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60-407: The story is set in the fictional town of Tarker's Mills, Maine. Each chapter is a month on the calendar. A werewolf is viciously killing local citizens at each full moon , and the otherwise normal town is living in fear. The protagonist of the story is Marty Coslaw, a 10-year-old boy in a wheelchair. The story goes back and forth from the terrifying incidents to Marty's youthful day-to-day life and how

120-433: A cemetery on Sunshine Hill months prior to his first transformation. He went to put them in vases at the church vestry, but they turned black and died before he could finish the relatively quick job. He has no reason to pinpoint this event as the beginning of his curse, but he believes that this was the beginning of the events. As the werewolf, he serves as the primary antagonist of the novella. Lowe comes to realize that he

180-502: A cheap motel. After returning home, he decides to find out whom he attacked in July, and confront that person. Marty eventually signs his name to the last letter he sends in December, shortly before the next full moon. Lowe is killed by Marty on New Year's Eve . The story started out as a calendar by Zavista with illustrations by renowned comic-book artist Bernie Wrightson . Each month featured

240-493: A custodian, dead on the pulpit at his church. He is seen as a pillar of the community and has been viewed that way for years, coming to call Tarker's Mills home. Lowe has not been a werewolf his entire life, nor has he been a werewolf since he first arrived in Tarker's Mills. In fact, it is never explained (nor that he has any idea) about how he became a werewolf, but he suspects that it has something to do with some flowers he picked at

300-573: A different time zone . The full moon is generally a suboptimal time for astronomical observation of the Moon because shadows vanish. It is a poor time for other observations because the bright sunlight reflected by the Moon, amplified by the opposition surge , then outshines many stars. There are eight phases of the moon, which vary from partial to full illumination. The moon phases are also called lunar phases . These stages have different names that come from its shape and size at each phase. For example,

360-414: A drawing by Wrightson complete with a short vignette by King. King found the size of the vignettes, which were both small and extremely limited, to be a problem. King proceeded with a short novel and had it published by Land of Enchantment in 1983, complete with Wrightson's illustrations. In the author's notes at the end of the book, King admits to taking liberties with the lunar cycle . For example, if

420-414: A full moon and the next repetition of the same phase, a synodic month , averages about 29.53 days. Because of irregularities in the moon's orbit, the new and full moons may fall up to thirteen hours either side of their mean. If the calendar date is not locally determined through observation of the new moon at the beginning of the month there is the potential for a further twelve hours difference depending on

480-542: A full moon was on New Year's Day, another one would not occur on Valentine's Day, but these dates are widely recognized in January and February. He explains that this was done to focus the relevant months more clearly in the readers' minds. Dave Langford reviewed Cycle of the Werewolf for White Dwarf #72, writing, "This is of course a werewolf yarn, competently told despite wearying heaps of bodies before we get any actual plot;

540-570: A full moon, whereas the study conducted by the public hospitals in Australia found that they were less likely. The symbol of the Triple Goddess is drawn with the circular image of the full moon in the center flanked by a left facing crescent and right facing crescent, on either side, representing a maiden, mother and crone archetype. Historically, month names are names of moons ( lunations , not necessarily full moons) in lunisolar calendars . Since

600-581: A list of full moon names that it said "were named by our early English ancestors as follows": Winter Moons: Moon after Yule, Wolf Moon, Lenten Moon Spring Moons: Egg Moon, Milk Moon, Flower Moon Summer Moons: Hay Moon, Grain Moon, Fruit Moon Fall Moons: Harvest Moon, Hunter's Moon, Moon before Yule It also mentioned blue moon . These were considered in some quarters to be Native American full moon names, and some were adopted by colonial Americans . The Farmers' Almanac (since 1955 published in Maine, but not

660-520: A list of twelve moons with Indian and English names. While I cannot contradict so positive and minute a statement of one so thoroughly in a position to know, I must assert with equal positiveness that I have never met any wild Indians, of the Sioux or other Plains tribes, who had a permanent, common, conventional name for any moon. The looseness of Belden's general statement, that "Indians compute time like white people," when his only particularization of similarity

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720-410: A result of the non-circularity of the Moon's orbit. See New moon for an explanation of the formula and its parameters. The age and apparent size of the full moon vary in a cycle of just under 14 synodic months , which has been referred to as a full moon cycle . When the Moon moves into Earth's shadow , a lunar eclipse occurs, during which all or part of the Moon's face may appear reddish due to

780-402: Is "the extralegal prevention, investigation, or punishment of offenses." The definition has three components: Other scholars have defined "collective vigilantism" as "group violence to punish perceived offenses to a community." Les Johnston argues that vigilantism has six necessary components: Vigilantism and the vigilante ethos existed long before the word vigilante was introduced into

840-485: Is a difference among authorities as to whether or not the moons themselves are named. Brown gives names for nine moons corresponding to months. Maximillian gives the names of twelve moons; and Belden, who lived many years among the Sioux, asserts that "the Indians compute their time very much as white men do, only they use moons instead of months to designate the seasons, each answering to some month in our calendar." Then follows

900-468: Is between the months and moons, is in itself sufficient to render the whole statement questionable. My experience is that the Indian, in attempting to fix on a particular moon, will designate it by some natural and well-known phenomenon which culminates during that moon. But two Indians of the same tribe may fix on different designations; and even the same Indian, on different occasions, may give different names to

960-476: Is mostly restricted to this plane of reference . Lunar eclipses happen only when the full moon occurs around either node of its orbit (ascending or descending). Therefore, a lunar eclipse occurs about every six months, and often two weeks before or after a solar eclipse , which occurs during a new moon around the opposite node. In Buddhism, Vesak is celebrated on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month, marking

1020-646: Is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon. They find that studies are generally not consistent, with some showing a positive effect and others showing a negative effect. In one instance, the 23 December 2000 issue of the British Medical Journal published two studies on dog bite admission to hospitals in England and Australia. The study of the Bradford Royal Infirmary found that dog bites were twice as common during

1080-466: Is not an indigenous idea, but borrowed from the whites. Jonathan Carver's list of purportedly Native American month names was adopted in the 19th century by the Improved Order of Red Men , an all-white U.S. fraternal organization. They called the month of January "Cold moon", the rest being Snow, Worm, Plant, Flower, Hot, Buck, Sturgeon, Corn, Travelling, Beaver and Hunting moon. They numbered years from

1140-660: Is noted in the dates of Passover and Easter in Judaism and Christianity, respectively. Passover falls on the full moon on 15 Nisan of the Hebrew calendar. The date of the Jewish Rosh Hashana and Sukkot festivals along with all other Jewish holidays are dependent on the dates of the new moons. In lunisolar calendars, an intercalary month occurs seven times in the 19 years of the Metonic cycle , or on average every 2.7 years (19/7). In

1200-434: Is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority . A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice without commission. The term is borrowed from Italian vigilante , which means 'sentinel' or 'watcher', from Latin vigilāns . According to political scientist Regina Bateson, vigilantism

1260-573: Is the full moon following it. The names are recorded from the early 18th century. The Oxford English Dictionary entry for "harvest moon" cites a 1706 reference, and for "hunter's moon" a 1710 edition of The British Apollo , which attributes the term to "the country people" ("The Country People call this the Hunters-Moon.") The names became traditional in American folklore , where they are now often popularly attributed to Native Americans . The Feast of

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1320-428: Is the person whom he attacked in July and failed to kill, the person who blasted his left eye out. In November, he acknowledges that he is the werewolf and decides that he cannot risk going out in the woods, as he could be killed by the group of vigilantes who had taken to the woods that month. To avoid the vigilantes , he travels to Portland, where he coincidentally kills Tarker's Mills resident Milt Sturmfuller outside

1380-557: Is the werewolf after having awakened with fresh blood on his fingernails and (to his horror) mouth. He also discovers his clothes are missing or sometimes finds scratches and bruises, which appear to have come from running through the woods. The nightmare in May serves as a further omen to his curse, but he does not fully realize his curse until July 5, when he awakens with his left eye blasted out. After Halloween , he began getting anonymous letters from someone who knows his secret, suspecting that it

1440-803: The Hebrew calendar this is noted with a periodic extra month of Adar in the early spring. Before the days of good street lighting and car headlights, several organisations arranged their meetings for full moon, so that it would be easier for their members to walk, or ride home. Examples include the Lunar Society of Birmingham , several Masonic societies, including Warren Lodge No. 32 , USA and Masonic Hall, York , Western Australia, and several New Zealand local authorities , including Awakino , Ohura and Whangarei County Councils and Maori Hill and Wanganui East Borough Councils. Vigilantism Vigilantism ( / v ɪ dʒ ɪ ˈ l æ n t ɪ z əm / )

1500-541: The Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180° ). This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth—the near side —is completely sunlit and appears as an approximately circular disk. The full moon occurs roughly once a month. The time interval between

1560-508: The Rayleigh scattering of blue wavelengths and the refraction of sunlight through Earth's atmosphere . Lunar eclipses happen only during a full moon and around points on its orbit where the satellite may pass through the planet's shadow. A lunar eclipse does not occur every month because the Moon's orbit is inclined 5.145° with respect to the ecliptic plane of Earth; thus, the Moon usually passes north or south of Earth's shadow, which

1620-552: The English language. There are conceptual parallels between the medieval aristocratic custom of private war or vendetta and the modern vigilante philosophy. Elements of the concept of vigilantism can be found in the biblical account in Genesis 34 of the abduction and rape (or, by some interpretations, seduction) of Dinah , the daughter of Jacob , in the Canaanite city of Shechem by

1680-528: The Hunters' Moon is a yearly festival in West Lafayette, Indiana , held in late September or early October each year since 1968. In 2010 the harvest moon occurred on the night of the equinox itself (some 5 1 ⁄ 2 hours after the moment of equinox) for the first time since 1991, after a period known as the Metonic cycle . All full moons rise around the time of sunset. Since the Moon moves eastward among

1740-434: The Moon's color. Clear skies often enhance the yellow or golden appearance, particularly during the autumn months when these full moons are observed. Lunar eclipses occur only at a full moon and often cause a reddish hue on the near side of the Moon . This full moon has been called a blood moon in popular culture. The "harvest moon" and the "hunter's moon" are traditional names for the full moons in late summer and in

1800-451: The US, after appearing on television regularly. In 1985, Signet Books re-issued Cycle of the Werewolf under the title Silver Bullet in an edition that included King's screenplay alongside the original novella. This edition also includes a foreword by King, recounting the impetus of the novella and the background of the film adaptation. Full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when

1860-600: The autumn in the Northern Hemisphere , usually in September and October, respectively. People may celebrate these occurrences in festivities such as the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival . The "harvest moon" (also known as the "barley moon" or "full corn moon") is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox (22 or 23 September), occurring anytime within two weeks before or after that date. The "hunter's moon"

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1920-466: The beast's other eye. After the wolf dies, it changes back into Reverend Lowe, much to the shock of everyone present. Reverend Lester Lowe , the werewolf, is first mentioned in the story in April, preaching a sermon about the coming of spring. Around May, he has a nightmare in which his entire congregation—and then he himself—transform into werewolves before he awakens. The next morning, he finds Clyde Corliss,

1980-505: The birth, enlightenment, and the death of the Buddha. In Arabic, badr (بدر ) means 'full moon', but it is often translated as 'white moon', referring to The White Days , the three days when the full moon is celebrated. Full moons are traditionally associated with insomnia (inability to sleep), insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic ) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy . Psychologists, however, have found that there

2040-427: The crescent moon is 'banana' shaped, and the half-moon is D-shaped. When the moon is nearly full, it is called a gibbous moon. The crescent and gibbous moons each last approximately a week. Each phase is also described in accordance to its position on the full 29.5-day cycle. The eight phases of the moon in order: The date and approximate time of a specific full moon (assuming a circular orbit) can be calculated from

2100-656: The eponymous son of the ruler, and the violent reaction of her brothers Simeon and Levi , who slew all of the males of the city in revenge, rescued their sister and plundered Shechem. When Jacob protested that their actions might bring trouble upon him and his family, the brothers replied "Should he [i.e., Shechem] treat our sister as a harlot?" In the Western literary and cultural tradition, characteristics of vigilantism have often been vested in folkloric heroes and outlaws (e.g., Robin Hood ). During medieval times, punishment of felons

2160-493: The first lunar month after the winter solstice could be called the Wolf, Quiet, Snow, Cold, Chaste or Disting Moon, or the Moon of Little Winter. For the last lunar month Conway offered the names Cold, Oak or Wolf Moon, or Moon of Long Nights, Long Night's Moon, Aerra Geola (Month Before Yule), Wintermonat (Winter Month), Heilagmanoth (Holy Month), Big Winter Moon, Moon of Popping Trees. Conway did not cite specific sources for most of

2220-457: The following equation: where d is the number of days since 1 January 2000 00:00:00 in the Terrestrial Time scale used in astronomical ephemerides ; for Universal Time (UT) add the following approximate correction to d : where N is the number of full moons since the first full moon of 2000. The true time of a full moon may differ from this approximation by up to about 14.5 hours as

2280-528: The full moons of autumn. The golden or reddish hue of the Harvest Moon and other full moons near the horizon is caused by atmospheric scattering. When the Moon is low in the sky, its light passes through a thicker layer of Earth's atmosphere, scattering shorter wavelengths like blue and violet and allowing longer wavelengths, such as red and yellow, to dominate. This effect, combined with environmental factors such as dust, pollutants, or haze, can intensify or dull

2340-472: The horror affects him. The werewolf's first victim is a railroad worker stuck in a tool-and-signal shack during a New Year's Day blizzard. Next is a woman in her bedroom who is depressed over not having a man on Valentine's Day, followed by a drifter on St. Patrick's, one of Marty's friends in the city park on April Fools, the janitor of the Grace Baptist Church on Homecoming Sunday in May, the owner of

2400-535: The individual tribal groups they were supposedly associated with. Haddock supposes that certain "Colonial American" moon names were adopted from Algonquian languages (which were formerly spoken in the territory of New England), while others are based in European tradition (e.g. the Colonial American names for the May moon, "Milk Moon", "Mother's Moon", "Hare Moon" have no parallels in the supposed native names, while

2460-448: The intercalation system used. Because a calendar month consists of a whole number of days, a month in a lunar calendar may be either 29 or 30 days long. A full moon is often thought of as an event of a full night's duration, although its phase seen from Earth continuously waxes or wanes, and is full only at the instant when waxing ends and waning begins. For any given location, about half of these maximum full moons may be visible, while

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2520-654: The introduction of the solar Julian calendar in the Roman Empire, and later the Gregorian calendar worldwide, people no longer perceive month names as "moon" names. The traditional Old English month names were equated with the names of the Julian calendar from an early time, soon after Christianization , according to the testimony of Bede around AD 700. Some full moons have developed new names in modern times, such as " blue moon ", as well as "harvest moon" and "hunter's moon" for

2580-488: The local Baptist preacher, wearing an eyepatch, and he realizes that the Reverend is the monster. However, Lowe does not recognize Marty, as his face is covered by a Yoda mask. Marty, whose family is Catholic , never attend services at Lowe's church, which is why he did not work out the werewolf's identity sooner. Over the next few weeks, Marty sends the pastor anonymous letters asking him why he does not kill himself and end

2640-528: The name of November, "Beaver Moon" is supposedly based in an Algonquian language). Many other names have been reported. These have passed into modern mythology, either as full-moon names, or as names for lunar months. Deanna J. Conway's Moon Magick: Myth & Magick, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells (1995) gave as headline names for the lunar months (from January): Wolf, Ice, Storm, Growing, Hare, Mead, Hay, Corn, Harvest, Blood, Snow, Cold. Conway also gave multiple alternative names for each month, e.g.

2700-404: The names of the full moons as such, but were the names of lunar months beginning with each new moon . According to Jonathan Carver in 1778, "Some nations among them reckon their years by moons, and make them consist of twelve synodical or lunar months, observing, when thirty moons have waned, to add a supernumerary one, which they term the lost moon; and then begin to count as before." Carver gave

2760-603: The names of the lunar months (starting from the first after the March equinox ) as Worm, Plants, Flowers, Hot, Buck, Sturgeon, Corn, Travelling, Beaver, Hunting, Cold, Snow. Carver's account was reproduced verbatim in Events in Indian History (1841), but completely different lists were given by Eugene Vetromile (1856) and Peter Jones (1861). In a book on Native American culture published in 1882, Richard Irving Dodge stated: There

2820-421: The names she listed, but some have gained wider currency as full-moon names, such as Pink Moon for a full moon in April, Long Night's Moon for the last in December and Ice Moon for the first full moon of January or February. In Hinduism, most festivals are celebrated on auspicious days. Many Hindu festivals are celebrated on days with a full moon night, called the purnima . Different parts of India celebrate

2880-498: The next, as seen from about 40° N or S latitude (because the full moon of September 2007 rose in the northeast rather than in the east). Hence, no long period of darkness occurred between sunset and moonrise for several days after the full moon, thus lengthening the time in the evening when there is enough twilight and moonlight to work to get the harvest in. Various 18th and 19th century writers gave what were claimed to be Native American or First Nations moon names. These were not

2940-662: The other half occurs during the day, when the full moon is below the horizon. As the Moon's orbit is inclined by 5.145° from the ecliptic, it is not generally perfectly opposite from the Sun during full phase, therefore a full moon is in general not perfectly full except on nights with a lunar eclipse as the Moon crosses the ecliptic at opposition from the Sun. Many almanacs list full moons not only by date, but also by their exact time, usually in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Typical monthly calendars that include lunar phases may be offset by one day when prepared for

3000-539: The rest of his family is asleep, the werewolf attacks Marty, who manages to put out the monster's left eye with a package of firecrackers . The werewolf escapes and police ignore Marty's report because they are looking for a human murderer, not a werewolf. Marty is sent away to Vermont to stay with family for the rest of the summer. As the year continues, the bloodshed occurs again every full moon. Fall comes and so does Halloween . To celebrate, Marty goes trick-or-treating with his father. While out, he sees Reverend Lowe,

3060-435: The same festival with different names, as listed below: Most pre-modern calendars the world over were lunisolar , combining the solar year with the lunation by means of intercalary months . The Julian calendar abandoned this method in favour of a purely solar reckoning while conversely the 7th-century Islamic calendar opted for a purely lunar one. A continuing lunisolar calendar is the Hebrew calendar . Evidence of this

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3120-423: The same moon. Thus, an Indian of the middle Plains will to-day designate a spring moon as "the moon when corn is planted;" to-morrow, speaking of the same moon, he may call it "the moon when the buffalo comes." Moreover, though there are thirteen moons in our year, no observer has ever given an Indian name to the thirteenth. My opinion is, that if any of the wild tribes have given conventional names to twelve moons, it

3180-465: The same publication as the Maine Farmers' Almanac ) continues to print such names. Such names have gained currency in American folklore . They appeared in print more widely outside of the almanac tradition from the 1990s in popular publications about the Moon. Mysteries of the Moon by Patricia Haddock ("Great Mysteries Series", Greenhaven Press, 1992) gave an extensive list of such names along with

3240-400: The stars faster than the Sun, lunar culmination is delayed by about 50.47 minutes (on average) each day, thus causing moonrise to occur later each day. Due to the high lunar standstill , the harvest and hunter's moons of 2007 were special because the time difference between moonrises on successive evenings was much shorter than average. The moon rose about 30 minutes later from one night to

3300-400: The terror. In December, he sends the last letter—signed with his name. Unbeknownst to Reverend Lowe, Marty has convinced his somewhat reluctant uncle to have two silver bullets made and to come spend New Year's Eve (which falls on the full moon) with him. Right before midnight, the werewolf breaks into the house to kill Marty. Marty shoots the werewolf twice with the silver bullets, blowing out

3360-551: The time of Columbus's arrival in America. In The American Boy's Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols (1918), Daniel Carter Beard wrote: "The Indians' Moons naturally vary in the different parts of the country, but by comparing them all and striking an average as near as may be, the moons are reduced to the following." He then gave a list that had two names for each lunar month, again quite different from earlier lists that had been published. The 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac published

3420-407: The time zone. Potential discrepancies also arise from whether the calendar day is considered to begin in the evening or at midnight. It is normal for the full moon to fall on the fourteenth or the fifteenth of the month according to whether the start of the month is reckoned from the appearance of the new moon or from the conjunction. A tabular lunar calendar will also exhibit variations depending on

3480-542: The town's only diner, the town constable while he sits in his pickup truck, a herd of hogs at a local farm on Labor Day, and finally an abusive husband around Thanksgiving. In July, the town's Independence Day fireworks have been cancelled. This is very upsetting to Marty, who has been looking forward to them all year. Feeling bad for his nephew, Marty's uncle brings him some fireworks, warning Marty to set them off really late so his mother will not find out. While outside enjoying his own private Independence Day celebration as

3540-513: The triumph of the cute, crippled kid detective over Incarnate Evil comes as no surprise. OK, but expensive for a short story." The novella was adapted into a film, Silver Bullet , in 1985, starring Corey Haim as Marty, Everett McGill as Reverend Lowe, Gary Busey as Marty's uncle, Megan Follows as Marty's sister, Terry O'Quinn as the local sheriff, Kent Broadhurst as Brady's father, and James Gammon as Arnie Westrum. The movie received mixed reviews and it has since achieved cult status in

3600-809: Was sometimes exercised by such secret societies as the courts of the Vehm ( cf. the medieval Sardinian Gamurra later become Barracelli , the Sicilian Vendicatori and the Beati Paoli ), a type of early vigilante organization, which became extremely powerful in Westphalian Germany during the 15th century. In some regions of Mexico, mainly in the state of Michoacan , people affected by criminal groups like Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana , created vigilante groups called Grupos de autodefensa comunitaria in 2013. Their most notorious leader Hipólito Mora ,

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