España - Cantabria - Liérganes - Estatua del Hombre Pez
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ENGLISH:
The fish-man of Liérganes is an entity which belongs to the mythology of Cantabria, located in the north of Spain. The fish-man of Liérganes would be an amphibian human-looking being, that looked a lot like a metamorphosis of a real human being who was lost at sea. His story was examined by the Enlightenment writer Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, who claimed that the story of the fish-man of Liérganes was true.
According to Feijoo, legend has it that around 1650 there lived in Liérganes, a small village in Cantabria, northern Spain, a couple named Francisco de la Vega and María del Casar. The couple had four sons, and when the father died, the mother, lacking of means, decided to send one of her sons to Bilbao so that he could learn a trade as a carpenter. This son, who according to Feijoo was called Francisco de la Vega Casar, lived in Bilbao as a carpenter till 1674 when, on Saint John's day eve, he went with some friends to swim in Bilbao's estuary. Although he was allegedly a good swimmer, the currents of the river took him and he could not get back to the shore. He was last seen swimming away into the sea, and it was thought that he had drowned.
However, five years later, in 1679, while some fishers where seafaring in the bay of Cadiz, in southern Spain, they noticed that a strange-looking creature had become entangled with their fishing nets, and was trying to fight his way out. Although they tried to capture it, the creature was able to set itself free. During the following weeks, several local fishermen reported having seen the creature, until in the end they were able to capture it by tricking it with loaves of bread. When they got the creature on board, they found that it had indeed a human shape: it looked like a young man, of white skin and thin red hair. However, he also showed some fish-like signs, such as a strip of scales that went down from his throat to his stomach, another one that covered his spine, and what seemingly were gills around his neck.
Thinking of it as some kind of monster, the fishermen took the creature to the convent of Saint Francis nearby, where the creature was allegedly exorcised and then interrogated in several languages without any success. After several days of questioning, the creature finally articulated a word, "Liérganes", the meaning of which nobody knew. This extraordinary event soon spread all around the Cadiz bay area, and nobody was able to recognise the meaning of Liérganes until a sailor from northern Spain who happened to be in the port of Cadiz commented that close to his home town there was a small village called Liérganes. Domingo de la Cantolla, secretary of the Holy Office, confirmed that there was a place called Liérganes near the city of Santander from which he himself came. The bishop of Cadiz thus sent word to Santander regarding the found creature, including a physical description so that anybody somehow related to the creature could recognise it. From Liérganes came the word that no creature had ever been seen around the town, and that the only extraordinary event that had happened lately was the tragic death of Francisco de la Vega in Bilbao five years ago, who was indeed red haired.
A friar in the convent where the creature was being kept postulated that the fish-man could perhaps be Francisco de la Vega, so he asked and was granted permission to take the creature with him to Liérganes. Allegedly, when they were close to Liérganes, the friar let the fish-man free and followed him. The creature was able to guide him directly to Liérganes, and not only that, he took him directly to the house of María del Casar, who recognised him as her late son Francisco.
The fish-man was then left to live with his family, and he kept a tranquil yet odd lifestyle: he would always walk barefoot, and unless he was given clothes, he would rather walk around nude. He never really talked; at most he would sometimes mutter words such as tobacco, bread or wine, but without any link to the desire of smoking, eating or drinking. When he ate, he did it with avidity, but then he was able not to eat for a week at a time. He was easygoing and even obliging, and whichever simple task he was asked to do, he would do it promptly but without enthusiasm. After nine years living in such a fashion, he went to the sea to swim and was never seen again.
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ESPAÑOL:
La primera reseña en la que aparece el relato del hombre pez es en el volumen VI del Teatro crítico universal de Fray Benito Jerónimo Feijoo. Posteriormente José María Herrán escribió un libro titulado El hombre-pez de Liérganes (Santander, 1877), basado en esta historia tradicional popular. Actualmente existe un centro de interpretación en Liérganes, emplazado en un antiguo molino, en el cual se puede obtener información sobre este ser mitológico.
Según ha llegado hasta nosotros a través de los escritos y la tradición oral, el relato dice así: a mediados del siglo XVII en el pueblo de Liérganes, en La Montaña había una pareja, Francisco de la Vega y María de Casar, que tenían cuatro hijos. Francisco falleció y la viuda mandó a su hijo Francisco a Bilbao a aprender el oficio de carpintero.
Estando en Bilbao, Francisco se fue a nadar el día antes de San Juan, en el año 1674, con unos amigos pero llevado por la corriente, este desapareció y no se volvió a saber más de él. Solo cinco años después, en 1679, se afirmó que había aparecido en la costa de Dinamarca, poco después en el canal de la Mancha y en las costas de Andalucía. En Cádiz, unos pescadores afirmaron ver un ser acuático pero con apariencia humana que desapareció rápidamente. Esta aparición se repitió constantemente hasta atrapar a la criatura con trozos de pan y unas redes. Una vez capturado pudieron constatar que se trataba de un hombre, con escamas y forma de pez.
Entonces fue llevado al convento de San Francisco donde fue interrogado para saber de quién se trataba y al cabo de un tiempo consiguió tartamudear una palabra: "Liérganes". Nadie sabía que significaba, hasta que una persona de La Montaña que estaba trabajando en Cádiz, comentó que en La Montaña había un pueblo que se llamaba así. También Domingo de la Cantolla, secretario del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición, confirmó dicha afirmación ya que él era de allí.
A continuación, llegó la noticia a Liérganes para averiguar si había pasado algo extraño en los últimos años y desde Liérganes respondieron que únicamente se había registrado la desaparición de Francisco de la Vega, cinco años atrás. Entonces Juan Rosendo, un fraile del convento, acompañó a Francisco hasta Liérganes para comprobar si era cierto que era de allí y a la altura del Monte de la Dehesa, Francisco se adelantó y fue directamente hasta la casa de María de Casar, que rápidamente lo reconoció como su hijo.
Ya en casa de su madre, Francisco vivió tranquilo sin mostrar ningún interés por nada. Iba descalzo y a veces desnudo y no hablaba apenas. A veces estaba varios días sin comer pero no mostraba entusiasmo por nada. Se dedicaba a llevar cartas a poblaciones vecinas, e incluso a Santander, a donde llegó en una ocasión tras haber nadado desde Pedreña, entregando la carta mojada. Después de nueve años en casa de su madre, desapareció en el mar sin volver a saberse nada sobre él.
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