Bookworm88
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The Beast of Gevaudan
he monster’s first victim was Jeanne Boulet, a 14-year-old girl watching her sheep. Her death was followed by others, almost exclusively women and children. Throughout 1764, the brutal attacks—victims with their throats torn out or heads gnawed off—riveted France. The violence was so shocking, news of it traveled from the countryside all the way to the royal palace in Versailles. What was this beast of Gévaudan, and who could stop its reign of terror?
Gévaudan, a region in southern France (in modern-day Lozère), was just as mysterious as its monster. “It had the reputation for being a remote, isolated backwater where the forces of nature had not been full tamed, where the forests were indeed enchanted,” says Jay M. Smith, a historian and the author of Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast. “It’s fascinating, it’s powerful, it’s scary, it’s sublime.”
It was the perfect place for a Grimm-like fairy tale starring a possibly supernatural creature. But for villagers under attack, reality was more brutal than any book. In three years time, the beast racked up nearly 300 victims, and its legacy lasted long beyond the 18th century.
Read the rest at
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/beast-gevaudan-terrorized-france-countryside-180963820/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20170702-Weekender&spMailingID=29610261&spUserID=NDg1ODQxMDM2NDU0S0&spJobID=1080178911&spReportId=MTA4MDE3ODkxMQS2
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7/2/2017, 12:40 pm
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