Yesterday I was interviewed for the Mark Forrest Show which was doing a segment on the Werewolf of Hull or, as it is now commonly referred to, ‘Old Stinker’. You can listen to my five minutes of fame here. (I’m on at 2 hrs 44 mins but the report starts about 10 minutes before that).
I fear my scepticism and academic nerdiness was a little too much but hopefully you enjoy my insights. I’d like to think I came across as a British version Dana Scully: “I want to believe”. I can’t say I’m that convinced that searching for a folkloric creature that isn’t necessarily a werewolf on a full moon seems that effective given that the original Old Stinker pre-dates the relationship between the lunar cycle and lycanthropy but I look forward to being proved wrong. I’ve also proved that I must never go into PR as I entirely forgot to plug the OGOM Project; I’m absolutely terrible at aggrandisement.
Well done Kaja. You could tell they wanted to sensationalise it more and perpetuate the folk panic which was interesting. They only ever want sound bites and quotable snapshots of research so it best to cut to the chase as much as possible and then just give the book or conference a mention!! I am actually getting more and more interested in old stinker. I am starting to think that we at OGOM have created belief in him by equating re-wilding and wolf extinction with werewolfism at the conference and in the media. It is a shame you did not get to mention the wolves. The really interesting thin here and I will post on this is that this werewolf sighting is developed from awareness of what humankind has done to wolves. I might revisit some of the conference media in light of this on the blog. Must get on with marking exam papers though as I get so side tracked!! Excellent work! BTW it is not self aggrandisement to mention your research or the project it just gives more info to the listener and alows them to follow things up and visit us at the project!!
The perpetuation of the story and its ties to ‘Old Stinker’ were very interesting. I think it shows how folklore has not left us. I’m about to read your latest post and comment on it. I’m glad you found more about ‘Old Stinker’ as I pulled up short. I’m sad I didn’t get to mention wolves either – the five minutes went so fast. I felt like didn’t get to say anything at all. I love the idea that history of humans with wolves is haunting us and that this manifests in supernatural creatures (which is essentially one of the arguments in my thesis). I have a couple of excellent quotations that I will try to get up on the blog or in the comment under your most recent blog post.