You may have noticed that I have a thing for werewolves going on. Mostly, this is dog related. I have a dog, I enjoy having a dog, and I’m fascinated by the way we try to make our lifestyles overlap. It’s arguable who gives up the most. I knowingly compromise and do my best to look after my companion / child-replacement, while Finn was effectively born into a compromised role because of generations of human work. There are days, however, when I’m not entirely sure which of us is the bigger idiot in that particular relationship.
I’ve said before that this move towards a shared understanding is where I approach the werewolves of Alex Jones and the related work-in-progress (WIP), 25 Ways to Kill A Werewolf, from. More precisely, the werewolves are men who want to be animals – and I’ve already mentioned the basic hows and whys of that particular world and this is not what this post is for. This post is really about those that come the other way, about animals that become human. They got a brief mention at the end of “If Werewolves, Then…” but it’s time for a little light mental exercise.
Domesticated Animals
The reality is that these animals that “want” to be human already exist. It’s every cat owner’s joke that they are just humans owned by cats, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that things aren’t always the way you expect. It’s been suggested that the early stages for wolf domestication was as much about them making us useful as it was an attempt by humans to produce somewhat amusing hairballs.
- Dog Spelled Forward: Evolution of the Dog (redux) [External Link]
- Archeology: More Than Man’s Best Friend [External Link]
Oddly enough, it’s rare for folklore to deal much in domestic animals turning into humans, although humans can be cursed into animal form such as the hounds of Fionn mac Cumhaill. Rarely, a human can chose to shift into something small, i.e. a rabbit or a domestic cat, but usually for nefarious purposes, like a generic medieval European witch.
It seems as though domestic animals are generally seen as something a) not worth changing into and b) without the intelligence to know how to change into a human.
Wild Cousins
That said, there are a number of myths in the British Isles that mention the possibility of wild versions of domestic animals being able to change shape, although it’s not uncommon for the human-shifting powers to have been removed by a handy veterinarian by the time these appear in modern works.
More commonly associated with horses, the particular names associated with shifting are glashtin (Manx) and kelpie (Scottish). The concept was also used in Scandinavia and German folklore – just type “water horse” into a search engine and enjoy the, erm, ride. Water bulls don’t seem to change into humans – or at least it’s not mentioned in most, short descriptions – but they’re basically the same thing. These are creatures used to describe the power of water, whether fast running or deep and dangerous. They’re solitary and capricious. They are not animals as such but magical forces that are not under human control – and in animal form.
Human Underneath
These creatures are fairly well known these days. Anyone reading this will have heard at least one on the following list.
- Swans – Humans can be cursed into swan form, some fairies take on swan form and some swans can change into a human form – as given in Swan Lake. Swans who shape shift generally do so by removing a skin and, also unusually, tend to flock into adult family groups rather than in pairs plus unfledged / young offspring. It’s unusual for a cob (male) to make the shift. (Wikipedia: Swan Maiden [External Link])
- Deer – Deer are less commonly used but follow the same pattern as swans. They have the added “advantage” of being an animal that naturally gathers in groups, so the representation is closer to reality. Shifting also involves removing a skin. Again, it’s unusual for a stag (male) to make the shift.
- Selkies – I’ve not come across a story where a human or a fairy who took on seal form, which doesn’t mean they don’t exist, just that I don’t read enough. Selkie husbands are almost as common as selkie wives and they have to remove a skin to be human. Seals are naturally gregarious, so the way they are represented “In the wild” is fairly true to reality. (Wikipedia: Selkie [External Link])
Then we get into those I don’t know anything about:
- Bouda – Female hyenas that can change into human form.
- Boto – An Amazonion River dolphin than becomes a man. [External Link]
- Dog-men – Male dogs that can can change into human form.
- Kitsune – Magical foxes, some of whom may change into women. Based on reading in English translation, I can only assume that the animal itself is female – for all I know, dog foxes might get a kick out of tricking Japanese men… After all, fox-spirits in other countries are a lot more vicious and like to kill people in interesting ways. (Wikipedia: Kitsune [External Link])
- Tanuki – Very male magical animals that change into men. (Wikipedia: Tanuki [External Link])
Oddly, otters don’t seem to have the ability to shapeshift into human form but I’ve found a couple of people refereed to as “son of the otter” in Irish myth (Lugaid mac Con and Cuirithir), if only for the kudos that comes from being sired by a magically clever animal. In other words, you’d also be forgiven that thinking that these creatures exist just to provide human beings with interesting ancestry.
In the main, these are animals that have something we admire about them without being apex predators like wolves, large cats and bears (fine, large omnivores in two of those cases). But they aren’t quite.
The three British / European examples I gave first have a lot in common with the more modern invention of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Like Rudolph, they have something that marks them out as a little odd, their behaviour doesn’t quite match that of the natural version and they remove the outer skin to reveal a human underneath. In trying but not quite becoming one, they are no longer the other. Unlike Rudolph, they’re unlikely to be given a chance to prove themselves just as good as either humans or the animals they’re supposed to be. The result of joining in the human games is home-sickness and inner conflict over a mate that they may be attached to but certainly didn’t choose for themselves.
Kitsune and Tanuki seem to have happier ends but these do not necessarily involve staying with their human family, friends, mates, whatevers.
The Journeymouse’s Journal
I’ve played with the water horse / bull idea in a short story I’m currently trying to rehome – in the end using an amalgamated creature that was basically a horse with bull’s horns. (We’ll ignore that a horse’s long neck might have difficulty carrying the weight of the horns.) While the not-quite-one-not-quite-the-other aspect of the creature’s form wasn’t the main thrust of the story, it did give me the chance to do a brief look at the use of nouns. How do you describe something that looks like a horse but isn’t?
I also have a story on the back burner that originally started as a look at the Swan / Deer / Seal wife idea – they use very similar formats – with a few other animal mythology bits and pieces thrown in. This idea has grown since, though, and I’m working my way through the current WIP and the Three Guineveres (another working title, subject to change) idea before I get back to it.