Re: Gold Bullets?
STUDY FINDS SILVER BULLETS LARGELY INEFFECTIVE AGAINST WEREWOLVES
July 28 2009
Berlin, Germany – Mankind has long held onto a connection with the animal. From the Anubis of Egypt to the dragons of China to the American Bald Eagle, the animal world has long held a great fascination for human beings. Because of that connection animals quite often integrate themselves into popular culture and become personified.
There is perhaps no better of example of that than the Werewolf, a fusion of the human and one of the most vicious of animals is tale that has been told throughout human culture across the world.
Europe in particular has been the home of many tales of the werewolf. From Russia to France the history of mythology and storytelling has long been peppered with tales of Lycanthropy, the transmogrification of a human being into an animal, specifically a wolf. Like all good tales, stories of werewolves have always involved a solution to the afflicted; an antidote to the evil. With werewolves there have been many methods of disposal but none has gripped the public more than the silver, specifically a silver bullet. A new study though has indicated that the silver bullet theory may be nothing more than a myth and that Werewolves may in fact be much easier to dispose of than previously thought.
“An ability to destroy the monster is as important to the mythos as the monster
itself. Not only does it give us as humans a solution to the problem, it helps to reinforce the practical reality of the legend. Because the being is mortal, unlike a God, it is much easier for people to swallow. Its mortality helps us to understand it,” said Dr. Gerhard Warner of the Humboldt University of Berlin. “We’ve studied the solution to Lycanthropy across cultures and what we have found is that virtually all the methods employed would be effective in the case of a werewolf transformation or an attack. As far as we can determine werewolves are flesh and blood and can be disposed of the same way as a healthy person. Any supernatural powers attributed to them are largely fiction and fantasy.”
Warner recommends implements such as blunt objects, knives or swords, or bullets loaded with regular bullets.
“There is little doubt that a werewolf would have increased strength and possibly increased levels of adrenaline that could keep it going for a longer period of time than a normal human. More like a bear than a human, but by and large the things that will kill a human being will kill a werewolf. They may take a few more bullets, but they will go down,” continued Warner. “What we want to prevent it people using valuable silver and melting it down into bullets. There are more common metals that will be just as effective and the hording of silver just isn’t necessary. We don’t want people going around melting down their good cutlery out of ignorance. People should prepare for a werewolf attack in much the same way they would an attack from another human being and not get irrational.”
Dr. Warner also believes that things like poison, fire, and car accidents would also be effective ways to rid a person of a werewolf. There hasn’t been a reported or rumoured werewolf attack in Germany for at least two hundred years, an incident which some believe may have been a regular wolf.
“This study of course is not conclusive and does require further discourse but we feel
we are on solid ground. I do want to emphasize that this is a study of werewolves only. We did not study other monsters such as Vampires so we cannot comment on effective methods for disposing of those beasts,” continued Warner. “This of course shouldn’t make anyone too worked up over the possibility of having to dispatch of a werewolf in the near future. This study was merely for informational purposes. We simply do not want people to panic if the very unlikely event that a werewolf does appear ever occurs.”
Scrape TV News attempted to contact representatives for the silver bullet industry in Germany but received no response by press time.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
