#skinrunner

Entirely random information, but I know some people aren’t comfortable with using the word skinwalker so in case you’re ever looking for a similar alternative word for werewolf, there’s the old Danish word skinrunner (skindløber). The name comes from the belief that the cursed person would suddenly get en uncontrollable desire to run as fast as they could, and as they cut their skin on rocks and branches it would fall off and reveal the wolf within.

Another old Danish word is marewolf (marulv) which is a specific type of werewolf and a play on the usual word varulv. These types of werewolves were the side effect of their mother crawling thought the uterus of a slaughtered horse during a full moon as a magic ritual to make the birth painless (horses were believed to have the most painless birth of all). If she had a boy he’d become a murderous werewolf and if she had a daughter she’d become a mare, one of the nightmare demons who sit on sleeping people’s chests and cause sleep paralysis and bad dreams (the Danish word for nightmare is mareridt, which literally means “mare riding”). Both werewolves and mares were normal people during the day and monsters during the night. Marewolf is of course the to words put together.

Skinrunner is probably the more attractive word but I thought I’d give you both just in case.