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Old 04-02-2010, 08:27 AM
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BananaTom BananaTom is offline
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And then there is this version:

I had forgotten about the Rue Garou, as I knew it, until lately, when I met a Pensacola Fishing Forum member Loup Garou. Therefore, I have performed some Internet research for RouGarou and have found the following:

The Rougarou (alternately spelled as Roux-Ga-Roux, Rugaroo, or Rugaru), is a legendary creature in Laurentian French communities linked to European notions of the
.

The stories of the creature known as a rougarou are as diverse as the spelling of its name, though they are all connected to
cultures through a common derived belief in the
(French pronunciation:
, English:
). Loup is
for wolf, and garou (from
garulf, cognate with English werewolf) is a man who transforms into an animal.


Louisiana folklore



Rougarou represents a variant pronunciation and spelling of the original French loup-garou. According to
, an academic expert on
and professor at the
, the tale of the rougarou is a common legend across
. Both words are used interchangeably in southern
. Some people call the monster rougarou; others refer to it as the loup garou.

The rougarou legend has been spread for many generations, either directly from French settlers to Louisiana (New France) or via the
immigrants centuries ago.

In the
legends, the creature is said to prowl the swamps around
and
, and possibly the fields or forests of the regions. The rougarou most often is described as a creature with a human body and the head of a wolf or dog, similar to the werewolf legend.

Often the story-telling has been used to inspire fear and obedience. One such example is stories that have been told by elders to persuade Cajun children to behave. According to another variation, the wolf-like beast will hunt down and kill
who do not follow the rules of
. This coincides with the French Catholic loup-garou stories, according to which the method for turning into a werewolf is to break Lent seven years in a row.

A common
legend says that the rougarou is under the spell for 101 days. After that time, the curse is transferred from person to person when the rougarou draws another human’s blood. During the day the creature returns to human form. Although acting sickly, the human refrains from telling others of the situation for fear of being killed.

Other stories range from the rougarou as a headless horseman to the rougarou being derived from
. In the latter claim, only a witch can make a rougarou—either by turning into a wolf herself, or by cursing others with
. [


Native American folklore

The creature, spelled Rugaru, has been associated with
legends, though there is some dispute. Such folklore versions of the rugaru vary from being mild
(sasquatch) creatures to
Native American
. Some dispute the connection between Native American folktales and the francophone rugaru.

As is the norm with legends transmitted by oral tradition, stories often contradict one another. The stories of the wendigo vary by tribe and region, but the most common cause of the change is typically related to cannibalism.

A modified example, not in the original wendigo legends, is that if a person sees a rugaru, that person will be transformed into one. Thereafter, the unfortunate victim will be doomed to wander in the form of this monster. That rugaru story bears some resemblance to a Native American version of the wendigo legend related in a short story by
. In Blackwood's fictional adaptation of the legend, seeing a wendigo causes one to turn into a wendigo.

It is important to note that rugaru is not a native
word, nor is it derived from the languages of neighboring Native American peoples. However, it has a striking similarity to the French word for werewolf, loup garou.

It's possible the Turtle Mountain Ojibwa or Chippewa in
picked up the French name for "hairy human-like being" from the influence of French Canadian
and
with whom they had extensive dealings. Somehow that term also had been referenced to their neighbors' stories of bigfoot.

Author
argues that the rugaru is a separate legend from that of the cannibal-like giant wendigo. While the wendigo is feared, he notes that the rugaru is seen as sacred and in tune with
, somewhat like bigfoot legends are today.

Though identified with bigfoot, there is little evidence in the indigenous folklore that it is meant to refer the same or a similar creature.

Last edited by BananaTom; 04-02-2010 at 09:00 AM.
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