01 La Bete Du Gevaudan Inktober2020

My first publication for the inktober2020 with a personal theme on the monsters of French folklore. Here's the first creature: La Bête du Gévaudan.
La Bête du Gévaudan (the Beast of Gévaudan) is the name of a famous man-eating animal which terrorised the former province of Gévaudan (département of Lozère and part of Haute-Loire) in France between 1764 and 1767. Some sources claim the Beast killed between 60 and 100 adults and children and injured more than 30. The attacks were so serious that the Kingdom of France used a considerable amout of money and manpower to hunt the creature responsible. The Beast was reported killed several times before the attacks finally stopped.

The descriptions of the creature may have been greatly exaggerated due to public hysteria, but the beast was generally described as a wolf-like canine as large as a calf or sometimes a horse. Its coat was reddish gray with a long, strong panther-like tail. The head and legs were short-haired and the color of a deer. There are still many rumors about the origin of the Beast. Some imagine a very big wolf, an exotic animal (lion, hyena…) and even a sorcerer or a werewolf. Others also advance the beast trainer or serial killer hypothesis.

Anyway, the mixture of fear, sensational and supernatural, made this story the first news item in the Kingdom of France. The many articles of the time about the Beast spread quickly throughout the country and even cross its borders. To this day, the mystery of the Bête du Gévaudan is a source of fantasies in popular culture, as the many adaptations in literature, cinema and tourism in Lozère region.

(for more information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of… www.history.com/news/beast-gev… )