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BIG GHOUL



“Big Ghoul” is the name of a legendary dragon from the Poitou region in France. He is linked to the legendary history of the city of Poitiers, and he is one of its symbols.

Legend
The beast, described as a monstrous dragon, might have lived during the reign of St Radegund in the 6th Century. It lived under the Clain river, and when the river’s waters began to rise it would enter the labyrinthine caves existing beneath the ground in Poitou. It frequently came into the Holy Cross Abbey’s caves to devour the unfortunate nuns who had ventured there. Eager to rid the area of the beast, Radegund armed herself with a little cross and some holy water, then, as she was facing the dragon, spilt the water on him while making a prayer whereupon the beast disappeared, agonizing.

Historic role in the Legend
This legend, one of the most popular legends of Poitiers, is linked to the festive tradition of the city. In 1677, the abbess of the Holy Cross Abbey (Poitiers) ordered a wooden effigy of “Big Ghoul” from Poitiers cabinetmaker Jean Gargot. This effigy was destined to be paraded on the August 13th (Saint Radegund). The dragon was carried in the streets, and the old tradition was that children would throw littles cakes - called “muzzles breakers” - while praying out loud : « Good vermin Saint, pray for us! ». This procession stopped taking place, some time during in the 19th Century, and the wooden dragon, after having been kept in the attic of the major seminary of Poitiers, found its place in the collections of the Musée Sainte-Croix. Though the legend is a local variant of the fight between good and evil, inspired by the battle of Michael (archangel) against Satan in a dragon form, the beast thereafter became a protective figure of Poitiers. Similar legends are to be found in Tarascon by example, with the Tarasque defeated by Saint Marthe or Metz with the legend of Romanus of Rouen who freed Rouen from the Gargoyle.

Alternative Legend
A variant of the legend states that “Big Ghoul” was not defeated by Saint Radegund, but by someone condemned to death, who had been promised pardon in exchange for that exploit. Details of the story vary. For some sources, the fight took place at the same period of Saint Radegund; (6th Century); for others, it took place at a more recent period; in some variants, the prisoner remained unscathed, while in others he died: « The glass mask which he had put under the visor of his helmet having broken, the foul breath of the dragon poisoned him »

Possible Origins
Scottish John Lauder of Fountainhall, who lived in Poitiers between 1665 and 1666, also reported a vision of the legend in his travel journal, but represented “Big Ghoul” as a Crocodile. More precisely, he states that the story is about a stuffed crocodile, visible at that time at the palace of Poitiers: « There is, attached to a wall with iron chains, the shell of a hideous crocodile; although it is infinitely reduced (having been killed hundreds of years ago), it is monstrously big, with an enormous mouth ». We do not know what became of this crocodile, but it is not the only specimen introduced in France at the time. In the city of Oiron in the Deux Sèvres department there is a stuffed crocodile which would have brought there in the 16th Century by Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet or perhaps by his grandson. Robert Mineau put forward the hypothesis that this stuffed crocodile was already the center of the stories decades before the creation of the wooden effigy of the procession, and could therefore be the primitive core around which the legend came into existence. This explanation is not necessarily in contradiction with the traditional legend of the fight between Michael (archangel) and the dragon, but it is possible that the crocodile of the Palace, and the stories which formed around it, contributed to, or at least reinforced, what became later the legend of the “Big Ghoul”.

Iconography and posterity
Though “Big Ghoul” is a famous wooden dragon, its image has long been one of the major symbols of Poitiers. Today, it is the emblem of the Stade Poitevin, as well as the emblem of the Musée Sainte-Croix, which still shelters its wooden effigy. A popular nightclub, in front of the church of saint Radegund also bears its name. It is the case as well of a local magazine published in the interwar period. The Western Society of Vexillology imagined a “Big Ghoul” flag for the city of Poitiers, representing the dragon in blue on a white and black background. Created in Poitiers in 2004, the French “Brotherhood of the Knights of Big Ghoul” has been promoting food speciality: the Broyé poitevin.