The werewolf, a person capable of changing shape into that of a wolf, is a classic figure of nightmare and horror. Unlike Frankenstein or Dracula, the werewolf does not trace its imaginative origins to a single literary source,although it does appear in a number of nineteenth-and twentieth- century ovels.
Unlike the vampire,the werewolf has its early origins in the witch culture of medieval and early modern Europe,where accusations of being a werewolf, and of harming people while in a changed shape, were an occasional component of witchcraft accusations in France, the Netherlands and parts of Germany. Taken up by folklorists in the nineteenth century, the werewolf moved centre stage in twentieth century with numerous films and a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer the werewolf 's continuing hold on the popular imagination seems assured.
