The Mysterious Werewolf of 18th Century Quebec City

Essayist Adam Bunch of Canadiana dramatically recounted the chilling history of a mysterious werewolf that alarmed the residents of Quebec City in the early 18th Century. He further explains that the fortifications of the city bear witness to this colonial rumor, which first reared its head in the 15th century and was further spread by a 1766 issue of the Gazette de Quebec during an unstable political time.

The British had just conquered the French Colony. …People were still getting used to life under the new regime. According to the Gazette’s first report, the werewolf had been spotted outside Quebec City heading in the direction of Montreal. It was in disguise as a beggar to better stalk its prey. The newspaper warned its readers to ‘be careful. it is recommended to the public to be as cautious of him as it would be of a ravenous wolf’.

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Despite a later report stating that the creature was captured, the Gazette continued the rumor, stoking further fear amongst the residents until it simply petered away into nothing.

The Gazette reported ‘This beast is not entirely destroyed but begins again to show itself more furious than ever and makes terrible habit wherever it goes’. …but then the trail goes mysteriously cold. That, it seems, is the last of the Gazette’s reports about The Werewolf of Quebec he disappears without a trace. So maybe the story was nothing but superstition and rumor an eerie folk tale told in an uneasy time or maybe the werewolf was just an ordinary animal that was eventually killed without much fanfare at all.

via Miss Cellania