Tradition / Region: France (Normandy: Cinglais Forest, Caen, Évreux)
Alternate Names: Beast of Évreux, Beast of Caen
Category: Man-eating beast / wolf
The Myth
In the forests of Normandy, a man-eating beast was said to roam the woodland of Cinglais, south of Caen. The first attacks were recorded in the year 1632. For more than a month, the creature was blamed for repeated assaults on travelers and villagers, leaving dozens dead.
Contemporary reports describe the beast as moving between the forest of Cinglais and the road toward Falaise. Survivors of its attacks claimed it resembled a massive mastiff or wolf, far larger than ordinary animals. It was said to be impossibly fast, able to outrun any man on foot, and so agile that it leapt across rivers with ease. Some locals called the creature Therende. Attempts to shoot it with arquebuses failed, as the beast could not be wounded from a distance, and few dared to approach it alone.
Fear spread throughout the region. Priests rang the tocsin and called on parishioners to gather together for safety, warning that the beast attacked isolated individuals. Reports claimed that fifteen people had already been devoured by March of 1632, and the number continued to rise.
In June of 1633, authorities organized a massive hunt. Between five and six thousand men were assembled under orders to scour the forest. After several days of pursuit, the beast was finally brought down by a single arquebus shot. With its death, the attacks ceased.
The slain creature was identified as a kind of wolf, though unlike any commonly known. It was described as longer than ordinary wolves, redder in color, with a broader rump and a more sharply pointed tail. Although its body was examined, many believed that its unusual ferocity and endurance suggested sorcery or something unnatural.
The Beast of Cinglais was said to have claimed more than thirty lives in just over a year. Even after its death, its story remained fixed in memory as one of the most terrifying animal outbreaks ever recorded in Normandy.