Wednesday, March 24, 2021

LOCAL QUEBEC VILLAGE LEGENDS


Grosses-Roches (Gaspésie) et les Chaudrons du Diable (on private property). A local sawmill owner complained to his priest that some of the loggers were skipping their job and going fishing. The priest went to investigate and found 3 large basins that look like cauldrons. 2 were filled with crystal clear water, that only distilled by God, but the third held dark water that the loggers had been fishing in with the eels visible swimming on top. He pronounced the place diabolic and forbid his parishioners from visiting there on the threat of being struck down by God.

Lac Pohénégamook (Bas-Saint-Laurent)- since 1901 there have been reports of a monster  swimming in the lake, and can be searched for with a 25 km walk around the lake. It has been affectionately called Ponik by the inhabitants, and described as a giant fish, a serpent, with a hump on its back, and two large golden horns.

Grand-mère (Mauricie) - named by the Algonquins "Kokomis" because of a rock that looked like a grandma on the shores of Saint-Maurice's River. The chief's son was engaged to marry a young woman of the area in exchange for a canoe full of furs, but he drowned and never returned. The rock was moved to a municipal park during the construction of a hydro power plant.

Rigaud - Le champ des guérets (labour) - José-le-diable worked to plant his potato field on a sunday. Whether the legend was a transformation from potatoes to rocks, or the rocks fell from the sky, the truth is that the field of stones was brought to the place by ancient glaciers, and left a river of smooth round stones.

Charlevoix:

Oral tradition is how these legends originated. Recurrent themes are religion, with associations with the devil if people are breaking rules. Strongmen are common rural heros. The landscape can feature in the legent, like the three hills near Notre-Dame-des-Monts, that resembles the silhouette of a half-submerged woman, or like a rock on L'Isle-aux-Coudres that has tears that fall as though human.

Characters include le Bonhomme Sept Heures, the Crow, and the Flying Canoe (Chasse-galerie)

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