Curse of the Werewolf

The Curse of the Werewolf is an old urban legend about a priest who discovered a werewolf while travelling in Ireland. This tale inspired Stephen King to write the novella “Cycle of the Werewolf” which was later turned into a movie called Silver Bullet.

The Curse of the Werewolf

The story begins with a priest from a thriving village in Ireland who was travelling to a nearby town on business for his church. The priest’s journey across the countryside was long and arduous and as night grew near, he was forced to set up camp beside a dark forest that was reputed to be haunted.
During the night, the priest heard a clawing and scratching outside his tent. When he went out to investigate, he was attacked by a wolf.
He was bitten severely and just as he thought the wolf was about to finish him off, the cross around his neck was exposed. The wolf stopped and merely stood over him staring into his eyes. Suddenly, it ran off and left him lying on the ground bleeding badly.
The next day he managed to crawl back to his village, where he was attended by the local doctor. His wounds soon healed and he was back to work.
But although his body was healed, his mind was plagued by strange dreams in which he transformed into a wolf and roamed the local countryside. In these dreams, his hunger was fierce and the dreams became steadily more vivid and violent.
Despite the terrible dreams, the Priest was re-energised and tackled his preaching duties with renewed vigour. He inspired the village and helped them to rebuild the houses that were burned to the ground. The faith of his parishioners was strengthened and every day his church was packed with worshippers.
But there were still problems in the village. Every full moon, someone in the village was found dead or missing. People said that they had seen a creature stalking through the village at night. A creature that walked like a man but whose body was covered in fur and bore the head of a wolf. There was talk of a curse on the village and many believed that a werewolf was stalking them and picking them off one by one.
The Priest found that he had these murderous dreams every night a villager was killed. He began to wonder why he was cursed with these horrible visions of death and destruction.
One night, during a full moon, the villagers resolved to catch and kill the werewolf that was plagueing their village once and for all. They set a trap by tying the most beautiful girl in the village to a tree, using her as bait to lure the werewolf. Up in the branches they set up a trap to catch the wolf. Then they hid in the trees and lay in wait.
Soon they heard a crashing coming through the forest and the werewolf appeared in the clearing. The villagers cut the ropes tied to the tree and a huge cage crashed down on top of the wolf, trapping him before he could get to the girl.
The villagers rushed out from their hiding places and drove long spears into the body of the werewolf, killing him instantly. As the monster collapsed on the floor of the cage, the people watched his hairy body ripple and change.
Gradually, the creature changed from wolf to man as the life ebbed from his body. The villagers fell to their knees and began to weep as they realised that they had killed their beloved priest.