Top Five Literary Werewolves by JL Merrow – Guest Blog and Giveaway

Long and Short Reviews welcomes JL Merrow who is visiting with us to celebrate the release of her newest book Camwolf. She’s giving away a prize of a $10 Dreamspinner Press gift certificate to one lucky commenter on the tour, who will be randomly chosen on Wednesday 25th July.

Hi, I’m JL Merrow, and I’m delighted to be here today as part of the blog tour to celebrate the release of Camwolf, my student/teacher werewolf romance set in my alma mater, Cambridge University.

You know, I missed a trick with Nick in Camwolf. If only I’d made him a doctor in English literature rather than history, he could have been quite literally a literary werewolf.

[Pause for groan]

But (you’ll be relieved to hear) that’s not what I’m talking about today. Instead, I’d like to share with you my Top 5 Literary Werewolves:

5. Lycaon

When it comes to werewolves, this guy’s the daddy. Written about by Ovid, Lycaon (from whose name we get lycanthropy) killed a traveller (or in some versions of the myth, one of his own sons—then again, he had around 50 sons, so presumably didn’t think anyone would miss the odd one), cooked him and served him up for dinner to the god Zeus.

Not liking the menu overmuch, Zeus promptly turned Lycaon into a wolf. Possibly along with all his kids, which seems a tad unfair unless they’d actively colluded in the brotherly barbecue (unlikely from considerations of space alone).

Nothing to do with the full moon, and Lycaon didn’t have the ability to change back—but still, the first known man-to-wolf transformation in literature.

4. Kveldulfr Bjalfason

This violent Viking appears in my favourite Icelandic Saga, Egil’s Saga, being the titular character’s grandad. “Ulf” is Old Norse for wolf (curiously, many werewolves have names that mean wolf; it’s almost like their parents knew) and this guy was reputed to become one as the sun went down, gaining immense strength and murderous tendencies. Hence, in a culture with a great fondness for nicknames, he became known as Kveldulfr, or Evening Wolf.

Sadly (or possibly not, given his propensity for violence—then again, the apple definitely didn’t fall far from that tree*) Egil never knew his grisly grandad; Kveldulfr died as his ship approached Iceland. His son, Skallagrim (Bald Grim; Egil’s dad and likewise not a man you’d want to cross or, in fact, come within ten miles of) promptly coffined him up, chucked him overboard, and built his farm where the coffin floated to land. As you do.

3. Dr Jekyll

I know you’re thinking WTF? right now, but bear with me. True, in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) the protagonist, Dr Jekyll, doesn’t transform into a literal beast—but he does change his human shape, and Hyde embodies all that is beastly about the outwardly upstanding Dr Jekyll; he is a subtextual werewolf.

The story is in fact a classic one, playing on our fears that in all of us (or perhaps just the male of the species: discuss) there is a primal creature free from all moral constraint; composed of pure selfish will. And that giving in to the beast within can be seductive.

2. Kitty Norville

Firmly bucking the name trend (and seriously, you have to love a werewolf called Kitty!) is Carrie Vaughn’s late-night radio show host and closeted werewolf. Bucking the trend in another way, Kitty is, at the start of the series, not the alpha of the pack or even in a romance with the alpha—she’d much rather keep her head down and live a quiet life. She’s a meek werewolf, at least to begin with, and I love that reversal of expectations.

Of course, being a werewolf, she doesn’t get to stay meek.
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1. Remus Lupin

The tortured hero from the Harry Potter-verse wins the prize, if only for most wolfy names: Remus from one of the twin founders of Rome, who were suckled by a she-wolf as babies; and Lupin, from lupine, or wolfly. He became a werewolf when he was bitten as a child by Fenrir Greyback, but personally I blame the parents.

Remus was the classic reluctant werewolf, desperate not to hurt anyone. Sadly, he internalised a lot of prejudice about his condition, and spent much of his life as a lonely outcast—although he found friendship with the Marauders, and his relationship with Sirius Black is often assumed by fans to have been closer than just chums. (Remus also got married later in life, but the less said about that bizarre, chemistry-free relationship, the better.)

Remus’s lycanthropy, with its social stigma, has been described by the author as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS*, although this is problematic—on the whole, Rowling’s werewolves tend to reinforce the idea that they are rightly to be feared, although I’m sure carrying that over into the metaphor was not her intention. And I like to think society is generally more enlightened now about the real-world medical conditions than at the time Rowling was first writing the character.

*For those who watch the TV series Vikings: that scene where Ivar, as a young boy, kills another kid over a ball game was totally stolen from Egil’s Saga.

Question: Who’s your favourite fictional** werewolf?
**Or, I guess, real? (gulp)

A race to save his lover—by becoming his own worst nightmare.

Dr. Nick Sewell has it all. Good friends, a career as a Cambridge academic… and recently, a tendency to turn into a wolf every full moon. When a new student arrives from Germany, Nick is horrified by his visceral attraction to the troubled youth—not to mention his violent jealousy when he sees Julian with another man. He’s floored to find out Julian is a werewolf too.
Unlike Nick, Julian has spent his life among other wolves, and in this subject, he’s the teacher and Nick the student. Nick struggles to adjust to this reversal of roles, especially since he’s an alpha and Julian a natural submissive. That dynamic just adds to the attraction smoldering between them, whether they’re in human form or wolf.

But Julian’s pack and the abuse he suffered isn’t far behind him, and it wants to reclaim him. For Nick to hold on to his lover, he’ll have to embrace the monster within.

Camwolf was previously published by Samhain, but has been completely re-edited and given a lovely new cover for this second edition by Dreamspinner Press.

About the Author:JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again.

She writes (mostly) contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour. Two of her novels have won Rainbow Awards for Romantic Comedy (Slam!, 2013 and Spun!, 2017) and several of her books have been EPIC Awards finalists, including Muscling Through, Relief Valve (the Plumber’s Mate Mysteries) and To Love a Traitor.

JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Crime Writers Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.

Available in ebook and paperback from Dreamspinner Press