Like in other old Celtic countries, for example England, Scotland or Ireland, in Galicia we have a culture really rich in legends and myths that have been told during cold and stormy nights to frighten the children and to entertain the adults for centuries.
From the subject of English we want to honour our ancient traditions and our shared history with the United Kingdom by collecting some of the most extended and popular myths; the meigas, the trasnos, the werewolves, the Santa Compaña.
Meigas:
They are very rooted in the popular tradition, their name comes from the word magicus, which means “person with extraordinary or magic powers”, they can be good or evil, ugly or stunningly beautiful. A really popular phrase in the Galician culture is “Eu non creo nas meigas, pero habelas, hainas” which translated to English it’s “I don’t believe in the meigas, but to be, there are”. This expression includes the essence of the Galician way of being, which is set between practicality, incredulity and mysticism.
In oral legends we can find thousands of different meigas but we have picked up four with the aim of representing the great range and variety that forms our culture.
Maria Soliña: a famous meiga from the XVII century judged and condemned by the Holy Inquisition, for having deals with the devil.
Aureana: a young and beautiful meiga. A casual encounter with her, especially in the banks of the rivers or springs is a symbol of good luck. Her name derives from the old name of Ourense, Aurea.
Sabia: is one of the few good and softhearted meigas. If you find her she could heal any illness you may suffer from.
Chuchona: they’re the most dangerous, they present different appearances and they recollect children’s blood and fat to use it in their potions.
Through the years in Galicia we have developed various ways of freeing ourselves of the meigas, one of the most extended id the Queimada, a mixture made from Galician aguardiente , a liquor distilled from wine and flavoured with special herbs or coffee and sugar, lemon peel, coffee beans, cinnamon. It is traditionally prepared in a hollow pumpkin.
The Galician Werewolf
Manuel Blanco Romasanta was born in Regueiro, Ourense in 18th November 1809. He lived like a wanderer, after his wife’s death, in the Galician’s forest and mountains. He assures that during the nights he became a wolf and used it as a pretext to justify the many muderers that he committed.
During the trial that took place against him, he declared that the first time he became a wolf he was in Couso’s mountain. There he found another two enormous wolves. They prowled around the forest for five days, until they recovered their body again. He discovered that the wolves were two men called Antonio and Genaro, who also suffered from lycanthropy. During this time they attacked and ate various people because they were hungry. He died on 14th December, but no one is sure how, there are three different versions:
Until 2009, we believed that he died in Allariz prison in 1845
After the release of a TVG documental people started to believe that he died in A Coruña
Since 2011, detectives think that he died in 1863 in a Ceuta’s prison because of a stomach cancer.
The experts consider that Romasanta suffered from a mental illness called Clinical lycanthropy, unleashed after his wife passed away, which means he had hallucinations that made him think he can transform himself into an animal.
The trasgos
Trasnos are a type of night elf belonging to Galician mythology.
They are mischievous beings that during the nights, when all the members of the family have gone to bed, they stir all the kitchen utensils and hide things. They are described in many ways, as many as names they receive. The popular ones describe him as a small man, dressed in a cassock with horns and a long beard and wearing a red cap.
La Santa Compaña
La Santa Compaña is one of the most well known and chilling urban legends of the Spanish oral tradition
Basically it would be a procession of dead people «led» by an alive person that carries a cross, this bearer walks as if he were a sleepwalker and does not remember anything the next day, although his life is slowly being consumed by the group of the dead. Only if he finds another alive person that sees the Santa Compaña, and gives him his cross, he will be freed from the curse that night after night forces him to lead the dead. All the dead people that form the Compaña carry a candle in their hand, when they find a person who will soon die will give him his candle, if the person accepts it will die in a short period of time.
It is said that they appear at the crossroads and only during the night of All Saints or the night of San Juan (June 24th and after midnight).
The dogs announce their visit howling in an excessive way, the cats flee in terror and when they arrive, the noises of the animals in the forest cease.
This myth still very rooted in the Galician popular culture, linked to the hundreds of crosses that we can see in the Galicia’s crossroads, specially in the most rural areas.
This legend is still alive in Asturias, specifically in the area of La Gustier and in the west of Castile and Leon (provinces of Zamora and Leon) and Extremadura.
Protection from the curse
Alongside with our stories, in Galicia we have developed various ways of giving the Santa Compaña the slip if on a rainy night in the forest our departure it is announced to us.
The most popular and «effective» ones are: to make a circle in the ground around you, to pray and not to listen to the sound that the Santa Compaña emits, but above all never to accept the candle that the bearer of the cross will try to give us because as soon as we do it we will be part of the Compaña.
Fotografía: detectivesdelahistoria.es, rumbogalicia.wordpress, Wiquipedia, taringa.net.
