Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf

A Classic Case in Comparative Perspective

Carlo Ginzburg, Bruce Lincoln

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780226674414, 9780226674384
• eBook ISBN: 9780226674551
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

In 1691, a Livonian peasant known as Old Thiess boldly announced before a district court that he was a werewolf. Yet far from being a diabolical monster, he insisted, he was one of the "hounds of God," fierce guardians who battled sorcerers, witches, and even Satan to protect the fields, flocks, and humanity—a baffling claim that attracted the notice of the judges then and still commands attention from historians today.

In this book, eminent scholars Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln offer a uniquely comparative look at the trial and startling testimony of Old Thiess. They present the first English translation of the trial transcript, in which the man's own voice can be heard, before turning to subsequent analyses of the event, which range from efforts to connect Old Thiess to shamanistic practices to the argument that he was reacting against cruel stereotypes of the "Livonian werewolf" a Germanic elite used to justify their rule over the Baltic peasantry. As Ginzburg and Lincoln debate their own and others' perspectives, they also reflect on broader issues of historical theory, method, and politics. Part source text of the trial, part discussion of historians' thoughts on the case, and part dialogue over the merits and perils of their different methodological approaches, Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf opens up fresh insight into a remarkable historical occurrence and, through it, the very discipline of history itself.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Introduction
• Introduction, a Postscript
• 1.   The Trial
• 2.   Comparison of Old Thiess to Germanic Cult Groups, Folklore, and Persephone Myths
• 3.   Comparison of Old Thiess to Friulian Benandanti, Russian Werewolves, and Shamanic Others
• 4.   Comparison of Old Thiess to Learned Descriptions and Stereotypes of Livonian Werewolves and to the Benandanti: A Seventeenth-Century Werewolf and the Drama of Religious Resistance
• 5.   Ginzburg Responds to Lincoln: Conjunctive Anomalies—A Reflection on Werewolves
• 6.   Lincoln Responds to Ginzburg: Letter of February 8, 2017
• 7.   The Case of Old Thiess: A Comparative Perspective
• Appendix A: Commonalities between Thiess’s Testimony and Descriptions of Livonian Werewolves in Learned Literature
• Appendix B: A Livonian Narrative Featuring the Opposition of Werewolves and Witches
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Suggestions for Further Reading
• Index