Basajaun

In Basque mythology, (, "Lord of the forest", plural: , female ) 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.

Nomenclature

(var. , ) is glossed "Lord of the forest", or the "wild lord". The female counterpart is the (var. , ,) probably created during a later period, by analogy.

The creature is called Basajun in the Basque-Navarre valleys as well as the Aragonese Pyrenees, to where the name may have been transmitted (from Basque country), while the creature is called ''Basajarau'', ''Bonjarau'' in the Tena Valley and the vales of the cites of Anso and Broto in Aragon, places that preserve Basque toponymy. It is also known as ''Bosnerau'' in Aragonese myth. Thus the creature also known in the neighboring regions as part of Aragonese mythology.

Basajaun is also called (var. , ). Thus in the tale retitled "Basajaun captured" by Vinson, Ancho is identified as equivalent to the Basajaun at the beginning of the text.

General description

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.

His two feet are differently shaped, thus leaving an odd set of foot tracks. While one foot is normal, the other one (left foot) is rounded like the tree stump (base of a tree trunk), and leaves circular footprints.

He may have a single eye in the middle of the forehead, though this is also the attribute of the Tartalo with which the Basajaun is often confounded, that is to say, the role of the giant in a certain tale type can be substituted by the "Tartaro" or "Basa Jaun", depending on the telling.

The ''basajaunak'' dwells in the forests and caverns at higher altitudes or "prominent places". More specifically, it is said to inhabit the mountainside of the Gorbea in Biscay Province (or the forests of Zeanuri town nearby), around Ataun town which is the backwoods of neighboring Gipuzkoa Province, and the Irati Forest of the Pyrenees in Navarre Province.

The ''Basajaun'' is protective of sheep flocks from wild beasts (wolves) and storms, 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 night watch to the Basajaun. When a storm (or a pack of wolves) is approaching, the ''Basajaun'' makes a howling cry in the mountains to warn shepherds, giving people opportunity to move their flocks inside the folds.

A local folktale relates how the cowherds gave Ancho or Basajaun a portion of bread as nightly offerings (cf. ).

The ''Basajaun'' sometimes appears in the stories as terrifying man of the forest, of prodigious strength and surpassing agility (swifter than a stag) with whom it was better not to run into.

''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. Alternatively, it was the trickster San Martin Txiki acquired these various skills from them, which he subsequently taught to humans.

The Basajaun was also thought to build megalithic structures, or at least toponymy suggests his kindred were responsible for building dolmens, etc. In Ataun, there are many dolmen sites found in the mountainous terrain, dubbed Jentiletxe or "house of the Jentil", while on Mt. Saadar in Zegama, such dolmens are called Tartaloetxéta or "house of the Tartalo", and there is a geological formation (an arroyo) that is named Basajaundegi or "residence of the Basajaun" found in the Aratz-Erreka district of Azpeitia.

Naturally, the beginnings of Christianity () and the spread of technology coincide with the period when the Romans came to the Basque Country.

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

Folktales

In one tale, billed as the only depiction of the Basajaun as a "vampire", 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 the girl uses to wash her brother's feet, and the boys turn into oxen. But the girl eventually finds opportunity to threaten the wild woman into confessing how to undo the spell with three hazel rods.

The candlestick of the St. Saviour

The tale " (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 to spare the thief's life and not devour him until the next opportunity, which will be when the man is fasting. One day the thief is doing farm work 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, for good.The orally told versions redacted in Basque language are appended, . The second "Camou-Suhast" version has '' lamiña'' instead of the Basa Andere. This notion held by the Basque that the act of eating should have certain mystical powers has been seen as rather peculiar.

Three truths

In the tale "Three Truths" published in French by Julien Vinson (1883), when the shepherds move their encampment to lower altitude, they forget to bring their grill which they use to cook dough on. The reward of 5 sous is offered to whoever volunteers to retrieve it. The shepherd who accepts encounters the Basa-Jaun baking bread on it. The wild man will return the implement if the shepherd tells three truths, which he does (even a full moon is not really as bright as day, even a well-made (''galette'' made of corn,) is not really as good as wheat 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 should sooner do it for free. 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.

One-eyed basajaun blinded

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 red 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. One-eyedness is actually the typical feature of the Tartalo (Tartaro): "the one-eyed and sometimes cannibalistic giant known as the tartalo" aka Torto, and the lore of the Tartalo and Basajaun are often mixed up, as already noted. In fact, there is another version of this tale where a Tartaro is the blinded enemy, and the same talking ring motif occurs. The narrative resembles the story concerning Ulysses and the cyclops Polyphemus in the Greek epic, ''The Odyssey''.

External soul

There is a story entitled "Malbrouk" in the version edited by Webster, which is thought not to be a native Basque tale, but borrowed from Celtic tradition, just one of many such borrowings involving "external soul" and "animal helpers" motifs, though similar stories are found in other cultures, e.g. Magyars (Hungary).

Here Malbrouk is the name of both hero and the villain, his godfather and kidnapper. In this version, the hero escapes and later must defeat a "body without a soul", by going on a side-quest to find the egg (presumably the monster's external soul) inside the pigeon inside the fox, nested within the wolf, and to strike that egg on the "body without a soul", which is the only way to kill it. The hero is aided by the ability to transform into a wolf, dog, hawk, etc. a power conferred by his helper animals.

There is a version of this legend featuring a "wild Tartaro" as the villain, according to Antoine d'Abbadie., p. 82, note ‡

An obvious cognate tale was edited with French translation by Cerquand (1882), " (Helper animals and the body without a soul)", categorized as Aarne-Thompson type 302 "The Giant Whose Heart Was In an Egg". The hero (here a fisherman) unknowingly enters the service of Basa Jaun in danger of being eaten. Alerted by a captured maiden, goes on his side quest defeating the dragon (), because nested inside it are the hare containing the dove containing the two eggs that are the Basa Jaun's soul. The hero here also can transform into a bear to kill the dragon, greyhound to chase the hare, the crow to snatch the dove, to accomplish his quest. Cerquand notes similarity to the Scottish tale " The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh" as well as other cognates. Similarity to the Norwegian tale " The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body" edited by Dasent is also mentioned as resembling a variant version.

Kidnapping and failed rescue

In the tale "Basa Jaun the kidnapper, disappointed", the basajaun abducts a shepherdess and keeps her at his hole (Ancho's Hole). The people of Béhorléguy attempt a rescue armed with crosses and holy objects, and successfully liberates her, but when the lord of the wilderness tells her to turn around, she drops dead. "33. Le Basa Jaun ravisseur et déçu", pp. 34–36, Basque text: This clearly parallels the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Ancho and the cowherds

There is a story from Estérençuby

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