Loup garou

There is no single origin narrative in the provided sources. Encyclopedic summaries trace the werewolf concept to early attestations in European literature (examples named in summaries include Petronius and Gervase of Tilbury), and the loup garou is presented as part of this long-standing European lineage rather than a unitary origin myth. Modern fiction layers new origin motifs (curses, afflictions, and contagion by bite) onto that older tradition.

Descriptions in the provided material range from a full wolf to a therianthropic wolf–human hybrid. The central encyclopedic source defines the transformed state as "a wolf or therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature." Popular-culture examples use human characters who are werewolves but do not add consistent, detailed physical description across sources.

Primary ability is shapeshifting between human and wolf or wolf–human hybrid form. Transformations may occur voluntarily or involuntarily and are attributed to curses or other afflictions in the summary material. The modern-fiction pattern frequently (but not universally in tradition) depicts transformations triggered by the full moon and transmissible by a bite or scratch from another werewolf. Other specific behaviors, hunting patterns, or moral tendencies are not standardized in the provided sources.