Asturian-American Migration Forum

Mouguias mentioned Asturian werewolves in a different thread in this area of the forum. If anyone has information about Asturian werewolf (home lobu or home lobo--hombre lobo in Castillian) legends and stories, please post them here.

I should mention that real wolves, both in Asturias and the United States,
are endangered species, at least locally. They are magificent animals that are well worth preserving.

Bob Martinez

I am going to make a very brief abstract from an article which was originally published in "Asturies, Memoria Encesa d`un Pais" in June 1999.

There are several different types of werewolves, both in Asturias and Galicia.
First you have Ana Maria Garcia, the "Lobera". Ana Maria was a girl from eastern Asturias who got imprisoned by the Inquisicion in 1648. She declared that she had power over wolves, that they obeyed their orders. She would draw a circle on the ground around her, then wistled, then seven wolves, each of a different colour, came about her and ate bread from her hands.
La Lobera made up her tale from traditional stories about "captains of wolves", that is to say, evil persons who have the power to herd wolves against the cattle of neighbours they envy. In some variants, these "llobos meigos" or sorcerer wolves, take the shape of a wolf themselves.
Then you have the home llobu, the werewolf, who typically gets cursed by his father, for eating meat during Lent or else for eating just too much meat. Then the unlucky guy becomes a wolf and lives that way for seven years, after which he retrieves his human form.
In one legend, a man is on the way back home with his wife after a picnic day, then he parts from her while telling her "Dear, whatever comes to attack you, just beat on it with your apron". The man disappears in the dark and a wolf appears. The woman puts her apron between the beast and her, the wolf bites it and leaves. Then the husband comes back and his wife says "Look at that! there is a thread of my apron between your teeth, the wolf was you" and he replies "Thank you, woman, now my curse is over".
Werewolves are invulnerable to bullets and falls from heights. There are also some curious examples of, not were-wolves but "were-lynxs", that is, tales about a man who transforms into a lynx.