Herensugue

Herensugue is a gigantic snake of the Basque Country. In certain tales, he would be the guard of the Basajaunak.

Herensugue is one of the most important creatures of the Basque Mythologie. Its names vary but the permanence of the suffix “sugue” ( grass snake, snake ) is enough to justify its nature. It is indeed a Serpent. One finds the names of Erensugue (the pronunciation - sugue is retranscribed with or without “U”), Erensugue , Iraunsuge , Lerensuge , Herainsuge , Errensuge , Hensuge , Edensugue , Edeinsuge , Edaansuge , Igensuge , Iraunsuge .

Origins and legends

During the creation of the Ground, it is coupled with Sugaar (the goddess snake, usually of male type), which then gives birth to Sun and the Moon. It swallows then the very whole Earth then the recrache. In the ten days space, it absorbs all the Création for the régurgiter in the flames. Then, having achieved these tasks, he falls asleep.

He is sometimes known as to have seven heads, sometimes only one. One located it in the caves of Azalegui or Ertzagania, on the mountain of Ahuski, in the pit of Saint-Michel-in-Excelsis on the mount Aralar, and of many other places of the Basque mountain. He aspires by his powerful breath the herds which pass to its range, even the shepherds, and swallows them. It is a misadventure of this legend which treats giant snake of the Lac of Isaby, in Béarn, and which one finds in other Pyrenean places.

In several tales, the giant snake in flames crosses the sky and will damage itself in the Ocean: Herensugue with seven heads flies in a terrible noise until Itxasgorrietas ( Red Seas of setting the ). In another legend, the son of the castle of Çaro succeeds in poisoning Herensugue which, blazing up, flies away towards the sea, cutting down with the passage part of the forest of Arbailles. With Saint-Michel-in-Excelsis Aralar mount, it is of course the guardian archangel who kills this kind of dragon. The only difference with the traditional dragon fire-eater, it is that the Pyrenean snakes die of the interior fire which consumes them: the blacksmith of Arbouix kills the snake of Isaby while making him swallow iron bars red, the heroes of the Basque legends give him a skin of animal filled with gunpowder ignited.

Herensuue, in the popular tradition, supplanted another snake, Sugaar, or Sugoi, male principle probably older.

Died and resurrection

It is said that one day, it managed to remove two young girls, but that the knight Gaston de Belzunce killed it, thus releasing the two unhappy ones. The valiant knight knight died shortly after of his wounds.

It is known as that, the day when Herensugue will awake, it will destroy the whole world in the flames and blood.

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