The Werewolf of Quebec

The Fortifications of Québec (National Historic Site) have borne witness to so many of Quebec and Canada's most pivotal moments, but this story is...unique. In 1766, the Gazette de Quebec reports that there was a werewolf stalking the countryside outside the city's stone walls...

FRENCH VERSION AVAILABLE!

We have to reanimate sections to fit the timing of the French version, so there’s a bit of a delay.

Place names:

For storytelling purposes, we occasionally refer to locations from a contemporary perspective. We will always side with simplicity, flow, and clarity in order to make the episodes as engaging as possible.

French Canadian:

We are phasing this terminology out of our scripts, but sometimes it slips through due to word-repetition and simplicity. Where possible, we endeavour to say “Canadiens,” or “Quebecois,” or “francophones” depending on the context. We’d actually forgotten it was in this script until the editing phase unfortunately.

The Gazette de Quebec:

The source of the article that first caught our interest years ago when we posted a blog/Twitter thread on the subject. Interestingly, the newspaper was relatively new at the time that the infamous werewolf story was published. The paper started in June 1764. In fact, there were no newspapers in New France between 1608 and 1763 because the French officials opposed the establishment of a printing press. In our episode about Rouge Park, we mention one of the most pivotal consequences of having a free press: the French Revolution.

Wolf Blood (1925):

One of the coolest things we came across with this episode is the silent-era film Wolf Blood. It’s said to be the oldest surviving werewolf movie. It’s an American film, but it’s actually set in Canada (shocking!). In a Canadian forest, two rival logging companies become so hostile with each other that a lumberjack is beaten and left for dead. Only a blood transfusion from a wolf can save him! You can find the flick all over YouTube as it’s in the public domain.

The Beast of Gévaudan:

There are other Canadien werewolf tales, but we found it incredible that this story lined up so closely with one of the most famous stories in the world. The first report of the beast came from a young woman who'd been herding cattle. She described the beast as "like a wolf, yet not a wolf." Not long after, a girl named Jeanne Boulet was killed by an animal while watching livestock. And the attacks continued, targeting mostly women and children, until they could no longer be dismissed as regular animal activity. At one point up to 30,000 volunteers were recruited to help hunt the beast. Some even dressed like women in hopes of luring the animal. It helped that the reward money was close to one year's salary for a working man at the time.

One particular story stands out of a young woman named Marie-Jenne Valet who was walking home alone from a neighbouring farm, armed with a homemade spear, when she turned around to see the Beast of Gévaudan, which she described as a terrifyingly large dog. She immediately drove her spear into the animal's chest, which sent it running away, injured. A monument stands in Auvers, France, in honour of her bravery.

Some theories have suggested the animal was a wolf-dog hybrid trained to attack people.

A favourite film of one of the creators of Canadiana, The Brotherhood of the Wolf is loosely based on the animal killings in Gévaudan—though in this film, (spoilers) the beast is a lion in disguise.

General Loup Garou lore:

In Quebecois culture, a loup-garou is strongly connected to Catholic morality. It could be a curse given to someone guilty of not being a good Christian—like failing to confess sins. In Canadien folklore, the spell over a werewolf could be broken only if someone recognizes the werewolf while transformed, and is able to draw blood from the animal. However, if successful, neither may speak of the incident again, lest they meet an even worse fate.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

The walls of Quebec City. These fortifications have stood for more than 300 years, strengthened, expanded and rebuilt over the centuries to protect the people within. They've been lined by cannons and patrolled by armed guards. They've withstood sieges and turned back armies.

But those invaders aren't the only threat that has kept the people of Québec up at night. There are other dangers said to have lurked in the darkness outside the city's stone walls…

In 1766, the Gazette de Québec reported that a werewolf was on the loose in the colony.

This is Canadiana.

It was far from the first “loup-garou” to terrorize Québec. There’d been sightings of werewolves in New France since the 1600s. And their roots went back even further than that.

France had been fighting a werewolf epidemic since the late 1400s. Suspects were regularly tried, convicted and burned at the stake. The creatures must have sailed across the Atlantic with the first French settlers who came to Québec — or, at least, the stories about them did.

When French settlers left Europe for Canada, they brought more than just supplies — they brought their folklore with them, too, including tales of supernatural beasts. 

And here on the very edge of their empire, living as strangers in an unfamiliar land, it must have been easy for those old fears to take hold.

But in some ways, the Québecois werewolves that terrorized French-Canadian settlers were different from the Hollywood beasts we’re familiar with today.

These werewolves were doomed to transform not just with the full moon, but every single night — sometimes for as many as 101 nights in a row. Most transformed into wolves, but others were condemned to a fate a little less cool: turning into dogs, cats, owls, cows, oxen… there were even some werepigs.

The loup-garou of 1766 had been stalking through the colony for years. And it might not have been a coincidence that the stories appeared during a particularly uneasy decade in the history of Québec.

The British had just conquered the French colony. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was still a fresh memory. People were still getting used to life under the new regime.

According to the Gazette’s first report, the werewolf had been spotted outside Quebec City, heading in the direction of Montreal. It was in disguise as a beggar, to better stalk its prey. The newspaper warned its readers to be careful: “It is recommended to the Public to be as cautious of him as it would be of a ravenous Wolf.”

The Gazette openly worried that the loup-garou might even be as dangerous as the infamous Beast of Gévaudan.

For the last three years, the French countryside had been terrorized by an actual, real-life wolf — or more likely a pack of wolves — that tore out the throats of farmers and villagers. The Beast of Gévaudan is thought to have killed more than a hundred people in southern France.

Eventually, royal troops were sent to the region to track down the wolf and kill it. Some people would later claim the Beast was finally brought down by a hunter who shot the animal with a silver bullet.

And the werewolf of Quebec City wouldn’t be easy to kill, either...

The werewolf roamed through the province for another year before the people of New France finally fought back. According to the Gazette, they organized a campaign of attacks against the beast. And in the autumn of 1767, they won a major victory…

They set their dogs upon the werewolf over and over again, seriously injuring the “monster.” The newspaper reported that “he received such a furious Blow… that it was thought they were entirely delivered from this fatal Animal… as it soon after retired to its Hole, to the great Satisfaction of the Public.” 

It seemed as if the terror was finally over. But the victory against the werewolf was short-lived. Just a few weeks later, the monster was back. And now, it was angry.

In early December, the Gazette reported, “This Beast is not entirely destroyed, but begins again to show itself more furious than ever and makes terrible [havoc] wherever he goes.”

The paper gave a chilling warning: “Beware then of the Wiles of this malicious Beast, and take good Care of falling into its Claws.”

But then, the trail goes mysteriously cold. That, it seems, is the last of the Gazette’s reports about the werewolf of Quebec City. He disappears without a trace.

So maybe the story was nothing but superstition and rumour. An eerie folktale told in an uneasy time.

Or maybe the werewolf was just an ordinary animal that was eventually killed without fanfare.

But maybe you’d prefer to imagine there are still loup-garous out there somewhere to this day, stalking through the countryside and cities of Québec.