Historical Development of Silver Bullet Theory
As far back as ancient Greece, silver has had a long standing reputation for warding off evil. Starting in the 1700s, tradition held that the silver bullet in particular would ward off werewolves, witches and other monsters.
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Werewolves, Witches and More
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Early folklore maintains that werewolves only die when shot with a silver bullet. This myth likely dates to the Beast of Gévaudan, a wolf-like creature killed by Jean Chastel in 1767. By 1884, the effectiveness of silver bullets spread to stories about other evil creatures, such as the witch killed by two silver buttons shot from a gun in the Brothers Grimm tale, "The Two Brothers."
The Lone Ranger
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The title character in "The Lone Ranger," a popular radio and television show that began in 1933, decides to use silver bullets after stumbling across a lost silver mine. The bullets served to remind him that life was too valuable to waste unnecessarily.
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Silver Bullet Solutions
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As a modern idiom, a silver bullet refers to a quick and effective solution to a problem. During World War I, the United Kingdom issued war bonds with the name "Silver Bullets." In 1930, Harry Craddock developed the silver bullet cocktail, a mixed alcoholic beverage made of gin, lemon juice and kummel.
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References
- Photo Credit Werewolf Howl image by Infs from Fotolia.com
