The Werewolf of Ponkert

Time-Lost

by H. Warner Munn

"The Werewolf of Ponkert" first appeared in Weird Tales magazine and H. Warner Munn remembers that the idea stemmed from a query of H. P. Lovecraft's which asked why someone did not attempt a werewolf story as narrated by the werewolf himself. The story is placed in fifteenth century Hungary, where its central character is forced to join a werewolf pack through the power of a creature known simply as the "master" - a creature patterned in the tradition and manner of Melmoth the Wanderer. This book contains a second story, "The Werewolf's Daughter". In it, the daughter of the narrator has grown to young womanhood, and is confronted with the hates and fears and superstitions of the towns-people, all of whom know the history of her werewolf father. And always in the background looms the shadow of the immortal "master".

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Werewolves

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Pedro Plasencia Martínez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Son historias que ponen en el centro de atención el recurso de la maldición, de los detinos fatídicos, de las familias condenadas. La licantropía sirve como un pecado original que luego se cobra la deuda en los familiares directos y en los descendientes. Hay sin embargo un antagonista que está muy bien definido, una especie de vampiro demoníaco que funciona como generador de todas las desgracias. Quizá esto es lo que me ha parecido más curioso, ver cómo Munn combina de forma natural los 2 grandes temas o monstruos sobrenaturales, es decir, el vampirismo y la licantropía, adelantándose a muchas ficciones.

ENGLISH
These are stories that focus on the theme of curses, tragic destinies, and doomed families. Lycanthropy serves as an original sin that later exacts its toll on direct relatives and descendants. There is, however, a very well-defined antagonist, a kind of demonic vampire who acts as the source of all misfortune. Perhaps this is what I found most intriguing: seeing how Munn naturally combines the two major themes or supernatural monsters—vampirism and lycanthropy—anticipating many works of fiction.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Werewolf of Ponkert
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
The Return of the Master
https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Werewolf's Daughter
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...

H. P. Lovecraft, writing(*) to the editor of Weird Tales (March 1924), came up with these suggestions for properly weird tales:

Take a werewolf story, for instance -- who ever wrote one from the point of view of the wolf, and sympathizing strongly with the devil to whom he has sold himself? Who ever wrote a story from the point of view that man is a blemish on the cosmos, which ought to be eradicated?

H. Warner Munn took this and ran with it. This book contains two short stories and one longer. The shorter ones focuses on the man turned werewolf and the entity (the Master) that turns him, the longer one focuses on the daughter of the werewolf-man. Chronologically, the second short story comes last, but it and the longer one focused on the daughter are both spoiling parts of the action, so, whichever way you go you're bound to fail.

There are more Tales of the Werewolf Clan(**), some in Weird Tales and some in other magazines, in case you get sucked in to the narrative. From what I've read on the Internet, the chronology just gets more and more messed up the further you read.

This is the second werewolf story I review this month, and, both are based on writings in books. The book in this story is written on the skin of the werewolf-man.

(*) H.P. Lovecraft's letter to the editor
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
(**) Tales of the Werewolf Clan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Warn...

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pues hombres lobos contado desde su perspectiva.

[Saklani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book with one short story and one novella. The stories were apparently inspired by HP Lovecraft, who was interested in a story told from the POV of a werewolf. These are definitely not as good as the stories he wrote, but they are still worth a read.

The first story, the actual Werewolf of Ponkert is definitely the superior one. There are some excellent scenes in it, especially of the main characters getting turned into a werewolf, as well as of the last battle between his pack and a group of soldiers. His ultimate punishment for being turned against his will into a werewolf is about as gruesome as anything devised, not that there's a detailed description or anything.

The second story, the Werewolf's Daughter, has much less to recommend it. Despite being atmospheric, the scenes meant to be intense don't quite make it. The feel is much more melodrama and romantic supernatural historical fiction than horror.

One interesting feature of the two stories in total is the complete victory of evil. The actual main monster, the one who turns the narrator of the first story, triumphs completely in the end. You almost feel like the author has come to like and respect his own villain.

Still, give this book a try.

[RedDagger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm here solely because this is the first werewolf story from the werewolf's perspective; which is funny, because the literary device to present it is a book written in latin on the skin of said werewolf as a Stubbes-esque warning of his sins, read out by a later descendant, transcribed into french by a visiting englishman then finally translated into english and presented here. I mean, the words are in first person so it's more trivia than anything that impacts its original perspective, but whew.

And yeah, it's Weird Tales, it's pulp, and this is reflected in the writing. For this its greatest offering is the story it tells, which unfortunately doesn't have the timelessness offered by simply 'being first'. We're given something firmly in thrall with folk tradition and witch trial historicity: a vampiric wolf-leader, the cursed offering of power and riches, the witch-hunt. For all that, it's written with thrills and with a decent amount of horror; it's engaging and doesn't bother wasting its time hitting beat to beat of tearing about our poor protagonist.

For historical context, I'm pretty happy with the detail offered for being a werewolf perspective. There's no previous corpus like today's writers have for how to deal with it, and you can see the beginnings of all-to-common tropes being created here. For that, it notches itself to a clean 4 stars for me.

[John Gorski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes, a good, old-fashioned pulp horror story is just the thing.

This edition consists of the title story and a follow-up story, 'The Werewolf's Daughter'.

The idea of the story, "The Werewolf of Ponkert", was actually suggested by H.P. Lovecraft in a letter published in Weird Tales. In the letter Lovecraft wondered why there has never been a werewolf story told from the point of view of the werewolf. Unbeknownst to Lovecraft, Munn's story was published in that same issue of the magazine. The story is told from the perspective of a man reading and translating from the original Latin the memoir of the werewolf of Ponkert. The story also introduces a character that recurs in many of Munn's works; the Master. The Master is the proto-werewolf, an entity that creates and controls other werewolves. The journal describes how the werewolf of Ponkert is created, the horrible things he does in service of the Master, and how the townsfolk deal with it.

"The Werewolf's Daughter" takes place in Ponkert some 15 - 20 years later and describes events related to the first story.

Both stories are enjoyable, if a bit dated as most 1920s pulp stories are.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating duology of stories. The first 40% is the tale of a werewolf that has ties to the vampire mythos and much more traditional Old World stories than modern wolfman tales, which was fascinating! The second story is quite different, relating a more swashbuckling tale of an old warrior and a young suitor trying to save the werewolf’s daughter from her fate as the town’s scapegoat—but is still a solid tale. Overall, an unknown story set now but fun!

[Rob Roehm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pulled from the pages of 1920s WEIRD TALES, the two stories in this book are entertaining, but not great. The first is a fairly standard werewolf yarn, the second is a sword-and-sorcery tale only loosely associated with the first.

[Eric]

Full review: https://monsterbookclub.com/2022/01/1...

[Roger O · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better-than-average first-person werewolf tale, this one reads like something you’d happily stumble across in an old Weird Tales issue.

[Mike Mikos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite werewolf story, but it still rates 3 stars