In July 1864, a fourteen-year-old girl in southern France made sad history when she became the first human victim of the mysterious creature (or creatures) known as the Beast of Gévaudan. To this day, no one knows how many hundred people have been killed or wounded in southern France over the past three years.
Note: Although the stories of the Beast of Gévaudan sometimes contradict each other, and the Beast is more the subject of cryptozoology than serious history, something happened in the forests of southern France two centuries ago, and no one still knows what.
Best Gévaudan: The Terror Begins
From the first attack in September of 1764, almost one death a week was attributed to the Beast through the forests of Gévaudan. Rumors were spread, the doors were locked, and fires were set at night.
The beast was a wolf; I am sure of that. But especially the inexhaustible, which, unlike other wolves, preferred the prey of men to cattle, as if they had a distinct secret taste of human flesh.
He was a wolf, but he was as big as a bull. He did not have the claws and teeth of a wolf, but he also had the horns of a devil. The marks were all distinct on the coat, although it seems improbable that the beast of Gévaudan could be mistaken for any.
There was only one problem: no one who had a close encounter with the Beast lived to tell about it. Surely some knew, whose uncle was talking with a certain soldier in a shop in a nearby village, oh some village, whose sister had seen this beast from some other world, this demon.
The military marched through the woods, and towards the end of September all was quiet. But from the 1st of October the massacre was repeated. Since most of the victims were women and children, the provincial governor prohibited women and children from working. /a> in the fields.
A serious wolf hunt was undertaken, and the wolves were killed, but the Beast of Gévaudana continued in his bloody ways. There were victims, of whom so little remained that the priests refused to carry out the funeral.
Best Gévaudanus: Permanent fear
In January 1765 it was reported that the beast had been set upon a group of men, who had wounded it and driven it away. but continuous slaughter.
The beast of Gévaudan, after twenty thousand men, wounded her again. Despite the storm of bullets, many of which were said to have hit the target, the next day the beast killed again. The church of Gévaudan is considered a beast of punishment sent by God.
Eight people were killed in March. On a certain Wednesday, another Wednesday in the month of May, four men lost their lives from the beasts, which seemed to have perished in some fear of men, as he was seen at night in the towns, walking on his feet as if on foot. they were… the people were horrified… that it was a vermin.
He is by no means a werewolf, but he is clearly a werewolf: man lived alone in the forest, therefore he must be a wolf. Arrested and interrogated, the unfortunate interrogator bowed down, screaming like
The chief wolf-hunters came from Paris with their dogs, and indeed killed the wolf, but the Beast of Gévaudan continued to kill.
Best Gévaudanus: The Final Year of Terror
The annals of the slaying of the Beast of Gévaudan recount the continuous killings attributed to the Beast throughout the ages. Most of the victims were children, who according to recent scientific research (here) are the most likely victims of wolves.
On June 19, 1767, he continued to pursue the hunters, Jean Chastel (the father of the rat race on the road) among them. Various chronicles have confused the accounts of exactly what happened, but the fact is that Chastel killed a huge animal wolf. If he did it after the prayers, as some tell the stories, or in in fact he can only kill when the animal silver bullet is unknown.
It is not known what killed the beast. Chastel took it and went to the king, but it was summer in southern France, and there was no cooling. The chest is buried with haste, without anyone choosing to examine the contents.
Beast of Gévaudan: Legacy of Terror
No more killings were attributed to the Beast of Gévaudan after June 19, 1767. Was the beast a wasp? He thought he could find a vulture in any peace. Was the beast perhaps a giant wolf-dog mix? Some grammarians propose that it is so. Was the beast of Gévaudana a punishment from God?
No one has ever determined how many deaths could be blamed on the Beast, but some claims exceed two hundred.
Wolves had been driven to extinction in France since 1927, but in recent years they have crossed the borders of Italy to re-establish themselves in southern France.
Reports of similar wolf attacks similar to those of the Beast of Gévaudan (recorded in a brilliant multilingual website here) were reported in France in the twentieth century.
If you enjoyed this article about the mysterious wolf-like creatures in France, you might want to read about the legendary big cats of England in “The Beast of Bomini Mauro” or the real animal in “The Wild of Central Florida” (here). In fact, I have a list of articles about real and mythical animals that live in my house or are extinct here.
Update: About two months after I first posted this article, History Channel a fascinating documentary , The True Wolf-Man. They came up with some new ideas and a (more) surprising conclusion.
