61winged like a bird, ferocious with mighty claws, and has a
rugged surface. There is no image of the dragon in this 1632
version, but the dragon picture presented by Schott ( 1662 )
fi ts well with this description (see Fig. 3.3a ). Attacked, La
Brière fi ghts back and breaks his sword on the ferocious
monster; he is nearly engulfed by the animal. At this moment,
he remembers the miracles that Notre Dame [of Vassivière]
makes “almost every day”: he seizes the animal by its neck
and squeezes it strongly, shouting for help, but he is fi nally
overhelmed by the dragon.
(v) On the morning after, La Brière is found by four herdsmen “
under the dreadful snake; they unload on him the wood they
brought and take him out from beneath this weighty mass ”.He can only be rescued with wood pieces unloaded by the
four shepherds.
(vi) La Brière story is not yet over:He is brought breathless to the Chapelle des Transis... he is
showing buboes and pimples, similar to those caused by the
Plague.This dragon encounter most probably refers to a sudden
mudfl ow generated by a lake surge of the lake. One must
note, as in other stories of river dragons, the scaly body, pos-
sibly referring to the much debris found at the surface of
mudfl ows. Wood brought by peasants seems appropriate to
approach and rescue the victim from the fresh mud. In some
alpine passes, Transis chapels refers to repositories of dead
corpses found after winter in the mountain; here it refers to
the one of Vassivière and could be related to the natural vio-
lence of this area (Ph. Reyt, pers.com, 2013). The strange
skin diseases found on the rescued La Brière, refered here as
the Plague [ l’ Epidemie ], are similar to the pimples men-
tioned at Pavin in 1783 by Godivel IV, after his son had
soaked his hand in Pavin waters, during another misconduct
event and by Nodier et al. ( 1829 ) (see Sect. 2.3.5 ). Buboes
and loss of consciousness have been reported about victims
and/or survivors of the CO 2 degassing at Nyos (Baxter et al
1989 ) (see Sect. 1.6.1 ).
This description of Lac Ténébreux is very
precise-e.g.describing pilgrims pathway in the Couze valley-
suggesting that the author has either witnessed the event on
May 15th 1632, or is someone with perfect knowledge of the
area. The style is similar to those of “canards”, small bro-
chures of few pages distributed door-to-door, reporting
extraordinary events during the XVIth and XVIIth. They
were occasional publications that prefi gured future newspa-
pers. It is published when fear of Pavin is at its maximum.
This story, re-printed in Lyon in 1832, for unknown reasons,
has not been attributed to Pavin, excepted by Reynouard
( 1910a, b ). It is found today in a few registers of Auvergne
tales in the dragon sections (Laconche 1994 ) and has been
presented by the writer Samivel as a typical mountain dragon
story in his chapter on mountain myths in the reference book
La Montagne (Samivel 1956 ). Pavin’s spillovers and mud-
fl ows are now documented by scientists, but not yet for this
period (see Chap. 1 ).Fig. 3.3 Fantastic creatures which may be associated with degassing
maar-lakes misbehaviours. ( left ): The fi ght against the dragon (Schott
1662 )(Bibliothèque Ste Geneviève, Paris): several types of dragons are
described at Pavin, the major one with ferocious eyes shining and ter-
rible teeth grinding, is located in the lacus pavens (Fairies Garden leg-
end), another is assaulting the passer-by at the lake outlet (Fairies
Garden legend, Dragon of the Gloomy Lake story ). ( right ): Giant fi shes
described at Ulmen Lake , Eifel ( Ulmu lacus in quo piscis magnus spec-
tatus aliquando , Münster 1566 ) (library of the Faculté de pharmacie,
Paris). Such “monster fi shes”, also described at Pavin (de Beaufort,
1632 ), are interpreted here as water fountain3 Lake Cult, Dragon, Fairies and Miracles at Pavin and Other Maar-Lakes