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Articles in ‘Imaginary beasts of Spain’

Fox Legends

August 27th, 2007

I compiled these legends about foxes in Spain from the excellent Seres míticos y personajes fantásticos españoles by MANUEL MARTÍN SÁNCHEZ.  

  • Zorro de tres cabezas The three-headed fox. Resides in a megalithic monument near Tortosa, Catalonia and comes out on the night of San Juan to terrorise peasants.

  • Raposa de Morgaza. Lugo, Galicia. Nobody has ever seen this fox which emits chilling howls at night announcing misfortune or death. 
  • Raposa de Morrazo. Appears in front of travellers on lonely Galician county lanes with its spine curdling howl and breathing fire from its mouth. It is thought that the fox is really lost soul condemned to wander for his/her sins.

  • Loberono (Vulpus canis) Ferocious Galician mammal produced by the cross between a fox and a wolf. Sometimes appears as a fox and sometimes as a wolf with red fur and black spots. Often found in cemeteries digging up the dead on which it feeds. It is capable of paralysing a human (Homo sapiens) with its look and can see through walls. Shouting at a loberono is useless as it is deaf as a post. Fox mythology, Spanish cryptofauna

See also Foxes in Spain

Galicia, Imaginary beasts of Spain, Mammals, folklore | |

Mermaids in Spain

July 22nd, 2007

“They write from Galicia in Spain that some fishermen lately took on that coast a sort of monster, or merman, five feet and half long from it’s foot to its head, which was like that of a goat. It has a long beard and moustaches, and black skin somewhat hairy, a very long neck, short arms, and hand longer than they ought to be in proportion to the rest of the body: long fingers like those of a man, with nails like claws, very long toes, joined like the feet of a duck, and the heels furnished with fins resembling the winged feet with which painters represent Mercury. ”

From Scots Magazine 1739.

In Spanish a mermaid is a sirena. More Iberian knicknackery here

Galicia, Historical accounts about Spain, Imaginary beasts of Spain, Spanish sea tales, Spanish seas, folklore | |