#loupgarou

[ulfeid]

Art by Zungwood

[quazimortis]

ℕ𝕖𝕔𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕣𝕪 𝔼𝕧𝕚𝕝

[thevampiresofneworleans]

Hate to burst anyone's bubble (and we'll get into this at length in the documentary) but there is no hard evidence of folk belief in vampires in Louisiana prior to the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1976.

However . . .

Belief in a malevolent supernatural creature called the loup-garou was widespread in French-colonized regions in North America (not to be confused with its uniquely Cajun variant the rougarou). Though loup-garou is directly translated as werewolf, within Francophone cultures it was understood as a more generic boogeyman-type figure.

Regional Caribbean versions of the loup-garou myth portray it as a bloodsucking, witch-like old hag. Métis interpretations conflate loups-garou with cannibalistic Algonquin wiindigoog. And in the 1701 travelogue A Voyage into the Levant, French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort describes a vroucolacas (the Macedonian vampire) panic on a Greek island as "fortes des loup-garou."

His tone is dismissive, and he uses "loup-garou" in the context of deriding the superstitious islanders for their belief in storybook monsters parents use to scare their children into behaving – but even so, it indicates an early connection between the Francophone boogeyman and the Eastern European folk vampire contemporaneous to the early French settlement of the American Gulf Coast.

It may have been that the first generations of French settlers in New Orleans had their own conception of the loup-garou as a cannibal or a bloodsucker closer in line with the Caribbean or Métis traditions than the more mature later myth of the explicitly wolfen Cajun rougarou.

[larucheanimation]

Inktober day 8: Hike

A spooky meeting on while hiking for those werewolves.

Inktober jour 8: Marche

Une rencontre inquiétante pendant que ces loups-garous marchent en forêt.

@inktober

[thenightling]

It's actually very disrespectful that so many descriptions of the Rougarou say "Like a werewolf." It's alternate name is the Loup-garou. That's literally French for werewolf. The French literally call him "The werewolf." He's not "Like a werewolf." He's a werewolf, he's THE werewolf of the bayou. "But he can take his wolf form at will!" That's actually common in traditional, pre-Wolfman werewolf folklore. "But he's bipedal in his wolf form." So are a lot of werewolves and some look like literal wolves in their lore. "But he can talk in his man-wolf form!" So can the werewolf in Monster Mash (2024 Asylum film), and the werewolf henchman in The Vampire Returns, and the werewolf in Cursed. There's nothing of Rougarou / Loupgarou lore that isn't found in werewolf lore.

End of Cryptozoology rant.

[goldenwolfen]

The invisible ink "Rampage" stickers are now up! Get them quick before they disappear! 💀

[pansexualkiba]

Every so often, a houseboat goes out onto the water.

Everyone knows the owner of the houseboat. Of course they do, it's Old Man Lochkova, the old adventurer who retired to their tired old coastal town and promptly took up a fishing business. He built the houseboat himself, not letting himself get rusty until he took up the net and pole.

So, it's normal to see Lochkova go out to sea, days at a time, and come back with an impressive haul.

That doesn't mean people don't sometimes get worried for him. There have been recent rumors of a werewolf, and the howls, no matter how distant, ring through the coastline like thunder.

Old Lochkova always seems decent, though. Sometimes, when he's in town, he teaches the kids how to fish with little rudimentary poles they're lucky to land crabs with. Sometimes, he plays a little harp for people to dance to.

"I used to be a bard," Lochkova reminisces when asked a faint, proud smile on his grizzled face. "Not anymore, of course, those days are behind me."

Yes, people are in love with their salty old man who lives on the sea.

---

Angel Lochkova shudders awake.

Another dumb dream about a storm that won't come. He groans and makes a mark on the calendar - the full moon is circled, like always.

Sometimes, Angel thinks it was fate. The tides are beholden to the moon, pushed and pulled by its glowing presence.

He's morphed and pulled by the moon, as well, as the Loupgarou plaguing the village.

Well, whatever. He'll be on the water until that time has passed, anyways.

He has a net to cast, a wolf to become, and a thrumming of electricity just beneath his veins to ignore.

[toyoll]

SIP FROM THE STYX

(Or: No Pictures, Please)

Just another indulgent werewolf to help me relax. Her name is Bernadette and she's cranky.

I'm also on Instagram!: @JustCallMeMrm