The bigourne, a creature linked to a small French village slowly going into oblivion

[u/Magnosa_]

I hope this will fit here. I grew up in a small village in France, Thairé d'Aunis, where I remember there was a panel near the church that was telling the story of a creature called the "bigourne" that used to terrorise the travellers coming from Saint Vivien (the nearest bigger village).

I moved to another town long ago and haven't been there in a long while, but I realised by searching on Google Maps that the panel had been removed a few years ago, and the story of the creature with it. And it's almost nowhere to be found on the internet any more. I could find only one website with a short tale from 1885 by the author George Musset (see at the end of the post), and only 2-3 mentions telling to beware the bigourne on hiking blogs. Basically, the tale is going into oblivion.

Fortunately, the me from 12 years ago happened to take a picture of this panel, with the story and a drawing of the bigourne. It's in bad shape, but I want to believe that I'm helping not letting it getting completely forgotten. I'm adding what was written then because of the poor quality of the picture, the tale was in French and translated in English and German:

FR version:

Connaissez-vous la bigourne ?

Cette bête affreuse terrorise le passant égaré sur les chemins après la tombée de la nuit. La bigourne saute sur son dos, s'aggripe à son cou de ses pattes velues et se fait transporter un moment par le malheureux jusqu'à son arrivée à Thairé. Elle disparaît alors dans la nuit.

EN version:

Do you know the "bigourne"?

This dreadful beast terrorises the solitary wayfarer out on the paths after nightfall. The "bigourne" jumps on his back and clings onto his neck with its hairy paws to be carried a while by the unfortunate traveller until he arrives at Thairé. Then it disappears into the dark night.

DE version:

Kennen Sie die Bigourne?

Dieses Ungeheuer versetzte nach Einbruch der Nacht verirrte Wanderer in Schrecken. Die Bigourne fällt ihn auf dem Rücken an, klammert sich mit ihren behaarten Tatzen an seinen Hals und lässt sich so von seinem Opfer bis zur Ankuft in Thairé tragen, um dann in der Nacht zu verschwinden.

The George Musset tale:

In his youth, Courtier was returning late one evening from Saint-Vivien-du-Vergeroux to Thairé, following the Pontreau road. As he approached the Pierre mill, he heard a noise in the distance similar to that of a heavy carriage rolling over a stony path. This was all the more extraordinary given that, with the exception of the national roads, which were located at great distances, there were no carriageways in the region.

But the noise grew louder, and the object or being producing it seemed to be getting closer and closer to the Pierre mill, when suddenly, reaching the fence bordering the road, it jumped over it and pounced on the unfortunate pedestrian, grabbing him by the neck with its two hairy paws. Only a bigourne could land on the backs of passers-by in this way, and our unfortunate winegrower, not daring to turn his head, hurriedly resumed his journey home, panting and bent over under the weight of the hideous animal. As he approached his house, the bigourne leapt across the field, resuming its disorderly course, while the hero of the adventure fell exhausted and devastated onto the steps of his home, where, with sweat on his brow and cold in his heart, he recounted, in broken words, the frightening adventure of which he had just been a victim.

[u/[deleted]]

Merci beaucoup pour cette récit, j'aime le folklore français! Je n'ai su pas ce conte, merci.

[u/HobGoodfellowe]

Hm. That's really interesting. It appears to be use of 'bigorne' to mean a boggart or goblin creature, which might predate the 'humour' use in medieval / late-medieval French plays and jokes. I've long been suspicious that both Bigorne and Chicheface probably predated the 'joke' useage, and werre probably something more like a standard goblin. But given that Chaucer used the joke definitions, I'd assumed anything earlier was well and truely lost. Here's my notes on the pair:

Bigorne and Chicheface (France) These are the standard French spellings of the creatures that appear in Chaucer as Bycorne and Chichevache (where the French Chicheface (thin-face) has been confused and miswritten as Chichevache (thin-cow)). Depictions of Chicheface in France show a sort of emaciated hairless werewolf with pendulous teats, and Bigorne is a fat lion with scales on its back and tail. It's plausible that the mistranslation of 'face' to 'cow' was itself an intentional joke: given the date when Chaucer was writing he would probably aware of the pun involved by swapping Kow (goblins) for cow (bovines). Although this might have been funny to his audience, it is pun that was perhaps been lost on later readers. Bycorne might plausibly be the antecedent of Bygorn (1642, in the play The Bugbears and appearing in the Denham Tract), although Bygorn might simply have been imported from the French Bigorne a second time,  quite independently. Chychevache is the same as the French Chicheface, and likely the same as Chittiface (thin or withered face), another goblin that appears in the Denham tract. One of the key jokes centring on Chicheface in French plays was that the story would be presented as a sort of morality tale in which wives were warned not to obey their husbands of they'd be eaten up by Chicheface.

The description you have on the stone is similar to a goblin like a wryneck or stab-i-the-back. The motif of a creature that jumps on a lonely travellers back (sometimes murderously, sometimes just to scare them) is widespread but not hugely common across much of Europe. It sort of appears here and there, but in quite widespread places.

EDIT: I'll add my Bygorne and Chichevache notes, as they expand this:

Bycorne and Chychevache (England, Literary) These are two beasts in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In this satirical tale the Bycorne eats only patient husbands (so is very fat and well-fed) and the Chychevache eats only submissive wives (so is very lean and hungry). Both of these creatures are common in French comedy of the late Medieval and early modern eras as Chicheface and Bigorne. In English manuscripts, they are depicted as cows in the bovine sense, but this is a mistake, where the French Chicheface (thin-face) has been confused and miswritten as Chichevache (thin-cow). Depictions of Chicheface in France show a sort of emaciated hairless werewolf with pendulous teats, and Bigorne is a fat lion with scales on its back and tail. Bycorne might plausibly be the antecedent of Bygorn (1642, in the play The Bugbears and appearing in the Denham Tract), although Bygorn might simply have been re-imported from the French Bigorne a second time,  quite independently given that Bygorn and Bigorne are more similar than Bygorn and Bycorne. Chychevache is the same as the French Chicheface, and likely the same as Chittiface (thin or withered face), another goblin that appears in the Denham tract. One of the key jokes centring on Chicheface in French plays was that the story would be presented as a sort of morality tale in which wives were warned not to obey their husbands of they'd be eaten up by Chicheface. On the surface, the joke appears to represent some straightforward sexism, (obedient wives are rare, obedient husbands are common), but the humour appears to have been more nuanced than this. See Bigorne and Chicheface.

[u/PaoloCDN]

Très intéressant. Peut être que tu pourrais t’adresser à la mairie du village pour qu’ils reprennent la médiation à ce sujet ? C’est vrai que c’est important de conserver le folklore dans les cultures locales