Peluda

The Peluda, known locally as La Velue ("the hairy one"), is a shaggy, sting-bristling dragon of La Ferté-Bernard in western France, said to have survived the Flood and ravaged the Huisne valley until a youth struck its tail.

The Story

The people of La Ferté-Bernard, a small town on the river Huisne in the Sarthe, told of a beast called la Velue, "the hairy one." According to the version made famous by Jorge Luis Borges, it had been refused a place on Noah's Ark, yet it survived the Flood and later settled on the banks of the Huisne. From there it raided the countryside, eating livestock and people, and when hunted it slipped back into the river, which overflowed and flooded the fields.

Its favorite victims were young women. At last it carried off a girl who was engaged to be married, and her fiancé tracked it down. Knowing that the beast's only weak spot was its tail, he struck it there with his sword and killed it.

Appearance and Powers

The Velue was about the size of an ox, with a snake-like head and neck, and was covered in long green hair or fur. Hidden in the fur were sharp points or stings whose prick was deadly; some modern retellings add that it could shoot them like arrows. Swords and spears could not pierce its coat; only the tail was vulnerable.

Origins and Sources

The legend is poorly documented. The tale is usually set in the High Middle Ages, but no medieval text about it is known. The earliest records found are 19th-century local publications from the Sarthe, including a pamphlet of 1889, and a description by the local writer Paul Cordonnier-Détrie (1954). The name "Peluda" is not a French folk name at all. It is the Spanish word for "hairy" used by Jorge Luis Borges in his Manual de zoología fantástica (1957, later The Book of Imaginary Beings), and it spread into English from there. In the Sarthe the creature has always been la Velue.

Legacy

Thanks to Borges, the Peluda now appears in fantasy bestiaries and role-playing games far beyond the Sarthe. It belongs to the French tradition of local river dragons, alongside the Tarasque and the Gargouille. See Western dragons.

Related

• Tarasque: The Tarasque is a river dragon of Provençal legend, a monstrous hybrid said to be the offspring of Leviathan, which Saint Martha tamed at Tarascon on the Rhône and which the town still parades in its festival.
• Gargouille: The Gargouille is the dragon of Rouen in Norman legend, subdued by the 7th-century bishop Saint Romain with the help of a condemned prisoner, whose pardon became the city's annual Privilege of Saint Romain.
• Drac of Beaucaire: The Drac of Beaucaire is a shape-shifting water dragon of Provençal legend that lived beneath the Rhône, lured people with floating treasures, and kidnapped a woman of Beaucaire to nurse its child.
• Western Dragons
• Dragon Legends

Sources and Further Reading

• Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero, The Book of Imaginary Beings, trans. Norman Thomas di Giovanni (Dutton, 1969)
• La Velue, légende sarthoise (Le Mans: E. Lebrault, 1889)

Cite this entry: “Peluda,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/peluda.