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58-518: Margeride (in Auvergnat Marjarida ) is a mountainous region of France , situated in the Massif Central , inside the départements of Cantal , Haute-Loire and Lozère . Originally, the name "Margeride" applied only to a seigneury whose castle was ruined in the 15th century and a forest culminating at 1,380 meters (4,530 ft) altitude. Its current name is thought to derive from

116-518: A copse , devouring thirteen-year-old Marie Valét even as her companion attempted to fight off the assailant. When the boy brought help from local villagers, they found only a headless corpse from which most of the flesh had been eaten. A huntsman of d'Enneval was sent to set an ambush at the corpse of Valét, but the Beast did not return. Instead, it arrived in Lorciéres and attacked Marguerite Boney, eighteen, by

174-409: A cowherd had been slain by the Beast two days before. Antoine discovered two sets of tracks at the site of the latest attack, that of a large male wolf and a she-wolf, which he suspected to be the Beast's mate. If the Beast had in fact reproduced, Antoine surmised, the she-wolf and whelps would have to be destroyed as well. His first formal hunt occurred on 11 July, but yielded nothing, and activity among

232-516: A doghandler gave the good news that the entire wolf pack had been located in the Pommier Woods, north of the abbey Sainte-Marie-des-Chazes. The forest was soon surrounded. Antoine's hunting party, bolstered by the addition of forty sharpshooters from Langeac and elsewhere, moved into the trees, houndsmen at the front. Antoine himself had set up at the exit to a defile known as the Béal Ravine, and it

290-454: A dozen sergeants to organize the peasants who served as beaters during the large hunts, and pleaded for a detachment of hounds and coursers to replace the dogs of his own pack, which were faring none too well. The Duke of Penthiévre, who had already donated three of his personal huntsmen to Antoine's cause, was among the nobility to which Antoine sent his requests. On 11 August, Marie-Jeanne Valet and her younger sister were attacked while fording

348-452: A hundred and forty pounds. Antoine was anxious to confirm without doubt that the dead animal before him was the Beast, so it was soon taken to Besset where a necropsy was performed by the surgeon Boulanger. Though no human remains were uncovered in its stomach or intestines, a number of individuals who had been attacked by the Beast came forward and identified Antoine's wolf as their assailant, including Marie-Jeanne Valet, whom Antoine had called

406-698: A servant of the Prince de Condé , two doghandlers, a valet, and Antoine's own son, de Beauterne, of the National Gendarmerie . With him Antoine brought four male wolfhounds and a female greyhound , all hand-picked from the Royal Pack. He intended to supplement this small group with hounds from d'Enneval's own pack, as the Norman had yet to receive the recall of the King, and experienced dogs from local packs that had fought with

464-534: A tributary of the River Desges, on the road from Paulhac-en-Margeride to Broussous. Valet successfully defended herself and her sister with a bayonet mounted at the end of a staff, wounding the Beast, which threw itself into the river and thrashed about madly before escaping. Antoine and company quickly made their way to Paulhac when they heard of this event, praising Marie-Jeanne for her bravery. The Royal Gunbearer compared her favourably to Joan of Arc , calling her

522-672: A wolf but simply weakens it...La Bête went after the modern descendants of his family who had the names of Silver, Silvré, Argent, Silgente. Jeziahs' sister was also known as the Maid of Gévaudan . The area was a stronghold of the French Resistance in the Second World War . It was from here that the Resistance worked to delay German reinforcements travelling north after the D-Day landings . Today

580-594: Is above all a local historiographical creation. According to linguist Jean Roux, "It is by simplification that we use this term, because in no case Auvergnat can be considered as an autonomous linguistic entity". With around 80,000 speakers in the Auvergne region at the beginning of the 21st century, it is considered to be severely endangered . Auvergnat falls under the following categories and subcategories: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Gallo-Iberian, Gallo-Romance, Occitan. Several troubadours were from

638-418: Is an independent language, distinct from Occitan, has found little resonance with linguists, especially Romance linguists. It is strongly defended by those who espouse the norme bonnaudienne a standardization of Auvergnat. An understanding of the vitality and overall usage of Auvergnat can be garnered from a survey carried out in 2006 in the Auvergne region. The largest group of the two languages spoken in

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696-489: Is cold but relatively dry; the Mounts of Cantal and Aubrac block precipitation coming from the west and provide Margeride with a relatively sheltered position. However, it remains harsh with a long period of snow cover and exhibits thermal characteristics similar to the climates of Iceland or Sweden . The winds can be very strong and regularly sweep the ridges and plateaus. In winter, temperatures are comparable to those found in

754-541: Is generally defined. A Northwestern Auvergnat may be defined as well by 5 and 6. The Northeastern (East of 5 and 6, North of 9) has, according to Bonnaud, a stronger influence from French phonetics (a bit like Marchois). Auvergnat is most often categorized in the Northern Occitan dialect group, along with Limousin and Vivaro-Alpine . There are two primary distinctions in Auvergnat: The suggestion that Auvergnat

812-587: Is strong (41%) and is stronger still with the 35 and under demographic (58%). 71% of the region's inhabitants are favorable to the idea of maintaining the regional language and culture, with a stronger result in the 35-and-unders (76%). To achieve this desire, different institutions are expected to play a role (in percentage of those surveyed): The following are authors who have published in Auvergnat: Poets using Auvergnat: Songwriters using Auvergnat: Fran%C3%A7ois Antoine François Antoine , Officer of

870-676: The Gallic word morgarita , composed of morga meaning "ford, boundary" and - ritu for "ford". In Occitan , Margeride is called Marjarida . In Cantal, its western boundary is the Truyère , and its eastern boundary, in Haute-Loire, by the gorges of the river Allier . To the south, in Lozère, It is the Lot which delimits the region. The lithology of area is manly granitoids and gneiss . The highest peaks are

928-559: The Jura : for example, temperatures almost reached -30°C on March 1, 2005, in Saugues at only 900 meters above sea level. With diverse fauna and habitats, the Margeride is home to numerous mammal species such as hares , foxes , badgers , wild boars , as well as deer and roe deer . The lakes and rivers in the northern part of Lozère also provide a habitat for trout . The otter can be found along

986-794: The Signal de Randon at 1,551 metres and the Mont Mouchet at 1,465 metres. The watershed separating the Garonne basin and the Loire basin crosses the Margeride. The tributaries of the Allier and the Alagnon belong to the Loire basin, while the tributaries of the Truyère and the Lot belong to that of the Garonne. The highest mountains and peaks of the Margeride are: The climate

1044-570: The "Maid of the Gévaudan." His hopes confirmed, Antoine arranged for the embalming of the animal, whose carcass was to be presented before Louis XV himself. The death of the Wolf of Chazes notwithstanding, Antoine was unable to locate the rest of the wolf pack. The she-wolf and her whelps remained unaccounted for until October. It was said at the time that Antoine, having left his post at the Pommier Woods when his father Antoine let out his cry of victory, allowed

1102-454: The "Maid of the Gévaudan." Unconvinced that the Beast had been wounded to the death, however, he remained in the field. Writing to M. Saint-Priest, Antoine respectfully requested if a monetary reward for Marie-Jeanne Valet would be forthcoming. "By the way", he added, "I have sent to the royal kennels for help, just in case the Beast is not dead. While awaiting the arrival of this help, we shall gather all our strength and our wits to finish thereby

1160-405: The Auvergne region is referred to as patois (78% of the population) compared with other regional terms, with certain cultural identities emerging, such as auvergnat (10%), occitan (8%), bourbonnais (5%) or langue d'oc (4%). The regional language, whether Occitan (in the whole of the Auvergne region) or Oïl (the north of Allier), represents a strong presence in the region: A large part of

1218-559: The Auvergne, including Castelloza , Dalfi d'Alvernhe , the Monje de Montaudon , the Vesques de Clarmon , Peire d'Alvernhe , Peire Rogier and Pons de Capduelh . They did not, however, compose in the Auvergnat dialect, but in the standard literary register of Old Occitan . Official documents in Auvergnat become common around 1340 and continue to be found down to 1540, when the transition to French

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1276-502: The Beast remained at large. Moreover, his surly demeanor towards the Gévaudanais and local government officials, including the Bishop of Mende , did not place him in a favorable position, no matter how much favour he had at the court of the King, where he was vouched for by the intendant of his province M. Lallemant de Levignen. Public confidence in the d'Ennevals collapsed on 24 May during

1334-465: The Beast, on 21 September. The she-wolf was twenty-six inches at the shoulder and showed signs of having recently nursed whelps. Antoine, who believed the first whelp to have fallen on 4 October, surmised that but one wolf remained. 17 October brought the death of the last wolf, shot fittingly by Antoine himself. The carcasses of the wolf and its mother were poorly preserved, unlike that of the Beast, and prepared for shipment to Versailles . The reward for

1392-628: The Beast. Antoine first hunted with the d'Ennevals on 23 June, a Sunday, in the Malzieu area. Though the majority of the Gévaudanais were Catholic , thereby restricting them from strenuous activity on the Sabbath , Sunday hunts allowed the citizenry to depart from churches en-masse and move to the positions to which they had been assigned by local government officials, often as beaters . The d'Ennevals themselves had on 17 February replaced capitaine-aide-major Duhamel and his fifty-seven dragoons as masters of

1450-567: The Languedoc; and Jean-Bapstiste de Morin, Count de Moncan, the provincial commander who had originally assigned Duhamel to the hunt. His correspondence highlighted the extreme severity of the terrain in the Gévaudan, which Antoine found more difficult than that of any region he had hunted in the last fifty years, including all of France, and locales in Germany, Piedmont , and the Pyrenees . He also requested

1508-633: The Royal Bedchamber, Knight Equerry of the Royal Military Order of Saint Louis, served as Gun-Bearer to the King and Lieutenant of the Hunt under Louis XV of France , and is most notable as having pursued and slain what was thought to be the Beast of Gévaudan , its mate, and its whelps between 23 June and 17 October 1765. Antoine, by personal decree of the King, arrived in Malzieu on 23 June 1765 to replace

1566-576: The abbey of Sainte-Marie-des-Chazes, where his huntsmen wounded one of two wolves traveling together. Due to the evidence at hand, Antoine believed that the wounded wolf was one of the cubs and, moreover, had suffered a mortal injury. On 5 October Antoine again hunted in the Forest of Chazes and his marksmen shot and wounded the she-wolf, which escaped. His renewed activities had kept the Beast's mate and its progeny at bay; during this week they had killed nothing but sheep. On 13 October Antoine returned to Chazes at

1624-467: The area contains a museum of ecology , and a park with a herd of rare European bison . Summer hiking is a great way to discover the massif. There are numerous trails, regularly signposted, and signs regularly indicating the time needed to cover the marked paths. Margeride is also a great place for mountain biking . Numerous cross-country and enduro trails have been mapped out, suitable for all levels. A "Trail Margeride" area lets you discover part of

1682-471: The arrival of two doghandlers and a dozen hounds, the progeny of the requests he had submitted at the end of July. Heartened, Antoine abandoned his surrender and again took to the field. On 19 September, a huntsman informed Antoine that a large wolf had been sighted in Saint-Julien-des-Chazes, and that a she-wolf and her whelps were nearby. Antoine and his party quickly moved in, and on 21 September

1740-525: The banks of the Truyère. Along the banks of certain streams, the tufted loosestrife ( Lysimachia thyrsiflora ), a plant native to central and boreal Europe, rare in France, grows. The vast peat bogs of Margeride harbor a flora typical of cold environments, almost unique in France, including species relics of the glaciations such as the rare dwarf birch ( Betula nana ) or the downy willow ( Salix lapponum ). One of

1798-397: The beast of Gévaudan ( La Bête ) by drinking the water out of the footprint of a wolf, they must drink the water straight off the ground during a full moon. Once the spirit of La Bête took possession of the persons body they would experience memory blanks, loss of time which they cannot account for, fuge states, aggression, confusion, delusions and hallucinations. Supposedly La Bête

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1856-474: The behest of Madame de Guerin de Lugeac, prioress of Sainte-Marie-des-Chazes, who reported the presence of two wolves in her timber preserves. After a pursuit of nearly an hour and a half, Regnault, one of the eight gamekeepers from the Royal Captaincies of the Hunt, wounded the she-wolf, and she was finished off by two sharpshooters from Langeac twenty yards from where Antoine had fired on the Wolf of Chazes,

1914-496: The call of triumph to his fellow huntsmen, the wolf struggled to its feet and made straight for him, only to be put to flight by a shot from Rinchard, cousin to Antoine and one of the mounted gamekeepers supplied by the Duke of Orléans. The wolf, struck by Rinchard's shot, made a dash of twenty-five yards before at last dropping dead. Le Loup de Chazes , as it was afterward known, was six feet long, slightly over three feet tall, and weighed

1972-417: The definition boundaries allow defining an internal variation. The most traditional one between Lower or Northern Auvergnat and Upper or Southern Auvergnat is the mutation of s before [k], [p], and [t] (line 9). Lower Auvergnat, defined by Teulat, is the light green area labelled 1 on the map. Upper Auvergnat, defined by Teulat, is the light brown-yellow area labelled 2 on the map. A broader area (light yellow)

2030-459: The escape of the she-wolf and whelps, he having been positioned at the edge of forest where they made their escape. Antoine, fearing that the hunger and ferocity of the Beast may have passed into its offspring, also resolved to destroy the she-wolf and its whelps, ignoring premature celebration over the events of 21 September. From 22 September to 3 October Antoine and his party continued the hunt to no avail. On 4 October, however, Antoine returned to

2088-407: The events of 24 May, became furious and informed his court that he intended to replace the d'Ennevals, who had fared no better than Duhamel before them, with Antoine. The Royal Gunbearer departed for the Gévaudan on 8 June. Antoine and the d'Ennevals cooperated in the field until 18 July, when de Laverdy assented to the orders of Étienne Lafont, syndic of the estates of the Gévaudan and subdelegate to

2146-405: The first weeks of the month, on 8, 11, 12, and 13 September, resulting in four injuries and two deaths, and Antoine was at the verge of surrender. "Had I the wit of a Voltaire ", wrote Antoine to Saint-Priest and Lafont, tantamount to a resignation with the onset of winter, "I could pen a moving farewell." On 16 September, as he was composing his official withdrawal from the hunt, he was surprised by

2204-687: The hunt in Gévaudan , but they were proving to be equally unsuccessful in the field. On 8 April Duhamel relocated to new quarters at Pont-Saint-Esprit with his mixed regiment, the Volunteers of Clermont , having been removed and reassigned by Clément Charles François de Laverdy , whose faith in the Duhamel placed him outside of the King's favour. Despite enjoying the reputation of a great wolf hunter in Normandy , d'Enneval having destroyed 1200 wolves during his career,

2262-460: The huntsmen was sporadic for the remainder of the month due to heavy rains, with large-scale hunts on 24 and 28 July. The Beast, however, continued to assail the Gévaudanais irrespective of the weather. Several local government officials were soon the recipients of a communique from Antoine titled Observations , including Louis Phélypeaux, Count de Saint-Florentin and Ministre d'État ; M. Marie-Joseph-Emmanuel de Guignard de Saint-Priest, intendant of

2320-449: The ineffective Norman father-son duo of Jean-Charles-Marc-Antoine Vaumesle d'Enneval and Jean-François, who had been at the hunt since March with little to show for their efforts but the skins of ordinary wolves. His hunting party consisted of eight gamekeepers from the Royal Captaincies of the Hunt, two mounted gamekeepers on loan from the Duke of Orléans , three aides of the Duke of Penthiévre ,

2378-587: The intendant of Languedoc , to remove the Normans and give Antoine complete control of the hunt. D'Enneval and son soon returned to Normandy after they were mocked for their futile efforts at the court of the King. A contemporary was noted as saying the d'Ennevals bore "shame tantamount to that of a fox who has been caught by a chicken." Antoine had been busy in the field long before the d'Ennevals packed for Normandy. On 6 July he and his party arrived in Broussolles, where

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2436-399: The language of the upper classes, but it remained the language of rural communities. The effective borders of Auvergnat do not completely coincide with those of the current Region of Auvergne or the historical region of Auvergne but can be described as follows: There are strong oppositions between Pierre Bonnaud (for whom the Auvergnat is a language of its own, see the light orange line on

2494-459: The map – note it is including the easternmost part of the Marchois dialect) and for instance Roger Teulat. Light blue area labelled fr is for French-Langue d'Oïl. Light purple area labelled frp is for Francoprovençal. These are not characteristic of Auvergnat as a whole but allow for defining a boundary: Note that most Occitanists use rather 7 than 8 to define the southern boundary. Note some of

2552-465: The massif from Le Malzieu . In winter, cross-country skiing is possible on the trails of the Bouviers and Laubert-Plateau du Roy ski resorts. This Occitania geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Auvergnat Currently, research shows that there is not really a true Auvergnat dialect but rather a vast northern Occitan linguistic area. The word "Auvergnat"

2610-447: The most interesting peat bogs is that of Lajo , not far from Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole . In the 18th century the Margeride was terrorised by the Beast of Gévaudan . The beast of Gévaudan was a French legend, that supposedly takes on the appearance of a large wolf like creature. This creature is fabled to be very powerful and possessive almost like a demonic spirit. A normal man or woman (human) can open their bodies up to be possessed by

2668-464: The nearby castle at Besset, where a feast was held, followed by a celebration in honour of Saint Louis , accompanied by fireworks , fusillades , and the music of hunting horns . The men were in good spirits after the festivities, some believing that Marie-Jean Valet's bayonet thrust on 11 August had done the Beast in. Their spirits fell when a woman of twenty-two was attacked near the village of Diége on 2 September. Attacks increased in frequency through

2726-458: The popular fair at Malzieu. The Beast made its first attack of the day at Julianges , critically wounding twenty-year-old Marguerite Martin, who received extreme unction by the roadside from the vicar of Saint-Privat. A mile from this episode, in Amourettes, a boy of eleven was seized, but the Beast was put to flight by neighbors coming to his aid. It then fell upon a boy and girl as they entered

2784-509: The population that understands or speaks even a little or, moreover, fluently, neither know how to write nor read in that language. Language learning is found to be essential within the home, according to the survey, (grandparents noted as 61%, or other family members at 50%) with a very weak result from the schools (10%). Herein is found the problem of language-transmission when dependent upon State sponsorship. 40% of adults who did not teach their language to their children report regretting it at

2842-475: The right to add the image of the Beast to his coat of arms . Attacks ceased for a time after the destruction of the Loup de Chazes, the she-wolf, and her whelps, but began anew on 3 December 1765, and continued until 19 June 1767. It was Gévaudan rustic Jean Chastel who ended the scourge of the wolves once and for all, mortally wounding the new Beast at Mountmouchet during a hunt organized by M. le Marquis d'Apcher. It

2900-508: The slaying of the Beast, by now hovering at ten-thousand livres , Antoine distributed among his huntsmen while only taking a small fraction for himself. After more than four months in the field Antoine departed the Gévaudan for Versailles on 3 November, reaching the court of the King where he received copious praise for his victory, the Cross of the Order of Saint Louis , a pension of a thousand livres, and

2958-428: The time of the survey. This feeling is reported more strongly among the 35 or less demographic, at 58%. The desire to learn the local language is reported strongly, with increasing representation among the young, reported at 23%. According to the survey the desire to incorporate local language learning in schools is as follows: Haute-Loire (53%), Puy-de-Dôme (51%) et Cantal (74%). The desire to teach to their own children

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3016-506: The tragedy whose sad enactment has gone on too long." Antoine was in Besseyre on 19 August for a special mass said in honour of the Holy Ghost , attended by many members of the surrounding parishes and presided over by such notables as the prior of Prévac, the prior-vicar of Nozeyrolles, and the vicars of Paulhac, Sauges, and Venteuges. A procession of Antoine's huntsmen in full dress lead to

3074-498: The village of Marcillac, emerging from its hiding place in a juniper thicket and rending her clothes until she was naked from the waist up. To her aid came sixteen-year-old Pierre Tanavelle, whose aunt had been slain by the Beast on 23 February. Wielding an improvised spear he wounded the Beast, and it fled. News of these depredations reached the marketplace at Malzieu even as the Beast went about its business, prompting many to pack up their wares and head home. Louis XV, upon hearing of

3132-428: The water from the print of a wolf and becomes La Bête their person gradually ceases to exist, their memories, their very essence is replaced by that of Jeziah Lou-Silvré and his spirit seeks vengeance on all hunters and descendants of his sister (the bloodline of Lou-Silvré), the name Silvré can be translated to mean Silver which is coincidentally the fabled element capable of killing a werewolf, however silver doesn't kill

3190-454: Was born from a continued line of werewolves, where the male of each generation would have the wolf gene in their DNA and during a blood moon they would pass on the wolf power through a bite. La Bête was first fabled to be in the body of a man named Jeziah Lou-Silvré and his sister was the one who killed him with a single spear crafted from mountain ash and mistletoe. The spirit of La Bête is the most powerful legend in France and when someone drinks

3248-570: Was complete. The high point for the use of Auvergnat as an official language was between 1380 and 1480. There is a passion play , Passion d'Auvergne , first performed in Montferrand in 1477, that is written mainly in French but which contains an Auvergnat section of 66 lines. Auvergnat had been replaced by French in official usage in the Montferrand already in 1388. French had also supplanted Auvergnat as

3306-479: Was guessed by many at the time that the whelp Antoine had believed to be wounded to the death on 4 October was the animal killed by Chastel, which had retreated into the Margeride Range for two months, recuperating and growing in size and returning to continue the depredations of its sire. Antoine appeared as a character in the French film The Brotherhood of the Wolf where he is played by Johan Leysen , though

3364-414: Was there that he encountered the wolf as it emerged from the forest. His musket loaded with no less than five charges of powder, a ball, and thirty to forty pieces of shrapnel known as "wolf shot", he fired at a range of fifty yards, the kick of his weapon knocking him nearly to the ground. The wolf collapsed, having taken the ball to his right eye and the shot to his right shoulder and side. As Antoine raised

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