>>510660484>simple moral storiesThat's a gross underestimation, because the metaphors are often extremely dense and specific. Vampires and Werewolves and their relationship to jews and other degenerates goes deeper than "bad people try to trick you at night".
The wolf monster common to european fables is not simply the "savage" who is "uncivilized" the wolf (and in fables there is no modern RPG distinction between the werewolf and the wolf) is the one who can cross boundaries to do what should not be done. He's the one that "violates boundaries" or "transgresses". He crosses the boundary of Man and Woman, family and stranger, brute and thinking being, truth and lies, he disguises his voice, and of course he transgresses the sexual boundaries of age and of violence. The red cloak, the flowers, the food, the path, the grandmother, these aren't random faff or cultural flotsam, stories that survive many centuries are generally rich in symbolism.
The bear in these sorts of fables is also an "uncivilized" man, a man who transforms, who can travel between "this world" (civilization) and the "other world" (the forest) but he is largely a positive figure if a stern one, a figure representing a kind of guardian of the boundary and of the laws of both worlds. Don't go where you don't belong, don't cross the boundaries and meddle with what you shouldn't, etc etc.
More than once the young girl who would be torn to pieces by the wolf marries the bear.