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DVD Movie    USA Code 1

The Beast of Gevaudan

 

The Beast of Gevaudan ( La Bête du Gévaudan ), terrorised parts of the Auvergne, killing many people between 1764 and 1767. This phenomenon really has nothing to do with Henri IV and appears here only because of the link with Marvejols. In fact the beast became more of an issue for Henri's descendant Louis XV, whose aloofness from the realities of life for the peasants of his land, were sowing the seeds of the French revolution..

Gevaudan is an area well known for it's wolves, but the beast seems to have been bigger and more ferocious than any known wolf. Some theories suggested a big cat, while some reported sightings suggested something akin to a huge wild boar, bristling with gigantic porcupine quills.

Some versions suggested the beast was a Jekyll and Hyde like human being. In country areas in those days, beliefs in witchcraft and the supernatural were strong, so the possibility of a person who physically transformed into a beast, seemed more credible than it may these days.

Some historians, credit the beast with having temporarily united Protestants with Catholics and peasants with aristocrats, in the common cause of trying to find and kill it.

The movie 'Brotherhood of the Wolf', relates one version of the story.


 


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DVD Movie Europe - Code 2

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