In 1691, an elderly man stood before a European court and ADMITTED HE WAS A WEREWOLF. But according to him, werewolves didn't serve Satan. THEY WORKED FOR GOD! And their mission was to invade Hell, fight witches, and recover stolen crops.
This is the bizarre, court-documented story of Thiess of Kaltenbrun, the man who claimed to be one of "God's hounds."
In seventeenth-century Livonia, in what is now Latvia, Old Thiess shocked his judges by describing an underground war between werewolves and the forces of Hell. According to his testimony, witches and sorcerers stole the prosperity of the countryside, and packs of werewolves descended into Hell to bring it back.
And somehow, the story gets even stranger.
Thiess described battles with witches, the Devil's guards attacking werewolves with iron rods, rival Russian werewolf groups competing over harvests, and even a separate Hell for the Germans!
The judges thought they were dealing with a servant of Satan. Thiess insisted he was fighting AGAINST Satan.
Best of all? WE HAVE THE ACTUAL COURT RECORDS.
In this episode, we're exploring one of the strangest werewolf trials in recorded history, the remarkable testimony of Old Thiess, his ultimate punishment in 1692, and the historical mystery that continues to fascinate scholars more than 300 years later.
Was Thiess preserving an ancient supernatural tradition? Was he challenging the religious authorities? Or was he simply the most imaginative elderly peasant in European history?
The testimony is real. Whether werewolves were actually conducting agricultural raids on Hell is another matter entirely.
What do YOU think about Old Thiess and his supernatural adventures? Tell me in the comments!
If you enjoy weird history, supernatural folklore, historical mysteries, werewolf legends, and strange-but-true stories, please LIKE this video, SHARE it with somebody who loves bizarre history, and SUBSCRIBE for more stories that prove the real world is often stranger than fiction.
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SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Original Court Transcript (1691) and Verdict (1692), translated by Bruce Lincoln, University of Chicago Press:
https://press.uchicago.edu/sites/thiess/old_thiess_transcript.pdf
Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln, Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf: A Classic Case in Comparative Perspective (2020):
https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.landing.epl?ISBN=9780226674551
Queen Mary University of London, History of Emotions Blog, "An Account of the Trial of a Livonian Werewolf in Jurgensburg in 1692":
https://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/2013/03/an-account-of-the-trial-of-a-livonian-werewolf-in-jurgensburg-in-1692/
#ThiessOfKaltenbrun #GodsWerewolf #WerewolfHistory #StrangeHistory #HistoricalMysteries #EuropeanFolklore #WitchTrials #TrueHistory #Lycanthrolympics #HellNeedsBetterSecurity
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