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Basajaun

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Artist's depiction of a basajaun and his female companion, a basandere.

In Basque mythology, Basajaun (Basque: [bas̺ajaun], "Lord of the forest", plural: basajaunak, female basandere) is a huge, hairy hominid dwelling in the woods. They were thought to protect flocks of livestock, and teach skills such as agriculture and ironworking to humans.[1]

Nomenclature

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Basajaun is glossed "Lord of the forest"[1][3][5] The female counterpart is the Basandere[6] (var. "Basa Andre",[7] "Basa-Andre",[8]) probably created during a later period, by analogy.[9]

The creature is called Basajun in the Basque-Navarre valleys as well as the Aragonese Pyrenees, to where the name may have been transmitted,[2] while in the valleys of Tena, Anso and Broto, places that preserve Basque toponymy. the creature is called Basajarau, Bonjarau[2] or Bosnerau. Thus the creature also known in the neighboring regions as part of Aragonese mythology.

General description

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The Basajaun is said to have a tall, human form, with his face and body covered in hair, with the strands reaching the knees, walking upright like a man.[10][12] He is more agile than a stag.[12] His two feet are differently shaped, thus leaving an odd set of foot tracks. While one foot is normal, the other one (left foot[13]) is rounded like the tree stump (base of a tree trunk[2]), and leaves circular footprints.[2][13]

The basajaunak dwells in the forests and caverns at higher altitudes.[10][9] More particularly, it is said to inhabit the forests of Gorbea and Irati.[citation needed]

Far from being aggressive, the Basajaun is protective of sheep flocks from wild beasts (wolves[10]) and storms,[2][9][1] An indication of his presence is that the sheep will all start shaking their bells simultaneously, and the shepherd can go to sleep, delegating the nightwatch to the Basajaun.[10][9] When a storm approaches, the Basajaun makes a howling cry in the mountains to warn shepherds.[10][9] In exchange, the Basajaunak receive a piece of bread as tribute, which they collected while the shepherds were asleep.[citation needed] Naturally, the beginnings of Christianity (Kixmi) and the spread of technology coincide with the period when the Romans came to the Basque Country.[citation needed]

The Basajaun sometimes appears in the stories as terrifying man of the forest, of prodigious strength with whom it was better not to run into.[10][14]

However, Basajaun is also said to have been the world's first farmer who taught mankind how to cultivate cereals. Basajaun was also the world's first blacksmith, and miller, from whom mankind stole the secrets of making the saw, the mill axle, and the art of welding.[10] Alternatively, it was the trickster San Martin Txiki acquired these various skills from them, which he subsequently taught to humans.[14]

They were also thought to build megaliths.[citation needed]

Some scholars[15][16] have suggested that the Basajaun myth might be a folk memory of early human contact with Neanderthal populations in the Iberian Peninsula.

Folktales

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In one tale, billed as the only depiction of the Basajaun as a "vampire",[18] the wild man (Basa-Jaun) accepts three boys and a girl as servants, but the girl grows thin because he comes each evening demanding her to poke her finger through the door, and he has been sucking on the finger, which has been the cause of her languor. The children push the wild man down the ravine. But the wild woman (Basa-Andre) instructs the girl to place three large teeth in the warm water she uses to wash her brother's feet, and the boys turn into oxen. But the girl eventually finds opportunity to threaten the wild woman and learn how to undo the spell with three hazel rods.[19][17]

The candlestick of the St. Saviour

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The tale "Le Chandelier de Saint-Saveur (The candlestick of the St. Saviour)" is given in two versions. In the Mendive version, a farmhand named Hacherihargaix (fox-hard-to-catch) steals the candlestick of the Basa Andere, and is pursued by her father, the Basa Jaun. When the thief reaches the (chapel of) Saint-Saveur, the bell rings, and this somehow causes the wild man from sparing the thief and not devour him until the next opportunity, which will be when the man is fasting. One day the thief is doing farmwork without having eaten, and spots the lord of the wilderness coming. He manages to find four grains of wheat in his hair and starts chewing, which makes the Basa Jaun go away.[20][a] The notion that the act of eating should have certain mystical powers is characterized as rather peculiar.[21]

Three truths

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In the tale "Three Truths" published in French by Julien Vinson (1883), the shepherds move their encampment to low altitude, they forget to bring their grill to cook dough on, and 5 sous is offered to whoever volunteers to retrieve it. The shepherd who goes encounters the Basa-Jaun baking bread on it. The wild man will return the implement if the shepherd tells three truths, which he does (full moon is not really as bright as day, a well-made meturé [fr] (sort of a corn bread[b]) (or in the Basque text, good maize[c]) is not really as good as bread, and the shepherd would not have come if he knew the Basa-Jaun would be there). The Basa-Jaun admits the bargain is met, and offers the advice: never take a night job for pay, one would sooner do it for free.[24][25][d] Taboo against working nights for pay is part of Basque tradition (remarked as being "another strange idea"), and the theme occurs in a different tale where the girl who breaches the prohibition by taking a night job for 5 sous and loses her life.[7]

One-eyed basajaun blinded

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In the tale "Basajaun Blinded", two soldiers on furlough encounter a one-eyed Basa-Jaun, and one of them skewered on a spit, roasted, and eaten straightaway. The survivor, who is saved for later, sneaks up to the sleeping Basa-Jaun and drives the ed hot spit through the giant's eye. Although the soldier now has a sporting chance to escape, he is tricked by the giant's gift of a ring, which starts screaming "Here I am", and which cannot be removed. The soldier cuts off the ring with his finger and throws it in a stream. Basa-Jaun dives in after and drowns.[28] One-eyedness is actually the typical feature of the Tartalo (Tartaro),[29] but the lore of the Tartalo and Basajaun are often mixed up.[9]

Comparative mythology

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Further information: Wild man

Basque folklore concerning the Basajaun is often confounded with the lore of the Tartalo and other evil spirits,[9] as already noted.

The Basajaun (var. basojaun, basayaun) is considered a variety of "wild man",[30] or the Basa Andre with "wild woman", each comparable with the ogre and ogress.[7] Various cultures across Europe have their own unique concept of the "wild man", with distinct names and folklore.[31]

A comparison has been made between Basajaun and the Roman god Silvanus,[33] although it is the salvan or salvang the wild man of Lombardy which is linguistically derived from Silvanus.[31] Silvanus was more fully known as "Silvanus sylvestris deus", protector of forests and plantations, and "Silvanus agrestis", who safeguarded shepherds from harm. This pattern is also common among the different variations of the wild man myth.[citation needed]

Like the Jentil, the Basajaun is a large, hairy, wild man who lived in dark jungles and deep caves, but unlike them, he is very wise. The Basajaun is said to have been among the last of the surviving Jentilak during the arrival of Christianity. He is presented as the protective genius of the flocks, and when a storm approaches, he roars for the shepherds to protect the flock. He also prevents wolves from getting close to the herd. He has also been depicted as a fearsome and evil man of great strength.[citation needed]

Similarity between the Brazilian legendary creature pé de garrafa ("bottle foot") which leaves footprints like the bottom of a bottle, and the round footprinted (as described by Vison[13]) has also been noted by Luís da Câmara Cascudo.[34]

Iconography

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Late medieval carving depicts the basajaun at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Burgos.[6]

Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ The orally told versions redacted in Basque language are appended, Cerquand (1875a), pp. 279–280. The second "Camou-Suhast" version has lamiñac (sing.lamiña, fairy) instead of the Basa Andere.
  2. ^ meturé is also glossed as a galette made of corn.
  3. ^ Basque: "arto on".[22]
  4. ^ A Basque version from Gipuzkoa province, with Spanish translation has also been printed (together with Vinson's French text).[26]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lurker, Manfred [in German] (1987). "Basajaun". The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 0-415-34018-7.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Basajarau/ Bonjarau". Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa Online (in Spanish). DiCom Medios SL. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  3. ^ Spanish: "Señor de los Bosques".[2]
  4. ^ Azkue, Resurrección María de (1905). "Basajaun". Diccionario vasco-español-francés. Vol. 1. Alfred Mame et fils. pp. 135–136.
  5. ^ Spanish: "Señor de las selvas", French: "Seigneur des bois".[4]
  6. ^ a b Sherman, Josepha (2015). "Basque Folklore and Mythology". Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore. Routledge. ISBN 1317459377.
  7. ^ a b c d Ralston, W. R. S. (17 February 1877). "Literature: Basque legends". Archéologia. 11 (250): 129–130.
  8. ^ Webster (1877), p. 50.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Estornés Lasa, Bernardo (1959). Orígenes de los vascos: Mensajes orales de las generaciones pasadas. Conclusiones particulares y generales. Vol. 4. Editorial Icharopena. p. 57. citing Barandiaran (1960), p. 75
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Martín de Retana, José María, ed. (1974). "Basajaun". Gran Enciclopedia Vasca (in Spanish). Vol. VII. Editorial La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca. p. 381.
  11. ^ Carr, Matthew (2018). "Wild Things". The Savage Frontier: The Pyrenees in History and the Imagination. Brasília: The New Press. pp. 244–269. ISBN 9781620974285. Joseph Augustin Chaho (1811–58) once described the basa-jaun as 'tall and of prodigious strength: his whole body is covered with a long smooth coat resembling hair: he walks upright like a man, surpassing the stag in agility'
  12. ^ a b Joseph Augustin Chaho quoted in translation by Carr (2018).[11]
  13. ^ a b c d Vinson (1883), p. xiii.
  14. ^ a b Lezama Perier, Patxi Xabier [in Basque] (2018). Mitología Vasca: Historia de los mitos y deidades del universo mitológico vasco (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  15. ^ Le Quellec, Jean-Loïc [in French] (2020). "Néandertal a été déshumanisé au prétexte de sa différence". Archéologia (585): 17. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  16. ^ Čović, Kristina (2020). Izumiranje neandertalaca: glavne teorije o nestanku interpretirane kroz prizmu prasvijesti i uz pomoć paleofikcije paleontologa Björna Kurténa pri modeliranju prapovijesnih scenarija (Master's thesis) (in Croatian). University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. p. 44. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  17. ^ a b Vaz Da Silva, Francisco (2014). "Fairy-tale symbolism". In Tatar, Maria (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Fairy Tales. Cambridge University Press. p. 104. ISBN 0-415-34018-7.
  18. ^ Vaz Da Silva,[17] after Webster (1877), p. 52n.
  19. ^ Webster (1877) "IV. Basa-jaun, Basa-Andre, and Lamiñak", pp. 47–53
  20. ^ Cerquand (1875a), pp. 247–251; Cerquand (1875b), 1: 22–27
  21. ^ Ralston doen't explicitly say this is peculiar or "strange", but he follows this comment with another, prefaced as "another strange idea.." (taboo against night work, see below)[7]
  22. ^ Cerquand (1875b), p. 29n
  23. ^ Vinson (1883), pp. 10–11.
  24. ^ "I. Les trois Vérités" Told by Mr. Barhendi of Musculdy. Cerquand, 31.[23]
  25. ^ Cerquand (1875b), pp. 28–29 (footnote)
  26. ^ Manterola, José (1883). "Iru Egiyak; Las Tres Verdades". Euskel-erria：Revista bascongada (in Basque and Spanish). IX: 402, 403.
  27. ^ Vinson (1883), pp. 42–45.
  28. ^ "X. Basa-Jaun aveuglé" Told by Jean Sallaber of Aussurucq. Cerquand, 52.[27]
  29. ^ Carr (2018): "the one-eyed and sometimes cannibalistic giant known as the tartalo"
  30. ^ French: homme sauvage.[13]
  31. ^ a b Bernheimer, Richard (1952). Wild men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment and Demonology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-374-90616-5. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  32. ^ Leeming, David (2003). From Olympus to Camelot: The World of European Mythology. Oxford University Press. p. 134. ISBN 9780190286712.
  33. ^ Leeming[32] citing Blazquiez [es], "Basque Religion" Translated by Erica Melzer, in The Encyclopedia of Religion. 2:80
  34. ^ Cascudo, Luís da Câmara (1962) [1954]. "Pé-de-garrafa". Dicionário do folclore brasileiro (in Portuguese). Vol. 2 (J–Z) (2 ed.). Brasília: Instituto Nacional do Livro. p. 583; Vol. 1 (A–I)

Sources

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[1]

See also

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  1. ^ Webster (1877) "IV. Basa-jaun, Basa-Andre, and Lamiñak", pp. 47–53
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