Lore 318: Pack Mentality

Europe didn't spend all of its time hunting witches in its darkest past, and a great example of their other obsession can be found in the forests of France. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by GennaRose Nethercott, research by Cassandra de Alba, and music by Chad Lawson. ————————— BUY EXHUMED TODAY: aaronmahnke.com/exhumed https://www.aaronmahnke.com/exhumed ————————— Lore Resources: Get Ad-Free Lore: lorepodcast.com/support https://www.lorepodcast.com/support Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music https://www.lorepodcast.com/music Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources https://www.lorepodcast.com/sources Official Lore Merchandise: lorepodcast.com/shop https://www.lorepodcast.com/shop ————————— Sponsors: BetterHelp: Lore is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/LORE http://www.betterhelp.com/lore, and get on your way to being your best self. Mint Mobile: For a limited time, wireless plans from Mint Mobile are $15 a month when you purchase a 3-month plan with UNLIMITED talk, text and data at MintMobile.com/lore http://www.mintmobile.com/lore. SimpliSafe: Secure your home with 24/7 professional monitoring. Sign up today at SimpliSafe.com/Lore http://simplisafe.com/lore to get 60% off a new SimpliSafe system. Squarespace: Head to Squarespace.com/lore http://squarespace.com/lore to save 50% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the code LORE. ————————— To report a concern regarding a radio-style, non-Aaron ad in this episode, reach out to ads @ lorepodcast.com with the name of the company or organization so we can look into it. To advertise on this podcast please email: [email protected]. Or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/lore ————————— ©2026 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 1:08Aaron Mahnke?

  The French have an old expression for the hour just before nightfall. Entre chien et loup, which literally translates to "Between Dog and Wolf." It's that moment when the last trickle of daylight slips out and the edges of things go soft, when certainty falls away, when things become liminal. At noon, you would never mistake a sheepdog across a distant field for a hungry wolf, but as evening settles over the forest, that distinction disappears. Things go fuzzy and become blurred. A familiar silhouette becomes unfamiliar. Friend or predator, comfort or fear, domestic or wild, in that strange

• 1:52Aaron Mahnke?

  hour between day and night, they suddenly don't seem so different. An hour of uncertainty, though, that's not so bad. But in the dense French forests, well, under the thick shadows of the canopy, that twilight feels like it never ends. It makes sense, then, that for centuries, forests occupied the same uncertain space in the French imagination as dusk did. Just look at the fairy tales, like Little Red Riding Hood or Beauty and the Beast. The truth was, you never knew who or what you might find lurking out there. And for those who lived in the little towns on the forest's edge, the woods carried one simple truth:

• 2:35Aaron Mahnke?

  you never knew what might emerge. Maybe it would be the dog, or maybe the wolf, or would the trees part to reveal something far more frightening than either? One thing's for certain, though: you better make sure that you can tell the difference. I'm Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

• 3:08Aaron Mahnke?

  France is famous for a lot of things: berets, the Eiffel Tower, bloody revolutions, and flaky pastries. But did you know that for a long time, France was well-known for another cultural feature? That is, their booming population of lugeroos, or as you and I might call them, werewolves. Now, look, we've talked plenty about witch trials, an estimated 100,000 of which took place throughout the early modern period of Europe. But all the while, another quieter inquisition was brewing: hundreds of werewolf trials, many of which specifically took place in France. And honestly, it kind of makes sense. France had one of

• 3:49Aaron Mahnke?

  the highest wolf populations in Europe, not to mention a huge rural population, that is, people living in wolf-striking distance. Heck, wolf attacks were a big enough issue that for hundreds of years, France even employed royal wolf hunters to keep the beasts at bay. But what do you get when you combine a bunch of wolf attacks, an isolated woodland village, and an era of rampant superstition? That's right, a seriously pervasive belief in werewolves. And the stories that popped up as a result are downright monstrous. It was the spring of 1603, and not all was well in the southwestern barony of La Roche

• 4:31Aaron Mahnke?

  Chalet. The region was racked with poverty and fever. It was isolated in the forest, cut off from civilization, and to make matters worse, the small community was suddenly being attacked by monsters. A young boy, saved from razor-sharp claws by his older brother, a three-year-old girl devoured, and then a baby snatched from its own crib. Of course, the child snatchers were no fairy tale creatures, they were wolves. At least, so everyone thought. Until one day, a 13-year-old shepherdess named Marguerite was attacked in broad daylight. And after fending her attacker off with a stick, earning a gash across her face to show for it, she delivered a shocking bit of information. The animal that attacked

• 5:16Aaron Mahnke?

  her? Well, it didn't look like a wolf at all. According to Marguerite, the creature was similar to a wolf, but a bit too bulky and too short, with an oddly small head and tail. It also had red fur instead of gray. Really, she didn't know what the thing was. But don't worry, a very stupid teenage boy was about to provide an explanation. Now, look, if there's one thing that's been true about teenagers since the beginning of time, it's that they'll do just about anything to impress a crush, and Jean Grenier was no different. He was a scrawny 13- or 14-year-old runaway who, after fleeing his abusive father,

• 5:58Aaron Mahnke?

  had come to work with Marguerite in the livestock business, along with two other girls, pretty girls, mind you. And when Jean heard about Marguerite's ordeal, he saw it as the perfect opportunity for a little flirting. His plan? Why, boasting that he could turn into a wolf with red fur, of course. And to his credit, he did manage to land a date, a court date, that is. The girls immediately reported this real-life teen wolf to the authorities, and he was dragged to an inquest on May 29 of 1603. And you might think that he would take it all back at that point, but no, the kid just doubled down. Yes, he could turn

• 6:38Aaron Mahnke?

  into a wolf by putting on a red fur, and yes, he'd eaten babies and children while in wolf form. Sometimes he drank dog blood, he said, but children were tastier. He also insisted before the court that he'd been initiated into werewolfdom by a mysterious man in the woods known only as "The Man of the Forest." In one particularly chilling moment, the grieving father of a child killed by wolves came to court. Jean looked him dead in the eyes and took full credit for the child's brutal murder. But despite the gruesome confessions, the court took pity on Jean in the end. Given his age and clearly unwell mental state, they decided to let God be the judge of him, and rather than

• 7:23Aaron Mahnke?

  execution, had the boy confined to a monastery in Bordeaux. He lived out the rest of his life there, which isn't saying a lot. He passed away barely 20 years old. It's true, this story has a surprisingly peaceful end. Well, for our teen wolf, that is. Not so much for all those children who continued to be eaten by wolves. But while Jean Grenier received mercy from the court, let's just say that not all werewolves were so lucky.

• 8:07Aaron Mahnke?

  The woods were dark and thick as the men trudged home from work one cold November night. The barest sliver of moonlight cut through the branches, and shadows seemed to writhe against the trees. But the men plodded on. They'd walked this path before, they weren't afraid. At least, they weren't, until they heard a small child's scream shooting out from the forest, followed by the howl of a wolf. It was the autumn of 1573, in the town of Dola, France, not far from the Swiss border. Already that year, several children had been snatched by what people believed to be werewolves. A number of eyewitness adults, too, had recently claimed to see the creatures.

• 8:50Aaron Mahnke?

  And so, when those men in the woods heard that inhuman howl ripping through the trees, they already had a pretty good idea of what they would find. When the men arrived, they came upon a little girl fiercely defending herself against... Well, to be honest, no one seemed to agree on what it was. It was too dark to see clearly, and the thing fled into the woods before they had a chance to capture it, leaving the child alive and well, I am relieved to say. Later, the men sat down to discuss what they had seen. Some had barely been able to make out the animal at all. Others said it was a regular wolf, and others still hadn't seen a wolf at all, but a man. And not just any man.

• 9:34Aaron Mahnke?

  No, this was a man that they knew, a local hermit, named Gilles Garnier. Now, it's important to note here that Garnier was already an outsider. Described as a stooping, ill-tempered man with a long gray beard, deep-set eyes, and a bushy unibrow, he lived in a turf-roofed hovel across the moors. His makeshift house was surrounded by broken fencing and a ruined garden, while lichen crawled up the decaying walls. He did have a wife, though, but other than Garnier, or the "Hermit of Dola," as he was known, he did not play well with others. And so, the thought of him prowling creepily through the forest at night, well, let's just say that it didn't strike people as too far-fetched.

• 10:18Aaron Mahnke?

  But still, no one had any proof. And so, for a few days, the rumors only marinated. That is, until a week later, when a 10-year-old boy went missing. Soon, the local authorities issued a decree. "Assemble with pikes, halberts, archibuses, and sticks," the notice said, "to chase and to pursue the said werewolf in every place where they may find or seize him, to tie and to kill, without incurring any pains or penalties." And that was all the townsfolk really needed to hear. They branded their pitchforks and headed for the woods. And I know what you're thinking, this sounds like a classic horror movie mob en route to torment an outsider, right?

• 11:02Aaron Mahnke?

  Well, not exactly. Because while the mob did find Garnier, he wasn't exactly at home having an innocent cup of tea at the time. No, they found the "Hermit of Dola," deep in the forest, looming over the murdered corpse of a young boy. The hermit was promptly arrested and tortured on the rack. And there, he admitted to being a werewolf and to killing the missing children so that he could eat the flesh off their arms and legs. One author wrote of him, "The poor maniac fully believed that actual transformation into a wolf took place. He was apparently perfectly reasonable on other points, and quite conscious of the acts he had committed."

• 11:43Aaron Mahnke?

  Between his own confession and his discovery with the body, the evidence against him was more than enough to convict. And on January 18th of 1574, the "Hermit of Dola" was burned at the stake. Now, was he actually guilty? He might have been simply scavenging in the woods and found himself in the wrong place at a very much wrong time. Then again, he absolutely could have killed those kids. But as for being a werewolf, yeah, probably not. Except there's one final detail that should give us all pause, no pun intended. You see, during his interrogation, Garnier also explained how he became a werewolf in the first place.

• 12:26Aaron Mahnke?

  According to this hermit, he had been wandering the woods in search of food when he had met, and I quote, "a phantom in the shape of a man who taught him how to turn into a wolf." That's right, a mysterious man in the forest bestowing werewolf powers. The exact same description that the young teen wolf Jean Grenier would give during his trial just 30 years later.

• 13:06Aaron Mahnke?

  Whether animal or shapeshifter, the notion of a bloodthirsty beast preying upon a small community, well, that's terrifying. But do you know what's even more frightening than a werewolf in your midst? Why, that would be remembering that wolves run in packs. About 50 miles south of Dola, and 25 years later, another wolf attack rocked a small French town. The year was 1598. It was a sweet summer's day in the village of Nezha, and a boy was picking fruit high in a tree while his sister waited below. And then suddenly, the girl screamed. And scrambling down as fast as he could, her brother saw why: a wolf was charging right for her.

• 13:50Aaron Mahnke?

  After that, everything was a blur. The boy jumped to the ground, slashing at the wolf with a knife, and the wolf slashed back. Eventually, adults came, driving the wolf away, but by then, the boy had been badly injured in the tussle. Mere days later, he was dead. And yet, before he went, he provided a thorough description of his attacker. Yes, it was a wolf, but its paws, they weren't quite paws at all. No, they were shaped like human hands. And worst of all, the animal also lacked a tail. Now, sure, the lack of a tail might not seem much compared to the freaky hand thing,

• 14:31Aaron Mahnke?

  but to a French villager in the late 1500s, it was actually the scariest detail of all. You see, it was believed that when a person shapeshifted, each human body part would transform into the corresponding animal body part. And so, noses became snouts, toes became claws, you get the picture. And so, given the fact that humans don't have tails, well then, werewolves wouldn't either. The people of Nezha had no doubt, they had a werewolf in their midst. But lucky for them, they were pretty sure they knew who it was. Her name was Perinet Gendion, and she already had a reputation as being a witch. So, hey, why not just assume she's a werewolf as well, right?

• 15:12Aaron Mahnke?

  Unfortunately for her, that's exactly what the townsfolk did, before storming her house and ripping her limb from limb. A boy was dead, and now a woman had been executed without a trial. But alas, the deaths would not end there, because remember what I said about wolves running in packs? Well, in human terms, we have another name for it: a family. After killing Perinet, the mob went for her brother Pierre, and then her brother's son Georges and daughter Antoinette. All three were arrested and subjected to brutal interrogation. Now, you know that old trope of selling your soul to the devil in exchange for, say, eternal life or sick guitar skills? Well, Pierre admitted to making a similar deal, although honestly, I'm not sure that

• 15:57Aaron Mahnke?

  it was worth it. You see, he was a farmer, and he was frustrated with his rather dull side. That's right, he sold his immortal soul for a sharper piece of farming equipment. And believe it or not, his son's excuse wasn't much better. Georges, too, claimed to have made a devil's deal for farm-related reasons. He, it seems, was annoyed that he couldn't drive certain oxen, but you know who had the power to fix that? Well, that would be the devil. Questionable motives aside, both men had plenty more to say on the subject of pledging yourselves to evil entities. They told interrogators that they'd both attended witches' Sabbats, and that, yes, the devil had taught them to become wolves.

• 16:38Aaron Mahnke?

  Apparently, it involved rubbing a special wolfy ointment on their skin before the devil draped them in fur. Oh, and their behavior in prison didn't exactly help matters. Allegedly, Georges and Pierre spent their downtime loping around their cells on all fours and howling. In the end, all three Gendions were burned at the stake, the men for lichanthropy and Antoinette for a charge of witchcraft. The pack was dead, and today, so is the rest of their town. Nezha has long since ceased to exist. And you may be wondering why? If all this happened centuries ago in a town no longer on the map, do we even know the story at all? Well, I can answer that for you.

• 17:23Aaron Mahnke?

  It's because the judge presiding over the case wrote it all down in a book. It was called "An Examen of Witches," and went on to become one of the most influential instruction manuals for dealing with witchcraft and demons. In other words, the Gendians' tragic story didn't end with their demise. It also led to the deaths of countless more.

• 18:01Aaron Mahnke?

  It's fair to say that we all love a good creature feature. Killer blobs, xenomorphs, giant ants, and resurrected mummies. That is, they're fun because they aren't real. We can get that fear-fueled adrenaline fix from the comfort of our couches and the top of the food chain. Except what happens when the monsters actually exist? For the people of early-modern France, that question was far from hypothetical. Wolves could emerge from the forest at any given moment, carrying off your loved ones while you looked on, powerless to stop them. Heck, in the four-year period between 1596 and 1600 alone, France recorded over 150

• 18:44Aaron Mahnke?

  wolf attacks, not to mention countless more that went unreported. Which brings up an interesting question. If the monsters were already real, why invent an imaginary one to take its place? Why were people so determined to blame their own community members when literal wolves were right there? Well, I think that answer lies in some of the details hidden in the stories we've already heard. When it came to the Gandions, the reason seems obvious. Perrinette's Gandion was already viewed as a witch. Her family members probably weren't too popular either. So, my guess? The wolf attack provided a convenient excuse for the town to get rid of some folks they

• 19:26Aaron Mahnke?

  just didn't like, while reclaiming a sense of safety and control in the process. Then we have the Hermit of Dola, a man found looming over the corpse of a young child before admitting to the deaths of others. It's a kind of cruelty almost impossible to imagine a human would commit. In fact, isn't it easier to decide the perpetrator isn't fully human at all? The people of Dola clearly thought so. And finally, we have our Teen Wolf, Jean Grenier. Now, you may have caught the detail that Jean had an abusive father, and it turns out in his trial, that father came up. Jean claimed that his dad had helped him turn into a wolf and had even eaten a little girl himself.

• 20:10Aaron Mahnke?

  So, I have to wonder, could Jean's claims actually have been an attempt to escape abuse? Because here's the thing, beating your kids, however horrible it was, was totally legal in 1600s France. But do you know what was very much not legal and could get a man thrown in jail? Well, that's right, being a werewolf. In the end, it seems these creature features all led to the same conclusion. The possibility of transforming into a horrible monster lies hidden within all of us.

• 20:51Aaron Mahnke?

  I hope you've enjoyed today's werewolf hunt through the villages of France. Here in 2026, the age of shapeshifters and wolf trials feels impossibly distant. Werewolf may be a household word, but not in the way that it was 400 years ago. And with the rise of science and modernity, all that superstition went away, right? Well, I have one final story that sorely begs to differ. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This episode was made possible by Squarespace. Way back in the day, before I created Lore, I was a branding graphic designer, helping businesses craft a professional presence that customers could trust. Because after all, if you don't put your best foot forward, it's kind of hard to start

• 21:34Aaron Mahnke?

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• 22:18Aaron Mahnke?

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• 23:03Aaron Mahnke?

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• 25:17Aaron Mahnke?

  It was the age of flappers and phonograph records, of speakeasies and gin and the wail of trumpets. But over in the tiny French town of Utenheim, local policeman Joseph Sur wasn't enjoying any of the fun that 1925 had to offer. No, he was too busy being haunted by shapeshifters. Now, Joseph lived in a small cottage with his wife, his two daughters, and his three sons. And if that weren't already crowded enough, a few new roommates had recently moved in. That is, a bunch of demonic animals. Beasts with human faces, evil misshapen dogs, cats, and rabbits, along with, in Joseph's words, "strange animals unknown to natural history."

• 26:01Aaron Mahnke?

  All night, Joseph insisted that these demonic beings dance diabolically around him, and whenever he chased one away, countless more took its place. But that wasn't the worst of it. Now, he was also certain that the animals were there for a specific reason: to harm Utenheim, the town that he, as an officer of the law, was sworn to protect. Now, look, you might think that when Joseph started telling everyone about this, that he'd be politely removed from his duties, or, I don't know, at least have his gun taken away? But no, in fact, it was quite the opposite. Everyone in Utenheim believed him. And here's the thing you have to understand about that town.

• 26:43Aaron Mahnke?

  While the rest of the world was caught up in a sweep of progress and industry, Utenheim was a remote old-world village. There, things like werewolf legends still persisted. And so, the idea of being haunted by some sort of accursed zoo, well, it sounded perfectly feasible to them. At least to most of them. While the whole town was buying into Joseph's claims, there were two teenage boys who weren't so convinced. No, Xavier and, well, forgive me for this pronunciation, but Bousflug, didn't see cause for alarm. But what they did see was the opportunity to play one heck of a prank. The duo started creeping around Utenheim and scaring the gullible villagers.

• 27:25Aaron Mahnke?

  They even lurked outside Joseph's cottage at night, pretending to be the animals that he so feared. And look, these kids weren't exactly subtle about it either. Everyone knew what they were up to, Joseph included. But rather than dismiss them as just a couple of bored kids, Joseph came to a different conclusion. Xavier and Bousflug must be evil sorcerers. One night, the boys were up to their old tricks, making weird noises outside the policeman's house, when it all became too much for Joseph to bear. And so, he flung open the back door of his cottage, stepped out into the night, and fired a single shot right through Xavier's heart. And in that moment, the fun was over.

• 28:08Aaron Mahnke?

  It wasn't long before Joseph Sir was arrested for the teenager's murder. On trial, he pled self-defense against a sorcerer who tormented him with spectral animals, a defense I can't imagine his lawyer was too stoked about. But here's the thing, he didn't make that claim alone. The entire town came out in support of Joseph. One after another, community members took the stand and insisted that yes, the two boys did have, and I quote, "the power of turning themselves into animals and passing through keyholes." One witness even claimed that he had seen Joseph Sir strike down a cat, only for 25 more cats to immediately spring out of the earth.

• 28:52Aaron Mahnke?

  A number of Utenheim residents were worked up into such a state that they had to be removed from the courtroom. And let me remind you, folks, this was 1925. A few hours' drive from Paris, Josephine Baker was boogying in a banana skirt on the stages of Paris. In Utenheim, things were bananas in a very different way, though. Suffice to say, the case was weird enough that it made international headlines. Commentators were honestly shocked to learn that such superstitions still existed. As one writer put it, "The incident was," and I quote, "proof of the survival in a civilized and educated countryside of beliefs which spring from the dawn of the human mind."

• 29:36Aaron Mahnke?

  Ultimately, Joseph Sir was found guilty of killing Xavier. He did shoot the boy, after all, there's no denying that. What was his punishment? Why, that would be a whopping two years in prison. Yes, you heard that right. Apparently, the jury was lenient due to what they referred to as extenuating circumstances.

• 30:11Aaron Mahnke?

  This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Jenna Rose Nethercot, research by Cassandra De Alba, and music by Chad Lawson. My brand-new history book, Exhumed, is a big hit, and it is available in hardcover ebook and an audio version narrated by me. Exhumed explores the strange and twisted roots of the New England vampire panic and its star player, Mercy Brown. Grab your copy today over at aaronmahnke.com/exhumed. If you don't like hearing ads on Lore, there's a paid version of the show that's available on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, and it's 100% ad-free. Subscribers there also get weekly mini-bonus episodes that we call Lore Bites, and Patreon members also get discounts on Lore merch and access to my inbox.

• 30:55Aaron Mahnke?

  Learn more over at lorepodcast.com/support. You can also follow the show on YouTube Threads, Blue Sky, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.

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