In subtill sorte he conuayed himselfe.

He led this life a long time, wild and villainous, sometimes a wolf, sometimes a man, sometimes about town or in the city, other times haunting the woods and hedgerows.

The German account mentions the occasion he met a woman and a pair of men on the way; he greatly desired the woman, but feared the three of them would be too much even for him. So, the better to win his prize, he did this: he chose a spot on their path, and crouched down low out of sight; when he sighted the party - but not they him - he called out the name of one of the men, whom he knew. That man, hearing his name called from among the leaves and assuming a friend was beckoning him hither, he went among the trees, but found instead Stubbe Peeter in his other form, who sprang upon him and quickly took his life.

The second of the men was curious to learn what had delayed his fellow so long in the woods there, and went among the leaves to find him, but to find his death. When both her companions vanished in the green, the woman took fright and fled; she ran as hard and fast as she could, but despite her best efforts and the goodness of her soul, the wolf overtook her on his swift paws and bounded upon her. He deflowered her there and then, and piteously murdered her.

The men mangled were found, but of the woman, not a scrap or rag was ever discovered, so completely had Stubbe Peeter devoured her.

Notes.

'the occasion he met a woman and a pair of men on the way'. This story marks a tonal shift towards a genre that was to flourish during the 17th and 18th centuries, the broadsheet, chapbook and ballad celebration of the clever and skilled villain. The focus here is not so much the horror of the crimes, but the murderer's cunning.

A lot of what we have read so far rings true to our ears, because we have our own, naturalistic genres of crime literature and popular art. However, and as criticism of recent film and television representations of Dahmer and Bundy underline, the chapbook is not that far below the surface, and the moral concern now is not very different from moral concern then. We are just not very far removed from The Begger's Opera and The Newgate Calendar, as indeed Brecht and Weill understood.

Nick Hart's interpretation of a ballad in this tradition has a very authentic feel and setting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3--3RefShQ

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Paul Summers Young

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