The Sorcerer Who Wove Living Animals
Location: 3 La Grée, 44520 Grand-Auverné, France
Witches / Occult
by @anton
Local tradition also tells of an exceptionally powerful sorcerer who lived in the Châteaubriant region during the nineteenth century. He was said to weave ferns into the shape of animals and bring them to life, and could himself transform into a hare. He terrorized the countryside until Gandon, the mayor of Grand-Auverné, shot and killed him at La Grée Picoul.
In the Bocage of western France, witchcraft was traditionally understood as a system of bewitchment and counter-bewitchment rather than the worship of the devil. As described by Jeanne Favret-Saada, misfortune, illness, or the unexplained death of livestock were often attributed to a witch's curse, and specialist unbewitchers were consulted to identify the culprit and break the spell. These beliefs have not entirely disappeared and are still encountered today in some rural farming communities, where cases of alleged bewitchment continue to be brought to unbewitchers.
Source : Chapron, Joseph, Histoires et légendes du pays de Châteaubriant, 1931 Favret-Saada, Jeanne. Les mots, la mort, les sorts. La sorcellerie dans le Bocage. Paris : Gallimard, coll. Bibliothèque des sciences humaines, 1977,