The Lycan Gate ...

For this week's Sunday Challenge which had the theme of liminal spaces

Don't worry if that doesn't mean much to you as I wasn't sure what it meant either. However, it appears there are two definitions. It can be of, or relating to, a transitional or initial stage of a process, but it can also relate to occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

Torn between the two options, perhaps even stuck in my own liminal space I decided to create a fantasy image that would combine the two definitions.

I began with a photograph I shot recently at Harlow Carr in Harrogate of a wooden archway in the children's adventure playground. It seemed rather magical looking to me so I decided this could well be a portal to another realm hidden deep within some ancient forest.

A special place marked by the magnificent wooden arch, which marks the boundary between the world we know and the other that we believe to be simply one of folklore: a place where fairies dance and pixies play; a place where lycans might not only go to transform, but where their wolfen spirits could roam free.

To get there though I've done a fair bit of processing to my original image, which can be found in the Notes, all designed to turn it from a bright daytime shot into something darker.

All my own work with the exception of the wolf, which I sourced from nobacks although even that has been transformed somewhat (no pun intended)!

Please view large on black for best effect.

A Little More About Werewolves ...

A werewolf or lycanthrope is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to transform themselves into a wolf or a wolf-like creature. Sometimes this ability might have been acquired as a result of a curse, whilst others supposedly gain it from having been bitten/scratched by another lycan.

One of the first movies to focus on the werewolf was the 1941 film "The Wolf Man", which starred Lon Chaney, Jr. as the unfortunate Lawrence Talbot and this catapulted the werewolf into public consciousness.

In the decades that followed similarly sympathetic portrayals were indeed rare with most werewolves being depicted as fierce and uncontrollable monsters ... the stuff indeed of nightmares.

There were exceptions though, most notably the comedic "An American Werewolf in London". Released in 1981 it was directed by John Landis and has become a cult classic. More recently though the werewolves, or lycans, have gone from being portrayed as malevolent monsters to friendly even heroic creatures, such as has been the case with the "Underworld" and "Twilight" franchises.