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France has her share of cryptozoological beasties; in the Auvergne, at the Château de Villeneuve-Lembron, there are two delightfully non-pc murals. One shows the Chiche-face, a sort of starveling she-wolf who eats only obedient wives. These are rare; thus the creature’s emaciation. Opposite is the Bigorne, a bloated, scaly monster with a triple tail that lives exclusively on husbands ruled by their wives. These are many; thus the creature’s obesity. [1]

St Martha is sometimes depicted with a dragon that she is supposed to have tamed at Tarascon on the river Rhône between Arles and Avignon. She aspersed it with holy water, tied her sash around its neck and took it to Arles where it was killed. However, what is celebrated on the last Sunday in June in Tarascon is a little different. The Tarasque is shown as a vast six-legged tortoise with a lion’s head and the face of a bitter old woman. She lived, it seems, in a swamp called “heart-of-darkness” and preyed on respectable washerwomen by the banks of the Rhône, kidnapping them and forcing them to act as wetnurses to her monstrous son, the Draco. Finally, Saint Martha lured the creature forth with the cry “Lagadigadeau, la Tarasco”, and it was either killed by the townsfolk or forced to the riverbed, there to remain forever.

The Vouivre is a French wyvern or dragon usually portrayed with the head and upper body of a voluptuous woman. She has a ruby or garnet set into her head between the eyes, or possibly in place of them, with which she is able to guide herself through the underworld. In some traditions, this precious eye is a luminous ball that hangs in the air in front of the reptile. [2]

In the middle of France lies the Morvan, a lost world raised on a granite plateau the size of Sussex, broken by steep valleys, covered in forests, and containing small farms and hidden lakes. There, between the oaks, wanders La Truie (The Sow), a pig-faced, shrouded entity forever spinning a skein of wool with her distaff and bobbin.

At the southern limit of this ancient region lies Mont Beuvray, a great conical hill, site of the Romano-Gallic citadel of Bibracte, and there, near the summit, is the Rock of La Vouivre. A ridge of yellowish stone about 12ft high and 30ft long, it is the supposed lair of the serpent woman. Her name derives from la vipere, the viper, or from the Latin volvere, to roll. She is a guardian of treasures, underground telluric currents, and streams. The tradition is that she lives under the rock at Mont Beuvray, and that on Christmas Eve the rock moves, revealing an opening, La Vouivre then leaves, and a great treasure is revealed. It’s interesting that this belief predates the late 19th-century exploration of the site, and the discovery of the remains and treasures of Bibracte. It may be that a folk memory of the ancient citadel survives, passed down locally in this remote and conservative area.

For those bold enough to brave the ascent at night on Christmas Eve, this might be the chance to become rich in La Vouivre’s absence, but the unwary who stay too long should remember that the monster returns at dawn, the rock closes and the unhappy adventurer may be entombed in the dark with nothing to eat or drink but gold until the following Christmas. In some versions, the robber is found safe sitting at a table, eating an apple, symbol of forbidden sin. In another, he escapes with the treasure, but it turns to stone in sunlight, and finally, in another, the rock gapes open to reveal a withered corpse. [3]

La Vouivre can be found in another guise, that of Melusine, heroine of the mediæval tale of the lady married to a nobleman who, once a year retreats to her chamber, refusing her husband entry until the next day. Inevitably, the husband drills a little hole in the door and spies on her as she bathes. She is revealed as half woman, half snake. Finding herself discovered, Melusine utters a roar that shakes the castle, transforms into a dragon and flies away. [4]

In the church at Lormes, in the north of the Morvan, one of the stone capitals shows a Vouivre with wings and a snake’s tail. In a local house, an oak carving on the staircase shows her with a tail, but wingless, clutching a bunch of grapes, or possibly a cluster of snakes’ eggs, and at Montreal, an old village just below the Morvan massif, wonderful late mediæval carvings in the church show Adam and Eve with the serpent. The serpent is shown with a woman’s head.  

Finally, on 17 August 1953 a huge doughnut-shaped object was seen hanging over Mont Beuvray, and remained for 12 hours in a clear sky. During the evening of 10 January 1954, witnesses saw a beam of light shining from the sky “like a lighthouse”. It illuminated an area on the ground of about 20 sq m, then moved away silently and disappeared. Aliens, or La Vouivre keeping an eye on her treasure? [5]

Notes
[1] Merveilles des chat­eaux d’auvergne et du limousin, pp41, 44.
[2] Henri Vincelnot: Le Pape des Escargots, p52.
[3] Notes from Bibracte: La Musée de la Civilisation Celtique.
[4] Jean d’Arras: The Romance of Melusine.
[5] Claude Tchou: Guide de la Bourgogne et du Lyonnais Mysterieux, p493.