Fuzzy Beginnings

Under our very noses, for centuries unnoticed by human-kind, a war has been brewing between two horrific groups of people. Of course, I'm referring to the epic battle between Werewolves (Lycanthropes) and Vampires.

Something like this, right?

Most pieces of modern fiction that depict this war ask the audience to chose one side or another, either by present one as the 'heroes' and the other as the antagonist, or by giving a player the option to choose a side (as in games). After much research and deliberation, I decided of the two groups, I much more of a werewolf fan than a vampire fan, for reasons I'll explain below, but first I must address one important question; why is there even a war to begin with?

Black leather, hot chick, a romantic underline, guns and daggers, supernatural creatures, and an actual plot? The recipe for a Box Office success.

 The first answer I could come up with was 'Underworld'. That movie that came out 2003, and apparently was a Romeo and Juliet story with Vampires and Werewolves (I never actually saw it). I later understood that the reason they give for the war in that movie is taken from the Trajan war explanation (below), but supernatural-war fiction between these two beings has increased a lot since that movie came out. However, internet searches seem to indicate that those types of fiction existed even before Underworld, so I continued my search.

The earliest helpful reference I can find is a spin on Trajan's Dacian Wars. I admit, I've never heard of these wars before (which took place between the Romans and ancient Dacians, where modern Romania is), but according to some articles I'm finding, there's an old rumor that the Dacian Vampires betrayed their Werewolf slaves to the Romans. If this fable is old enough, it's possible that this is the origin of the 'Werewolves vs. Vampires' mythos (Though my guess is that some book published centuries ago just used this war as a backdrop for an early supernatural-war story, and the setting stuck).

The burning of a dead Werewolf, to ensure it didn't come back as a Vampire.

More interesting to me, however, is the fact that Werewolves and Vampires are linked in early legends. Werewolves were originally just a type of shapeshifter - By wearing the coat of a wolf, witches or other evil or cursed beings could change their shape. There were other ways to turn into a wolf and I don't think any of them had to do with the moon, and other animal shapeshifters were common as well (though apparently wolves were the popular creature). The belief in Medieval Europe was that, once dead, the body of a werewolf would return as a vampire, or an undead bloodsucker. In fact, quite a few ancient cultures considered the werewolf and the vampire to be the same creature. This being the chase, why a fictional war would break out between the two supernatural creatures is a bit odd.

When I finally decided that I preferred Werewolves to Vampires, it was because the original Werewolves are so much cooler than the original Vampires. Trying to ignore the evil superstition behind each race and focus on the idea that either could be a good guy, Werewolves came out overwhelmingly better. For one, Vampires are gross. Modern media depicts Vampires as perfect, sexy creatures of lust. Where this comes from, I don't know, because Vampires are anything but. They're undead creatures who must be half-rotted (especially since most stories say they don't have any bodily fluid) and are more akin to mummies or zombies than fashion models.

Zombie, actually, is a pretty accurate description of a vampire. Matheson was able to give a good example of that.

Werewolves, on the other hand, never seemed to turn into the ugly 'half-man, half-beast' things they have been lately. Luckily, more stories are shifting towards the full-man to full-wolf kind of transformation that seems more in-line with their origins, but I thought that whole 'beast-man' fad was pretty... pointless. No wonder Werewolves were always antagonists, with that kind of form to work with.

Also, as much as we try to dress them up, vampires are just... dirty. Even a 'tortured hero' protagonist Vampire can't help the fact that he sucks blood for a living. Vampires are undead, they need the life force from living beings to survive, and blood-sucking is how they do it; this has been the case in even the earliest vampire folklore, and is essential to the vampire mythos in a way stakes and coffins can not be. The only way around this are Vampires who drink animal's blood instead of human's (and hopefully donate the then-dry body to the local butcher's shop. Bad idea to let meat go to waste).

Bisclavret is apparently the ancient Breton word for Werewolf.

During my initial research for Werewolf origins, I came across the earliest instance of a Werewolf in fiction, which I find really interesting. The story is a lais (a sort of short, epic poem) believed to be written by Marie de France, one of the first Breton lais authors. In her lais Bisclavret, she tells the story of a man who can transform into a wolf, and is betrayed by his wife. You can read a full synopsis here, or even the text of Melion and Biclarel, other lais written around the same time which tell slight variations of the same story (it's my opinion that they were all variations of a common oral story of the time. I'm partial to the Melion version myself, but that may be because it's easiest to pronounce).

What's really great about the Bisclavret story is the fact that the werewolf is the protagonist. He's trapped in wolf form because of his wife's betrayal, but does no evil throughout the story, even being recognized by the king for his chivalry and respect. For a niche that started out with such a great character, our Werewolves over the centuries have really become unnecessarily monstrous. 

Some time later, I came across a book that was based off the story of Bisclavret. The book, Wolf Hunt by Gillian Bradshaw, is set in about the same time period, wonderfully written, and though the eyes of a female character that didn't exist in the original tale. While reading it, the book seemed a bit feminist to me; in the original story, the woman is the antagonist, whereas in this retelling, the woman is the only one who can rescue the werewolf from the other woman antagonist. I was a bit put off (I'm not a big fan of feminism), but the story isn't really feminist at all, and it seems very true to the time period.

I'm happy with my preference now. While I'm not particularly fond of Vampires, I don't dislike them. Werewolves are just better.