Werewolves and Vampires in Portuguese Folklore

Vampires and werewolves are the most memorable creatures in European folklore. The thought that a human being may be capable of such animalistic behaviour, like sucking blood from a living person, eating another human being or even dismembering animals and people with their bare hands, is an idea our minds cannot easily accept.

These two creatures are present in portuguese folklore, but they do not exactly fit with the idea of vampire and werewolf from american films or english literature. This is obviously due to the fact that both american movie writers and english writers were inspired by a particular folklore (probably british), and folkstories are different from country to country.

Today, I will write about how these two creatures are seen and understood in Portugal. Note that, younger generations and people from bigger cities from all ages, tend to be more disconnected with tradition, so if you go to Portugal and ask someone about werewolves and vampires they will have probably been influenced by Hollywood, but that is not the portuguese tradition. All the information I will give you is based on actual folkstories collected by ethnographers. I will also translate folkstories so you can have a better understanding of portuguese tradition.

Vampires

In portuguese folklore a vampire is a witch, i.e. it is the witch who sucks the blood of children and sometimes of older sick people (even though there are stories about witches “sucking” sick elders, their main victims are children). In portuguese stories the term “chupar” (to suck) is used to describe the attack of a witch-vampire. So, in the story people may say that witches “suck sick people” to express the idea that witches suck the blood of sick people. It is also important to note that I wrote “witch-vampire” to be clear, however in portuguese folk stories no distinction is made.

The shepherd Witch

A hunter saw a witch, who was also a shepherd. He hid and followed her. She, then, took off her clothes, rubbed herself on the floor and transformed herself into an animal and went away to suck the blood of a sick elderly man.

When she came back, the hunter asked her what she had done, and she answered him. He then wanted to help the man, but it was to late, he had already died, because he had touched her clothes.

AA. VV., - Inquérito Boléu (recolhas inéditas) Coimbra, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, , p.104-105

On very few occasions, vampires may be “corredores de fado”. I will explain more about these type of creatures later on these post.

The Portuguese Werewolf - Lobisomem, Lagrisomem, Zargão

The most common portuguese word for werewolf is Lobisomem, which seems to be a blend between the word lobo (wolf) with homem (man), lagrisomem I have no idea what it means nor its origin, and Zargão is the popular name given to werewolves in the Beira Baixa region. Even though the word lobisomem means the same as werewolf, its concept is not the same, because lobisomem, or the portuguese werewolf, is a man who, because of a curse or contamination by werewolf blood, transforms himself into an animal, any animal not necessarilly a wolf.

Legend of the Werewolf of Carvalhal

A long time ago, here in Carvalhal, there was a man who was a beggar, whose name was Joaquim Barulha. It was said this man was a lobisomem. One day, when some girls were working in the fields, the man passed by and they asked him if he trully was a werewolf. He said he was, and at certain nights he had to run seven fortified cities. He also said that if he stepped on an animal footprint, he immediatelly transformed himself into that animal. Running so much would exhaust him and because of that, if no one would hurt him, he would hurt no one.

JANA, Isilda Histórias à Lareira Abrantes, Palha de Abrantes, 1997 , p.40

What defines a werewolf in portuguese folklore is the transformation of a man into an animal, not into a wolf. The man/werewolf in the previous story also tells about “running seven fortified villages”, because werewolves belong to a special class of creatures in portuguese folklore called corredores de fado (fado runners). They are moved by the need to run their fado/destiny, so each night or each weak, these people need to run through seven parish places, seven Churchyards, seven crossroads, etc., until the day of their death or the day someone breaks their spell¹.

All fado runners acquire this fate from a curse which usually afflicts the seventh male child of a couple², manifesting itself at the thirteenth aniversary of the boy. If a couple has sons and daughters the curse will not affect the seventh boy, it will only affect the seventh child if all children are boys (the seventh will be a werewolf) or all girls (the seventh will be a witch). This curse is broken, according to folklore, by inflicting a small wound on the victim, i.e. the werewolf, in order to draw a little blood from him, but that blood cannot touch the courageous individual who attempts such feat, since that blood is contageous³. Local traditions may vary, so the number of sons may be different and the way to “heal” the werewolf may also vary.

The Transformation of the Werewolf

There was in a village a man who was a Zargão (werewolf) and, while he was already laying in bed, he told his wife to turn the light off, but she forgot and fell asleep.

The man left the house and transformed himself into a Zargão. Suddenly, the woman heard a horse running up the stairs, entered the bedroom and ripped the fringes of her shawl and left, with the fringes between his teeth.

An hour passed and when the man arrived home, he found his wife crying and asked her what had happened to her. Fearful she answered: “It was a horse that entered the house and almost hurt me and the baby, but fortunatelly only took the fringes of the shawl”. The man then told her: “I have this fate and I have to go on with it, that was why I asked you to turn the lights off and had you done so, I wouldn’t have entered the house”.

(MOURA, José Carlos Duarte Histórias e Superstições na Beira Baixa Castelo Branco, RVJ editores, 2008 , p.17-18)

The lady and the Werewolf

A lady lived in the countryside, and each night she used to go to a chapel near her house to light a candle. It is said that in every fullmoon the werewolves roam around, screaming and howling. But, even though she was afraid of going to the chapel when it was full moon, she still went there to fulfill her duty.

A certain fullmoon night she went there, as usual. She lit a candle, but when she was leaving the chapel she dropped the matches, so she went catch them, but someone catched them first, and a hairy hand extended them to her. She grabbed the matches and, when she looked to whom gave them to her, she was horrified. It was a hairy face, with two enourmous teeth, one on each side, and eyes with great sadness.

The scared woman, ran as fast as she could until she got home, and never went to lit candles at fullmoon.

JANA, Isilda Histórias à Lareira Abrantes, Palha de Abrantes, 1997 , p.40

I decided to include the last story because is one of the few in which the werewolf is actually a wolf. Like all portuguese werewolf stories, the werewolf carries sadness, because his fate is not his choice, but it was imposed on him by a curse and, even though he knows he has to carry this curse, he takes no pleasure in it. Contrary to what happens in the rest of Europe, the portuguese werewolf doesn’t eat or kill people, at least is not something that happens frequently.

In the second werewolf story it is portrayed a common superstition related to werewolves, i.e. the werewolves only enter houses that have the lights on. There are also other superstitions related to werewolves, such as praying three Hail Marys to keep werewolves away, etc.

The next story contains an exorcism, which is quite rare in folk stories. It is also told in a very detailed way, I even had to cut some parts because it was so long.

The Breaking of the Curse

When I was a child, one of the stories that scaried me the most was the one of the werewolf.

That monster, half animal, half man, galloping down the road at night, made me tremble with fear, because his story was hideous, just like that of all dark souls for whom the doors of Heaven are closed at seven bolts.

Like everyone knows, there is a fatal law criated by the voice of the people, which is the voice of God, which says: “Any woman who has thirteen childreen, all male, without giving birth to a female, one of them, usually the oldest, will have to fullfil the fate of being a werewolf for thirteen years”. This law - that is not new, because people with gray hair have told me that their grandparents used to tell them stories about it in the evenings when they were children - has created many werewolves, one of them was the son of the blacksmith, whose fate I’m about to tell you.

His name was Valério. He was a cheerfull child, but his happiness turned into sadness with the passing of the years. On the day his mother gave birth to the thirteeth son, what was left from his youthfulness, was suddenly changed into a yellow smile as terrible as the laughter of a thousand demons. Valério used to dream each year, in the day of his birth, that that fate was his to fulfill.

On that day, a day that meant sadness and tears for his family, and fear and the need for blessings for the entire village, Valério cursed words that only the devil could have tought him, and left alone, maybe to hell.

Since the day Valério left, the house of the blacksmith, especially after sunset, was abandoned. No one went there. in the village also, no one would dare to leave home after dark. Everybody knew Valério was fulfilling his fate, and that was enough to leave everyone with that terror superstitions inspires in the souls that believe in them.

And now, the story of Valério was added to the other stories that were told around the fireplace, about witches and duendes, that everyone listened to trembling with fear. About Valério’s fate it was said that he roamed around, sometimes approching the houses making a lot of noise, letting out such sharp and pungent screams, it was a shame.

It is said that he screamed of pain, because the devil, with a red hot pitch fork, would poke him, like a bull is poked. About the noises he made, no one knows for certain: some say it were the kicks he gave to the doors; others that it were the chains he dragged or even rocks the witches would throw at him. Poor werewolves!

(…)

Thirteen years after the day valério left his house, the village priest, his helper with the cross and a elder marched in the direction of the mountain. They were walking without saying a word.

When it started to get dark, they were already very tired and stopped at a crossroad. And there they stayed on waiting.

Moments before midnight, they started to listen to a whisper like the trampling of a horse, that was approching at great speed, and caught the attention of the three men who were at the side of the road.

“He is comming.” - said the elder.

“Faith in God” - answered the priest.

While the sacristan crossed himself, the elder raised the cross on heigh.

And then, an animal with a fearful and terrible figure arrived, making a great noise.

“Dominus vobiscum, spiritum malum” - screamed the priest, throwing Holy-water. And then, that horrible animal was gone, leaving in its place only smoke. “The fate of Valério is gone”, they all said. “There will be a great party at the house of the Blacksmith” And it was. There was a great party there, with food, music and dance. Valério, however, was still sad. Maybe he was still feeling the sufferings he had throughout all those years.

VASCONCELLOS, J. Leite de Contos Populares e Lendas I Coimbra, por ordem da universidade, 1963 , p.461-464

In conclusion

We often associate these two creatures because of their brutality, but in folklore they differ: while the witch is evil, the werewolf is not. The werewolf is a victim of circumstance, as a fado runner (corredor de fado) he is not responsible for is fate, he simply has to fulfill it, until someone saves him from his own destiny. The witch chose her own fate, even when this destiny was inherited she embraced it and enjoied it, because she is evil (except in the rare cases that the witch is a witch because she is a fado runner). The werewolf is tortured by the devil, the witch worships him.

But even if werewolves are victims of circumstance, they are still dangerous, and so they are feared by the larger community.

1. https://lendarium.org/pt/apl/lobisomens/a-lenda-do-lobisomem-2064/

2. https://lendarium.org/pt/apl/lobisomens/a-lenda-do-lagrisomem/

3. https://lendarium.org/pt/apl/lobisomens/a-lenda-do-lagrisomem/