# European Dopers - do you have a Bigfoot-type legend? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229 "2003-06-29T22:50:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/1 "2003-06-29T22:50:26Z")
Was just dozing through a discovery channel or history channel or something show on Bigfoot. They spoke about the legend here in the states and of course the Yeti in the Himalayas, but they didn’t mention any legends in Europe. Do you guys have a similar story? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/2 "2003-06-29T23:28:54Z")
I thought the Loch Ness Monster legend was fairly widely known. There are numerous stories about similar reptilian monsters in various European countries. There have also been lots of sightings of unlikely carnivorous animals such as big cats and ghostly dogs, but I can’t recall one about an ape man. The [Spring Heeled Jack](http://www.spartechsoftware.com/dimensions/crime/SpringHeeledJack.htm) legend tells about a man with supernatural powers who haunted London, Liverpool and other cities in the 1800s. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/3 "2003-06-29T23:51:40Z")
Yep, I’ve certainly heard of the Loch Ness Monster… But I was wondering about Bigfoot. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/4 "2003-06-29T23:57:14Z")
Sure… [it even has it’s own website](http://www.depardieu.8m.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/5 "2003-06-30T00:43:36Z")
LOL. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/6 "2003-06-30T00:45:12Z")
Does The Beast of Accrington count? There was a film about it. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/7 "2003-06-30T01:34:22Z")
I humbly submit the vicious Chicken of Bristol… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/8 "2003-06-30T01:47:13Z")
There has been the [“beast of Gevaudan”](http://www.occultopedia.com/g/gevaudan.htm) in France during the XVIII° century. Sorry to give a link to a site dedicaced to occult mysteries, but though I googled several sites including this name, for some reason I can’t fathom, most of them are porn sites 😕 totally unrelated to the legend. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of sites in english about it, and I got quickly tired with the porn pop up. Anyway, occult site or not, the beast, whatever it could have been (one or several huge man-killer wolves, a domesticated then released big cat, a serial murderer or several of these at the same time), the beast was for real and killed dozens and dozens on people over the course of several years, giving birth to many fantastic tales. The king’s master hunter was even send there, killed a really huge wolf, but the attacks still went on for years. It’s still today one of these major intriguing mysteries in french history, like the “man in the iron mask”, for instance. And there have been many hypothesis (like the serial murderer using trained wolves, for instance), none really satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/9 "2003-06-30T02:07:39Z")
A couple of other pages in english about this beast : [this one](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/9638/gevaudan.html) [or this one](http://www.wolfcross.com/gevaudan.html) There are many more pages, actually. I managed to avoid the porn sites (still wondering about them…does anyone has a clue???) by adding the word “king” to my query “beast” and “gevaudan” instead of simply “beast of gevaudan”. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/10 "2003-07-01T00:39:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by clairobscur \* > I managed to avoid the porn sites (still wondering about them…does anyone has a clue???) At a guess, it may be the connection with Walerian Borowczyk’s 1975 film [The Beast](http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0072752). David Thomson has described Borowczyk as “one of the major artists of modern cinema”, but there’s a point where he drifted off into making porn (including _Emmanuelle 5_). _The Beast_ is sort of on the cusp between his two careers. Somewhat loosely based on the Gevaudan legend, it involves a modern English girl marrying into a French aristocratic family with a dark secret: one of their ancestors was raped by the Beast. I have seen attempts to argue that it’s a serious work, rather than an exploitation flick. But it’s probably more telling that the late, lamented arts cinema in Liverpool, the 051, had a popular tradition of screening it once a year. In my experience, friends either found it wildly funny (as I did) or deeply shocking. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/11 "2003-07-01T03:41:57Z")
There’s the Yowie in Australia. Googling yowie brings up quite a few hits. ---
**Author:** ![Rapunzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Rapunzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rapunzel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/12 "2003-07-01T12:41:49Z")
There’s also the Beast of Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall, which may be an escaped big cat from a private collection, or may be completely fabricated. Who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Einmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Einmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einmon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-dopers-do-you-have-a-bigfoot-type-legend/185229/13 "2003-07-01T14:17:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by clairobscur \* > \*\*There has been the [“beast of Gevaudan”](http://www.occultopedia.com/g/gevaudan.htm) in France during the XVIII° century. \*\* There’s a [movie](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0237534) about it, too. But Bigfoot it ain’t. We have a joke, however, about two Yetis who meet and one of them claims to have seen [Reinhold Messner](http://www.jerberyd.com/climbing/climbers/messner/) on the mountain. 🙂