Rougarou
Also called Rugaru, Roux-Ga-Roux.
In Louisiana Cajun folklore, the Rougarou is a werewolf-like shapeshifter, said to stalk the swamps and bayous by night, that descends from the French loup-garou legend brought over by early settlers.
At a glance
- Tradition
- American folkloreFrench folklore
- Region
- Acadiana, Louisiana (habitat)
- Trait family
- The Night-Comers
- Symbols
- Wolf
- Kin
- Loup-Garou (derived from)
Kinship
Lines of descent added by hand and approved one at a time.
- Loup-Garou derived from
why
The Rougarou is the Cajun and Louisiana Creole descendant of the French loup-garou, a shapeshifting figure carried into the bayous and swamplands of southern Louisiana by early French and Acadian settlers and subsequently reshaped by the region's Catholic, Creole, and Native influences.
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Wolf is image-domain The wolf denotes unsentimental predatory instinct, by turns nurse of founders and devourer at the door, and carries the projection of one's animal shadow.
why
Accounts describe it variously as a man cursed to become a wolf-like beast, a person who transforms voluntarily through sorcery, or the victim of a curse passed from one sufferer to another, and its name is spelled and pronounced many ways across the region, including Rugaru and Roux-Ga-Roux, reflecting the oral, French-derived nature of the tradition.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Shapeshifts human animal
why
a man cursed to become a wolf-like beast
- Cursed into monstrous form
why
a man cursed to become a wolf-like beast
Behaviour
- Curse transmitted by drawing blood
why
Folklore describes the curse as spreading or lifting through the drawing of blood: some tellings hold that the affliction passes to whoever draws the creature's blood, freeing the original sufferer while binding the wound-giver in turn.
- Secrecy oath or become cursed yourself
why
A separate motif holds that anyone who discovers a Rougarou's true identity must keep it secret for a year and a day (in some tellings 101 days), or risk becoming a Rougarou themselves by revealing it too soon.
- Invoked to frighten children into obedience
why
In much of Cajun tradition, the Rougarou legend was also used as a cautionary tale to keep children from wandering into the swamp alone or from breaking Catholic obligations such as observing Lent, since one recurring motif holds that a person who breaks Lent for seven consecutive years is doomed to transform into a Rougarou.
Curses
- Curse transmission
why
some tellings hold that the affliction passes to whoever draws the creature's blood, freeing the original sufferer while binding the wound-giver in turn.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Shadow carries both readings
1 citation
- George M. Eberhart, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, s.v. "Rugaru."