In the spirit....
“CHERE! AIN’T NAUGHT BUT DE LOUP GAROU!!”
The Loup Garou is the cajun version of the werewolf. Children of south Louisiana have all been told the stories of Loup Garou for many many generations. It is one that struck fear in my tiny heart so long ago (and still makes me shiver a bit even now). When I was a child we lived in a wooded swamp area outside of New Orleans.... and I can tell you that I have seen something as close to a werewolf as I would care to admit. As an adult, I met and became friends with an author who subscribed 100% to shift changing and werewolves in his everyday life. (no, I am not joking). Little did I know that they was a large group of people in New Orleans that meet and perform rituals similar to those described below to transform..... I declined every offer to attend.
Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows for a fact that the dark and noisome swamps of South Louisiana are actually the kingdom of a fierce and horrible creature that has haunted the fitful dreams and waking moments of many Louisiana natives. This creature, “a human form in half-shredded clothing, with a snarling half-animal face” dominated by a slathering, drooling mouth full of razor sharp teeth and leering yellow eyes, holds command over the other creatures of the bayous and swamps of southern Louisiana; even the fearsome alligator gives this monster his due.
Prowling and splashing through the murky backwaters and feeding on hapless victims - animal or human - among the knotty cypress knees at the slippery water’s edge, this monster is called by many names, but most still speak it in a half-whisper, for this is the LOUP GAROU!
Actual accounts and folk stories give this creature other names - rugarou among the Atchafalaya gypsies and swampers, wendigo or sasquatch among Louisiana’s many Native American tribes. But no matter what it’s called, the legend of this King of the Swamps has endured through many generations, and with it the tales that many believe prove the Loup Garou really exists.
Of course, to many, the idea of a wolf-like creature prowling the Louisiana swamps and attacking everything from alligators and gophers to unwary fishermen is nothing short of preposterous. And when viewed with the modern skeptic’s hypercritical eye, some quickly dismiss the legend of the Louisiana werewolf as just that - legend.
the tracks of a werewolf.
Some maintain that the story of the Loup Garou was invented to instill fear in Cajun children, to keep them from misbehaving or from wandering too far into the deep, primordial swamps. Others maintain that the Loup Garou legend is nothing more than an adaptation of the French Catholic loup garou stories where Catholics who failed to observe Lent for seven years in a row might become werewolves. If so cursed by God, those who had abjured the faith were damned to remember it by spending every Lenten season as an abominable half-animal creature - the French version of the Loup Garou.
Other legends limited the time one could spend as a Loup Garou - one hundred and one days being the most common time frame. If the Loup Garou drew the blood of another person during this time, the curse could be transferred to that person - presumably notwithstanding whether he or she was a good Catholic or not. During the daylight hours, the person thus afflicted would appear sickly and gaunt, avoiding sunlight and keeping to his or her bed. But no amount of entreating or threat could persuade the person to reveal the nature of the illness and when the night came it was often observed that life and health seemed to return to the person suspected of being a Loup Garou.
Witchcraft and the overlooking by wizards was another way that a person might fall under the curse of the Loup Garou and because of this witches and sorcerers were often sought out to employ methods of curing the blighted individual. In New World cultures such as among the Native Americans, the shaman or medicine man was often entreated to cure a possible victim of this horrible curse; among the Atchafalaya gypsies of Louisiana, the drabarni was often the only one who knew how to affect a cure or protect a person from the dreaded rugarou.
To understand the Louisiana werewolf, and to determine whether or not there is truth in the legends and stories that come out of bayou country, a little history of the werewolf tradition might come in handy.
WEREWOLF HISTORY IN BRIEF
Werewolves through history,
“The critical point that needs to be grasped here is that shapeshifting is not a matter of physical transformation.”
GREER
Shape-shifting and wolf-magic are anything but new discoveries. There was already a wolf-wisdom tradition at work among the early Europeans as long as three thousand years ago and as they migrated across westward across Europe, this venerable tradition was enriched by the great magick traditions and by actual experiences - true life accounts - that found their way into history and legend to shape what we know as the shape-shifting lycanthrope of today.
Throughout the actual records of lycanthropy there are many cases where the human body of the werewolf was found “lying asleep in bed, or curled up under a bush in the forest, while the werewolf prowled the night. In other cases, the animal form seems to have surrounded the human body of the werewolf like a garment.”
According to experts in the field, there are varying accounts of numerous methods of transformation and although the most popular of these - the belief that the transformation happens on its own at the time of the full moon - is actually found in werewolf folklore all over Europe, it is not the only explanation. Records indicate that powerful shape-shifting magicians took a cup, with nothing more magical in it than common ale, muttered charms over it and then drank it down to begin the transformation process. Other traditions required the shape-shifter to first rub a magical ointment all over the body and then to put on a wolfskin belt or pelt. Most traditions agree that a charm or chant sung along with the physical ritual was the key to the shape-shifting transformation.
In transforming back to human form, traditions suggest that the shape-shifter has only to remove the wolfskin pelt or unfasten the belt and the transformation is undone. Other, darker traditions, especially those in which an individual becomes a werewolf as the result of a curse, suggest that the shape-shifter must find a source of running water and bathe in it to initiate the return to human shape. Some powerful shape-shifters, however, are said to be able to transform in and out of the werewolf and human states entirely at will.
Because werewolves moved between the worlds as they transformed from human to animal and back again, those who undertook this transformation at will were considered to be acting outside the will of God and were usually greatly feared. In addition, the actions of these shape-shifters while in animal form were not always entirely reliable and there are many accounts of shapeshifting humans in the forms of wolves, bears and other great animals who evidently undertook the transformation so often that the animal nature within them could not be contained. These individuals were often blamed for fits of terrifying violence against humans who soon sought ways to defend themselves against these monstrous half-human beasts.
The horror movie cliché that werewolves can only be killed by a weapon made of silver appears to have relevance in historic accounts, but some sources indicate that any metal weapon can injure or kill a werewolf because the animal form is as vulnerable as the actual animal. Iron, an old stand-by in magical protection, is often suggested as a suitable substitute in the event silver is not available and it is claimed in French and European werewolf traditions that “cold iron will cause the wolf-form of a werewolf to instantly disappear.” (Greer)
Although it is true that they brought the tradition with them when they migrated to the New World, the Europeans are not the only people to have a history of werewolves and shape-shifters. In North America the Europeans encountered an equally rich shape-shifting lore and tradition among the Native Americans. Among the Navajos, for example, were found the “skinwalkers,” or sorcerers who would change into the forms of dogs or coyotes as part of a widely-feared tradition of evil First Nation magic.
Skinwalkers are believed to use a magical powder to make corpses - a concept also found among the practitioners of African bokor voodoo throughout the slave diaspora of the New World. Native American skinwalkers are also believed to practice cannibalism, a point that is particularly relative among the Native American tribes of South Louisiana where the Attakapas skinwalkers are still spoken of in whispers, if at all.
The Loup Garou is the cajun version of the werewolf. Children of south Louisiana have all been told the stories of Loup Garou for many many generations. It is one that struck fear in my tiny heart so long ago (and still makes me shiver a bit even now). When I was a child we lived in a wooded swamp area outside of New Orleans.... and I can tell you that I have seen something as close to a werewolf as I would care to admit. As an adult, I met and became friends with an author who subscribed 100% to shift changing and werewolves in his everyday life. (no, I am not joking). Little did I know that they was a large group of people in New Orleans that meet and perform rituals similar to those described below to transform..... I declined every offer to attend.
Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows for a fact that the dark and noisome swamps of South Louisiana are actually the kingdom of a fierce and horrible creature that has haunted the fitful dreams and waking moments of many Louisiana natives. This creature, “a human form in half-shredded clothing, with a snarling half-animal face” dominated by a slathering, drooling mouth full of razor sharp teeth and leering yellow eyes, holds command over the other creatures of the bayous and swamps of southern Louisiana; even the fearsome alligator gives this monster his due.
Prowling and splashing through the murky backwaters and feeding on hapless victims - animal or human - among the knotty cypress knees at the slippery water’s edge, this monster is called by many names, but most still speak it in a half-whisper, for this is the LOUP GAROU!
Actual accounts and folk stories give this creature other names - rugarou among the Atchafalaya gypsies and swampers, wendigo or sasquatch among Louisiana’s many Native American tribes. But no matter what it’s called, the legend of this King of the Swamps has endured through many generations, and with it the tales that many believe prove the Loup Garou really exists.
Of course, to many, the idea of a wolf-like creature prowling the Louisiana swamps and attacking everything from alligators and gophers to unwary fishermen is nothing short of preposterous. And when viewed with the modern skeptic’s hypercritical eye, some quickly dismiss the legend of the Louisiana werewolf as just that - legend.
the tracks of a werewolf.
Some maintain that the story of the Loup Garou was invented to instill fear in Cajun children, to keep them from misbehaving or from wandering too far into the deep, primordial swamps. Others maintain that the Loup Garou legend is nothing more than an adaptation of the French Catholic loup garou stories where Catholics who failed to observe Lent for seven years in a row might become werewolves. If so cursed by God, those who had abjured the faith were damned to remember it by spending every Lenten season as an abominable half-animal creature - the French version of the Loup Garou.
Other legends limited the time one could spend as a Loup Garou - one hundred and one days being the most common time frame. If the Loup Garou drew the blood of another person during this time, the curse could be transferred to that person - presumably notwithstanding whether he or she was a good Catholic or not. During the daylight hours, the person thus afflicted would appear sickly and gaunt, avoiding sunlight and keeping to his or her bed. But no amount of entreating or threat could persuade the person to reveal the nature of the illness and when the night came it was often observed that life and health seemed to return to the person suspected of being a Loup Garou.
Witchcraft and the overlooking by wizards was another way that a person might fall under the curse of the Loup Garou and because of this witches and sorcerers were often sought out to employ methods of curing the blighted individual. In New World cultures such as among the Native Americans, the shaman or medicine man was often entreated to cure a possible victim of this horrible curse; among the Atchafalaya gypsies of Louisiana, the drabarni was often the only one who knew how to affect a cure or protect a person from the dreaded rugarou.
To understand the Louisiana werewolf, and to determine whether or not there is truth in the legends and stories that come out of bayou country, a little history of the werewolf tradition might come in handy.
WEREWOLF HISTORY IN BRIEF
Werewolves through history,
“The critical point that needs to be grasped here is that shapeshifting is not a matter of physical transformation.”
GREER
Shape-shifting and wolf-magic are anything but new discoveries. There was already a wolf-wisdom tradition at work among the early Europeans as long as three thousand years ago and as they migrated across westward across Europe, this venerable tradition was enriched by the great magick traditions and by actual experiences - true life accounts - that found their way into history and legend to shape what we know as the shape-shifting lycanthrope of today.
Throughout the actual records of lycanthropy there are many cases where the human body of the werewolf was found “lying asleep in bed, or curled up under a bush in the forest, while the werewolf prowled the night. In other cases, the animal form seems to have surrounded the human body of the werewolf like a garment.”
According to experts in the field, there are varying accounts of numerous methods of transformation and although the most popular of these - the belief that the transformation happens on its own at the time of the full moon - is actually found in werewolf folklore all over Europe, it is not the only explanation. Records indicate that powerful shape-shifting magicians took a cup, with nothing more magical in it than common ale, muttered charms over it and then drank it down to begin the transformation process. Other traditions required the shape-shifter to first rub a magical ointment all over the body and then to put on a wolfskin belt or pelt. Most traditions agree that a charm or chant sung along with the physical ritual was the key to the shape-shifting transformation.
In transforming back to human form, traditions suggest that the shape-shifter has only to remove the wolfskin pelt or unfasten the belt and the transformation is undone. Other, darker traditions, especially those in which an individual becomes a werewolf as the result of a curse, suggest that the shape-shifter must find a source of running water and bathe in it to initiate the return to human shape. Some powerful shape-shifters, however, are said to be able to transform in and out of the werewolf and human states entirely at will.
Because werewolves moved between the worlds as they transformed from human to animal and back again, those who undertook this transformation at will were considered to be acting outside the will of God and were usually greatly feared. In addition, the actions of these shape-shifters while in animal form were not always entirely reliable and there are many accounts of shapeshifting humans in the forms of wolves, bears and other great animals who evidently undertook the transformation so often that the animal nature within them could not be contained. These individuals were often blamed for fits of terrifying violence against humans who soon sought ways to defend themselves against these monstrous half-human beasts.
The horror movie cliché that werewolves can only be killed by a weapon made of silver appears to have relevance in historic accounts, but some sources indicate that any metal weapon can injure or kill a werewolf because the animal form is as vulnerable as the actual animal. Iron, an old stand-by in magical protection, is often suggested as a suitable substitute in the event silver is not available and it is claimed in French and European werewolf traditions that “cold iron will cause the wolf-form of a werewolf to instantly disappear.” (Greer)
Although it is true that they brought the tradition with them when they migrated to the New World, the Europeans are not the only people to have a history of werewolves and shape-shifters. In North America the Europeans encountered an equally rich shape-shifting lore and tradition among the Native Americans. Among the Navajos, for example, were found the “skinwalkers,” or sorcerers who would change into the forms of dogs or coyotes as part of a widely-feared tradition of evil First Nation magic.
Skinwalkers are believed to use a magical powder to make corpses - a concept also found among the practitioners of African bokor voodoo throughout the slave diaspora of the New World. Native American skinwalkers are also believed to practice cannibalism, a point that is particularly relative among the Native American tribes of South Louisiana where the Attakapas skinwalkers are still spoken of in whispers, if at all.