Where Wolf? There Wolf!

We all know the story. Two young American guys on holiday are hiking across the Yorkshire moors. They hear a spine-chilling howl, and take refuge in a pub inhabited by familiar British stereotypes, especially Brian Glover...



No, hang on, that's a film.

The real legend is the beast they call...

Old Stinker!

Really? That's the best the county that gave us Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Geoff Boycott could come up with? Oh well.

Anyway, there's a list of links to Yorkshire/Humberside werewolf reports here.

Always keen to fill in some historical context, the Yorkshire Daily Mail writes:

The area's problem was recognised in AD 937, when King Athelstan granted the building of a hostel to provide travellers with shelter from these attacks. 

Anyone on the road through would have been particularly wary of Wolf-monath – the Saxon name for January – when the creatures, starved of the easy-pickings of livestock, would turn on human prey.

Holy flip! It's all happening in Bronte and/or Philip Larkin country.