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Could be worse: The Beast of Gévaudan and the French ‘Werewolf’ epidemic


An image depicting an attack by La Bête du Gévaudan, or The Beast of Gévaudan, a predator believed to be a werewolf in France in the mid-1700s.

So before you start to think I’ve completely lost my mind, you should know a 67-page academic paper on the history of killer lycanthropes or some sort of man-eating wolf exists. And, much like any reasonable person, you are probably ready to chalk it all up to storytellers spinning yarns about the messed-up hairy shit that happens when the moon is full. The paper cites a few historical examples of werewolf tall tales such as a story from Scotland about two children who were killed by a wolf in 1743. The problem here is that wolves had been extinct there since 1660. The French Werewolf Epidemic (1520-1630) was France’s version of Europe’s witch trials and executions, but with werewolves. For 110 years, 30 thousand people were accused of being werewolves, tortured in exchange for their confessions, or lack of admission of guilt and died at the stake. Of the many examples of accused werewolfery is of Jacques Rollet, dubbed the Werewolf of Chazes. Rollet lured a fifteen-year-old boy to the woods where he murdered and ate his body. When he was tried for his crime, he confessed to having done the same to other locals, specifically employees of the court system such as lawyers and attorneys. Rollet got the death sentence (like pretty much everyone else back then) but ended up in an insane asylum.

As it pertains to France, the country’s history with wolf-related mythology is long and rich with stories such as the La Bête du Gévaudan, or The Beast of Gévaudan, which for three years terrorized the area. The first attack occurred in April of 1764, and the victim, a young woman tending her flock of sheep, described her assailant as looking “like a wolf, yet not a wolf.” She survived when her sheep went into action, defending the teenage girl from the Beast. Two months later, another young girl, Jeanne Boulet, was attacked and killed by what the residents of Gévaudan thought to be a natural predator, given the fact Boulet was also tending a flock of sheep. Two more fatal attacks would follow within a matter of weeks, both young field workers, a girl, age fifteen, and a boy age sixteen. This would be the start of more than 100 documented fatal attacks in Gévaudan in which most of the victims were partially eaten. The residents of Gévaudan would take up arms, and large rewards were offered for the capture or killing of The Beast of Gévaudan. Experienced hunters and even groups of children would go out in search of the Beast and return with stories of battling a giant wolf (noted in the book Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast). One such incident describes the wolf attacking a group of young children, five boys and two girls in a bog where they were playing. The wolf preyed on the youngest of the group, an eight-year-old boy who he clenched in his massive jaws as the kids attacked the wolf with their make-believe weapons (in this time period, pretend bayonets), finally getting the animal/manimal to release their friend.
 

A woman trying to fight off The Beast.

 
Once the news reached the ears of Louis XV, he offered up his own bounty in exchange for the Beast’s head in 1765. After Marie-Jeanne Valet warded off an attack by the Beast while out on the countryside with her sister, Louis XV’s personal gunman (noted to be 71 at the time in The Beast of Gevaudan: La Bete du Gevaudan) went in search of the Beast with a few other men. In September 1765, François Antoine, King Louis’ right hand of the hunt, shot the “Wolf of Chazes,” which was stuffed and put on display in Versailles.
 

The stuffed ‘Beast’ delivered to Louis XV.
 
Suddenly, the suspected werewolf killings stopped, only to start again in December and again in the summer of 1767. This inspired the local authorities to start using the term “monster” (a shape “contrary to nature”) to further describe the wild assailant with a penchant for decapitating its victims. Soon, Marquis d’Apcher, a wealthy local resident, took up the charge to hunt down the Beast. d’Apcher was able to shoot the Beast, and, according to legend, ended up entangled with the wolf. Finally, one of the guards on the trip with d’Apcher fired the kill-shot. The Beast’s stomach was filled with human remains and, by all posthumous accounts, did not look anything like a typical wolf. They were also able to ascertain that the animal was solely responsible for 95% of the attacks on humans from 1764 to 1767. Yikes.

So what was Beast of Gévaudan? As werewolves sadly don’t exist (BOO!), speculation as to what kind of animal the Beast was range from a hyena, or perhaps some sort of terrifying lion/wolf hybrid. Sorry if you were, like me, hoping for a medieval wolf-version of Oliver Reed creating all kind of mayhem around the French countryside

A few images of the fabled Beast of Gévaudan follow.
 

An illustration of the Beast as a wolf/lion hybrid.
 

The Beast as a hyena.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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08.26.2020
10:54 am
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They live? Vampires, werewolves & more mythological creatures from the Cryptid Museum
02.14.2017
01:51 pm
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‘Werewolf’ specimens or Homo Lupus/Lycanthrope by artist Alex CF.

The fascinating photos you see here of the all-too-realistic looking remains of vampires, werewolves, and everyone’s favorite mythological creature Cthulhu, are actually the creations of London-based artist, illustrator, and sculptor Alex CF. Alex’s bizarre cabinets of curiosity are chock full of authentic-looking artifacts that would even make the most skeptical among us question their legitimacy.

At the website for the fictional Merrylin Cryptid Museum Alex tells the story of Thomas Merrilyn—who the artist cleverly refers to as a “Crypto-naturalist, Fringe Zoologist and Xeno -Archeologist.” According to Alex, he has been entrusted with the care and curation of the oddities that were found in the basement of a home in London in 2006. Here’s more on that:

In 2006, a trust was set up to analyze and collate a huge number of wooden crates found sealed in the basement of a London townhouse that was due for demolition. Seemingly untouched since the 1940′s, the crates contained over 5000 specimens of flora and fauna, collected, dissected, and preserved by many forgotten scientists, professors, and explorers of obscure cultures and species. The collection also housed many artifacts of curious origin, fragments of civilizations that once ruled the earth, of ideas and belief systems perhaps better left in the past.

The various mythological “specimens” that were found were attributed to Merrilyn who had traveled the “four corners of the earth” in search of evidence that would help support the existence of dragons, and other types of oddities such as goblins and a preserved baby werewolf. The backstory on each discovery is so detailed it seems a shame to debunk it. The same goes for the “specimens” and “artifacts” that Alex has created which are so impeccable that they almost seem to demand you believe in them. There are over 50 categories of specimens on virtual display over at the Cryptid Museum that will leave you scratching your head and perhaps reconsidering the idea that werewolves aren’t real. I’ve included a stellar array of Alex CF’s incredibly imaginative work for you to check out below. Though they are pieces of art, much of what follows is NSFW. 
 

Cthulhu specimens and artifacts.
 

The remains and artifacts attributed to Rasputin, the mystical advisor to Czar Nicholas II of Russia.
 

The mummified remains of Maria Rosenthal who conceived a child via immaculate conception in 1942 by Sister Josephine Rosenthal.
 
More mythical monsters and creatures after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.14.2017
01:51 pm
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Famous movie monsters & other ghouls carrying around hot chicks
10.27.2016
10:10 am
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Actor Glenn Strange (as Frankenstein’s monster) carrying away actress Ann Blyth dressed up as a mermaid for the 1948 film ‘Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.’
 
I’m pretty much laser-focused when it comes to this time of year on maybe three things—watching more horror films than I usually do, breaking out my copy of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 1996 album Murder Ballads, and of course watching more horror movies than usual. October is a little slice of heaven for yours truly as I’m a die-hard ghoulish kind of girl.

So as I was deep in the trenches with very important “work related” Internet research about who knows what (though it likely involved Satan and/or rock and roll) when I found a still from the 1968 film La Marca del Hombre Lobo (or “Mark of the Wolfman”).

Mark of the Wolfman starred Paul Naschy (the stage name of actor, director and writer Jacinto Molina) who was affectionately nicknamed the “Spanish Lon Chaney.” But in that picture, he was holding a frightened chick. And that sent me down a completely different rabbit hole…

I thought it would be fun to show you a load of images of famous (and maybe some not-so-famous) movie ghouls and other kinds of monstrous man-handlers carrying away their hapless female victims, including at least one bikini-clad damsel in distress.
 

A still from the 1965 film ‘Adventure at the Center of the Earth.’
 

Christopher Lee in the 1966 film ‘Prince of Darkness.’
 
More damsels in distress and the monsters who love them, after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.27.2016
10:10 am
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Swallow your coffee before clicking the link
03.27.2013
11:40 am
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image
 
What the hell did I just watch??? Prepare to have your mind blown… or an epileptic seizure.

I’m assuming this is some type of Estonian TV competition show similar to America’s Got Talent? I could be wrong. I have no idea. But what I do know is: I’ve NEVER seen anything quite like this before. It’s a new genre! (Right?)

You’ve been warned.

 
With thanks to Syd Garon!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.27.2013
11:40 am
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TV On The Radio vs. the werewolves
08.18.2011
12:53 am
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You like werewolf movies? You like TV On The Radio? Yeah, so do I.

Here’s a tantalizing mash-up of highlights from werewolf flicks and TOTR’s terrific “Wolf Like Me.” An obvious coupling done well by Editcadet. And it’s actually kind of spooky.
 

 
Here’s Mr. Cadet’s latest, ‘Keep On Walking’: a montage of scenes of people walking away from the camera turned into one seamless tracking shot.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.18.2011
12:53 am
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