of a silver bullet to kill a werewolf. The identity of the beast has never been completely confirmed by anyone. The remains of both animals killed were not preserved, one was thrown out at the beginning of the 20th century because it had decayed too much and the other was destroyed by the king because by the time he got it, it has started to decompose. There have been many explanations of La Bête’s identity, which still remains a mystery today, ranging from a curse from God to a rabid wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid. Of course, werewolf as an explanation has come up very frequently, but no one was ever tried as a werewolf as a result of one of La Bête’s attacks. Whatever La Bête was, she added one of the key elements of modern werewolf lore, the silver bullet being the one thing to kill a true werewolf. La Bête is an iconic part of French culture, much like Big Foot in the United States, and her story has spread across the glove with films, books and television shows dedicated to her.
Although La Bête was a French beast, her contribution to pop culture world-wide is incredibly huge. The myth of the silver bullet is one of the strongest out there today and, although many different forms of werewolf have been created by screenwriters and novelists today, almost all them die by the same method, the silver bullet, just like the Beast of Gevaudan.
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