Tradition / Region: Cantabrian mythology, Spanish Mythology
Alternate Names: El Hombre Pez
Category: Fish, Hyrbid
The Myth
In the middle of the seventeenth century, in the village of Liérganes near Santander, there lived a poor widow named María del Casar and her sons. After her husband’s death, she sent one of the boys, Francisco de la Vega Casar, to Bilbao to learn the trade of carpentry.
Francisco lived there for years, strong and skilled, and known as a capable swimmer. On the eve of Saint John’s Day in 1674, he went with friends to swim in the estuary. The river’s currents seized him, and he was carried out toward the open sea. He was last seen swimming away, and all believed he had drowned.
Five years passed.
In 1679, fishermen working the waters of the Bay of Cádiz far to the south found a strange being caught in their nets. It fought with inhuman strength and slipped free more than once. After repeated sightings, they finally captured it by luring it with bread. When they hauled it aboard, they saw that it had the shape of a man: pale-skinned, thin, with reddish hair. Yet its body bore signs of the sea—bands of scales ran from its throat to its belly and along its spine, and slits like gills marked its neck.
Fearing it was a monster, the fishermen brought the being to a nearby Franciscan convent. It was exorcised and questioned in many languages, but it did not respond. After several days, it spoke a single word: “Liérganes.”
No one knew what the word meant, until a sailor from the north recognized it as the name of a village near Santander. Word was sent there, and it was learned that a young red-haired man named Francisco de la Vega had vanished years earlier while swimming in Bilbao.
A friar proposed that the sea-creature might be that same Francisco. With permission, he took the being north. Near Liérganes, the friar released it, and followed as it moved unerringly through the countryside. It led him straight to the house of María del Casar, who recognized the creature as her lost son.
Francisco was taken in and lived quietly with his family. He walked barefoot and showed no shame in nakedness unless clothed by others. He rarely spoke, uttering only a few words without clear purpose. He ate voraciously at times, yet could go many days without food. Gentle and obedient, he performed simple tasks when asked, but without interest or joy.
For nine years he lived in this strange, half-human state. Then one day, he walked to the sea, entered the water, and swam away. He was never seen again.
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Fish-man. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish-man
