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Werecats
 

In folklore and fantasy fiction, Werecats are shapeshifters who are similar to werewolves, except that they turn into some species of feline instead of a wolf. The species involved can be a domestic cat, a tiger, a lion, a leopard, a lynx, or any other type, including some that are purely fantastical felines. Typically, an individual werecat can only transform to one unique feline, not to a number of different species. The word "werecat" was not coined until the late 19th century, so it was not directly used in legends from earlier eras, only by later folklorists' commentary.

Folklore

European folklore usually depicts werecats who transform into domestic cats. Some European werecats became giant domestic cats or black panthers. They are generally labeled witches, even though they often have just the one magical ability, of self-transformation. During the witch trials, this was official Church doctrine: all shapeshifters, including werewolves, were just specialized witches.

African legends describe people who turn into lions or leopards. In the case of leopards, this is often because the creature is really a leopard god or goddess masquerading as human. When these gods mate with humans, offspring can be produced, and these children sometimes grow up to be shapeshifters. Any of them who never transform will have other powers. With werecats who turn into lions, the ability is often associated with royalty. Such a being may have been a king or queen in a former life, or may be destined for leadership in this life. This quality of heroic warriorship can be seen in the lions of Tsavo, which were reputed to be kings in lion shape, attempting to repel the invading Europeans by stopping their railroad.

Asian werecats usually become tigers. In India, the weretiger is often a dangerous sorcerer, portrayed as a menace to livestock who might at any time turn to man-eating. Chinese legends often describe weretigers as the victims of either heredity or a vindictive ghost. Ancient teachings held that every race except the Han Chinese were really animals in disguise, so there was nothing extraordinary about some of these false humans reverting to their true natures. Alternately, the ghosts of people who had been killed by tigers would become malevolent supernatural beings, devoting all their energy to making sure that tigers killed more humans. Some of these ghosts were responsible for transforming ordinary humans into man-eating weretigers.

South American werecats usually became jaguars. In some tribes, all shamans were thought to have the ability to become jaguars. There are also urban legends about jaguar shapeshifters lurking along highways in tales similar to the vanishing hitchhiker and of them being assassins secretly employed by the government or organized crime.

North American werecat legends are usually based on the European model, with domestic cats, either normal-sized or giant, being the favored shape. Cougars appear rarely, and jaguars only appear south of the American border. In what is now Mexico, Aztec folklore described jaguar people as being specially blessed by one of the gods, but modern Mexican folklore is more likely to attribute such transformation powers to the devil. American urban legends tell of encounters with feline bipeds, beings like Bigfoot except with cat heads, tails and paws. Feline bipeds are sometimes classified as part of cryptozoology, but more often they are interpreted as werecats.

Fiction

Fictional werecats tend to be portrayed as less influenced by the lunar cycle than werewolves, and they appear in heroic roles slightly more often. In addition, the females seem to outnumber the males, which is the opposite of the tradition in werewolf fiction.

  • The Inheritance Trilogy including the novel Eragon, include a werecat known as Solembum, a black cat able to communicate telepathicly as well as changing into a young boy with a black dagger. Later on other werecats are noted.

  • The movie Cat People was the most influential item of werecat fiction, about a real sex kitten who turns into a black panther. It was followed forty years later by Cat People, a remake in name only with a vastly changed storyline that now included two shapeshifters, brother and sister.

  • The Jaguar Princess by Clare Bell is about an Aztec slave girl who is descended from jaguar gods and can transform into a jaguar.

  • Two Witch World fantasy novels by Andre Norton focus on werecat characters, Year of the Unicorn and The Jargoon Pard.

  • The comic and television series Ranma ½ has plenty of shapeshifters, including the werecat Shampoo.

  • Clan of the Cats is a comic that has a black panther werecat as the main character.

  • The Wotch has a werecat character named Katie McBride.

  • The PlayStation RPG series Breath of Fire features a race of cat-like humanoids called Woren. One of them (Rei, from Breath of Fire 3) can turn into a large, extremely powerful weretiger during battle.

  • In Season 1 of Big Wolf on Campus the episode Cat Woman focused on conflicts between a werewolf and a werecat (a girl with blue streaks in her hair who transformed into a dyed-blue cat).

  • The film Night Watch featured a character named Tiger Cub who was a weretiger.

  • The Bloody Roar video game series features many werecreatures (called Zoanthropes), including Long and Shen-Long the weretigers, Gado the werelion, Shina the wereleopard, and Uriko the werelynx.

  • The Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris features various werecreatures, including werepanthers and weretigers.

References

  • Borges, Jorge. (1969). The book of imaginary beings. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0670891800
  • Greene, Rosalyn. (2000). The magic of shapeshifting. York Beach: Weiser. ISBN 1578631718
  • Hall, Jamie. (2003). Half human, half animal: Tales of werewolves and related creatures. Bloomington: 1st Books. ISBN 1410758095
  • Hamel, Frank. (1969). Human animals: Werewolves & other transformations. New Hyde Park: University Books. ISBN 0821600923
  • Steiger, Brad. (2001). Out of the dark. New York: Kensington Books. ISBN 1575668963
  • Saunders, Nicholas J. (1991). The cult of the cat. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0500810362

See also

External links

Legendary creatures | Shapeshifting

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Werecat".

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