Stalking the northern valleys in Spain, the vampiric Guaxa witch from Asturian legends stalks the evening. Though nobody is secure, the starved and thirsty monster is particularly after the blood of the kids.
Within the foggy panorama in Asturia in northern Spain, a vampiric determine is alleged to linger within the cracks of shadows, ready for her prey. They are saying: “wherever a breath of air passes, the Guaxa passes .” An entity between the witch and vampire, she is after the blood of kids.
Learn Extra: Try all ghostly tales from Spain
Asturia, as soon as an historic kingdom encompassing most of northern Spain is now confined to a coastal bit overlooking the Atlantic ocean. Even so, the previous languages of Asturian are nonetheless spoken within the valleys by the aged, and the tales they’ve to inform are that of monsters and witches.
The Vampiric Guaxa Witch
The Guaxa is alleged to be an previous and skinny woman-like entity, ugly and lined in warts. She is alleged to have a single sharp tooth she stalks her prey with. The Guaxa just isn’t typically seen in any respect, and is usually stated to be invisible, slipping by way of small cracks of individuals’s homes just like the chimney, and even the keyhole.
As a result of she is both invisible, or simply seen at evening, it’s believed that she hides in caves or hole tree trunks through the day.
As with many vampiric beings from southern Europe, she is related to owls or different nocturnal birds. Some additionally affiliate the Guaxa with the coruxa (owl), carefully linked to witches, and thus contemplate the Guaxa to be a witch herself.
She sneaks into folks’s houses in the midst of the evening and feeds on them along with her one sharp tooth. Kids are most popular, but in addition younger girls and good-looking males are at risk. She doesn’t kill them directly, nor does she rework her victims to considered one of her personal. She slowly kills them, draining their life, little by little. In Asturia, folks can say “It appears just like the Guaxa has swallowed you,” when folks have misplaced loads of weight, because the Guaxa slowly over time drained folks’s lives.
Safety from the Guaxa
However how do you defend your self from an invisible supernatural being nobody can discover or kill? The very best factor to do is maintain her at a distance. In Astorian custom there may be typically speak concerning the cigua, a talisman of kinds within the type of an amulet. It’s formed like a closed fist in a black chiastolite stone, typically referred to as St. Peter’s stone.
An alternative choice is safety rituals for individuals who have been attacked by a Guaxa. These people needed to drink a preparation created from alicorn, that’s truly unicorn horn, that had been macerated with items of deer antler and fragments of silver.
Within the case of kids, they is also given a small bag containing 10 grams of rice, which was hung round their necks with a black thread tied with 9 knots.
The Guajona Vampire Witch from Cantabria
Asturia shares loads with the opposite northern areas in Spain, like Galicia to the west and Cantabria to the east. In Cantabrian lore you will see that one other vampiric entity that appears and behaves so much like the Guaxa that many assume that that is truly the identical story with totally different names.
So what’s the distinction between the story of the vampiric witch Guajona from Cantabria and the Astorian Guaxa?
The lore behind the Guaxa follows loads of the identical steps as with the Guajona. She’s described as an previous girl, sneaking into folks’s houses to drink their blood along with her single sharp tooth. She can also be simply seen through the evening, however this lore doesn’t insist on her being invisible as a lot. She is believed to slumber underground through the day. The phrase Guajona is almost definitely from Arabic roots which means beast, and generally, this model can also be referred to as Lamia.
Related creatures are present in Galician lore as properly, going below the identify of the Meiga Chuchona. As talked about, northern Portugal additionally has the Bruxa legend. The query: the place did the legend evolve from? Ought to these entities be seen as the identical creature with totally different names, or is their geographical areas and variations sufficient to make them separate beings in folklore?
How previous is the Legend of the Guaxa?
The Guaxa is usually talked about as an previous being from historic Indo-European folklore. However precisely when did the legend of the Guaxa emerge from the shadows?
The legend of the Guaxa was first written down by Jove and Bravo within the Myths and Superstitions of Asturias from 1897. By this time, the legend had been significantly influenced by trendy fears and monsters in addition to Christianity. Many assume that she is merely a model of the witch determine. However was there a Guaxa pre-Christian Asturia?
The phrase Guaxa comes from the Asturian language, guax, guax, the onomatopoeia for the sound of owls. In one of many earliest descriptive research of the determine, Aurelio de Llano denies her belonging to the Asturian legendary pantheon, contemplating her nothing greater than a witch, a time period derived from the Latin phrase “striga” or stryx, which means a nocturnal hen).
As talked about it is usually thought that the legend of the Guaxa is branched off from the determine of Lamia from Greece in addition to the vampire of Germanic legends. However how far does a legend should exist earlier than it turns into canon?
For instance, in 1480 we all know of lawsuits and accusations within the Royal Chancery of Valladolid in opposition to Teresa Prieta, a resident of Xove (Gijón), for training the occupation of Estriga (witch) to enter different folks’s homes and suck the blood “principally of kids.”
Learn Extra: Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case
The Vampiric Witches of Spain
What lurks within the misty woods in northern Spain? Because the fog weaves by way of the traditional timber, the air turns into thick with thriller and intrigue. Legends converse of elusive creatures and spirits that roam these enchanted forests, whispering secrets and techniques to those that will hear, whereas the rustle of leaves and the distant calls of unseen wildlife create an environment teeming with life and marvel. Maybe considered one of them is the blood thirsty monster of the Guaxa?
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References:
Guaxa – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
Guaxa – Viquipèdia, l’enciclopèdia lliure
Guaxa, la bruja bebedora de sangre
SERES MITOLÓGICOS ASTURIANOS: LA GÜAXA
