Incidentally, if your name is Whelan or Phelan, it comes from the word faol, “wolf”. Most of the websites and posts I read say that Irish werewolves were considered guardian spirits who protected children, wounded men, and the lost, although they mostly don’t give sources. As you will see, the Irish werewolf is a complex creature, just as often helpful, or at least benign, as dangerous. There are no real wolves in Ireland any more, but they were once a very real menace, which would explain the large number of stories about them.īoth these are Irish words for “werewolf”. Better still, it turned out that not only does Ireland have werewolves, but also its own form of Úlfhéðnar, the berserker-like wolf-warriors of Scandinavian legend. I knew Irish mythology and folklore had lots of shapeshifters, but I had never heard of werewolves. The other day I was browsing Tumblr and I turned up a post on Irish werewolves.
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