The "Man of Noses" arriving at Barcelona's Plaça de Sant Jaume for his reception with city authorities on New Year's Eve. Photo by Vicente Zambrano González courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Every culture has its myths and folk tales populated by strange creatures. They’re funny, scary, beautiful, tragic, ugly, wily, mischievous, kind; they run the gamut of human traits and emotions, sometimes inhabiting our imaginations year-round, and other times appearing only at certain times of year. The ranks of Catalan mythological creatures are filled with characters both borrowed from international or religious lore, as well as others that are unique to the region.
Christmastime and Year-End
Several beloved characters make their presence known around the Yule season, and one of the most well-known is the Home dels Nassos, which translates to the “Man of the Noses.” He is a traditional figure in Catalunya, as well as Aragón, Navarre, Burgos, and other parts of Spain. As the legend goes, he has many noses as the year has days, and every day, one falls off. He’s only visible to humans on December the 31st. Children are told to go out and look for him on New Year’s Eve—but it being the final day of the year, the man they find inevitably only has one nose on his face.
These days, certain cities and towns—Barcelona among them—include the Man of the Noses in their parades in the form of a capgrossos (“big head” or cabezudo in Spanish). At the end of the New Year’s celebrations, he ceremoniously gives the mayor and City Council the key that symbolically opens the door to the new year.
This figure is so important that there are even some Catalan families who delegate the task of holiday gift-giving to the Man of the Noses, rejecting the perceived foreign influence of Father Christmas and the increasing commercialism of the Día de los Reyes Magos, the “Day of the Three Kings.” (The Three Kings, also known as the Three Wise Men or the Magi, are also part of Catalan holiday season mythology, and their arrival on January 5th is celebrated around the world—not just in Spain or in Catalunya.)
There is also a derivation of this figure, the Home dels Orelles, or the “Man of the Ears,” who has as many ears as there are days in the year, and can only be seen only on December 30th. If you’re asking yourself “why the 30th,” keep in mind that if he waited to appear in company with his friend, the Man of the Noses, on New Year’s Eve, he’d only have one ear!
El Fumera is an important figure in the Catalan town of Valls, were he plays a prominent role in the month-long festivities.
The Man of the Noses isn’t the only personality who tends to show up around holidays. Ens Fumera, also called Patge Fumera or Pep Fumera, is a mythical page who serves the Three Kings. He’s a popular figure in Northern Catalunya, and in the area around Girona and Alt Empordà. His job is to watch over children throughout the winter school holiday; traditionally, he was said to enter and exit the houses through the chimney or fireplace, like smoke, and leave the smell of smoke behind him.
He is typically depicted with seven eyes on his head—four in the front, and three in the back—and sometimes an all-seeing eye on his index finger. He has four ears, two on each side of his head. He hears and sees everything, and at the end of the December, he reports all that he saw and heard back to the Kings. to let them know which children deserve to receive gifts on December 6th, and which ones should be given coal.
Parents sometimes hang eyes on the walls as a reminder that Ens Fumera is watching and listening. But, as many modern apartments don’t have traditional chimneys or fireplaces, children are told that he comes and goes through the smoke extractor found in every kitchen.
Or, if you happen to be in Galicia around Christmastime, you might get the chance to meet the Apalpador, a.k.a. Apalpabarrigas or Pandigueiro, which means the “Belly-Rubber.” He is usually depicted with flaming red hair and a long beard. Some say he dresses in ragged, coal-dust-stained clothes, while others depict him in a colorful coat, patched pants and beret. He always carries a pipe. The Apalpador comes down from his mountain home in the eastern part of Galicia on Christmas and/or New Year’s Eves to see if children have been well-fed throughout the past year. He feels their bellies while they’re asleep, and to make sure that no child goes hungry, he leaves them a handful of chestnuts as a symbol of a coming year full of food, happiness and prosperity.
Over the years, the traditional gift of chestnuts has slowly been abandoned in favor of small toys and sweets, but he remains an important figure in Galicia—some even refer to him as the “Galician Santa Claus”—and has enjoyed a significant resurgence in popularity in recent years. In modern times where climate change and conservation are common topics of conversation, this traditional symbol has also become associated with respect for the natural world and the need to care for the environment.
La Dona d'Aigua sculpture in Mollet del Vallès. Image courtesy of the Ajuntament de Mollet del Vallès.
Water Creatures
Like the Apalpador, Catalan mythological figures often go by multiple names. Aloja, also known as la Dona d'aigua, Goja, or Paitida, is a beautiful "water woman" who lives in places with fresh water, such as lakes, rivers and springs. Legend has it that they can turn into water blackbirds—so if you see a flock of blackbirds over a Catalan inland lake or river, an Aloja just might be at work. They are protectors of nature, and help to bring the springtime and make the flowers bloom, but if you make one of them angry, you could be turned to stone, or caused to lose your memory.
Water is a common theme when it comes to Catalan myth and legend, and several of the monsters that haunt people’s imaginations live in the depths. In the largest inland lake in the region, the lake of Banyoles, a sea monster is said to lurk ever since the early Middle Ages. As the stories go, an eighth-century French monk managed to lure the creature from its watery home by praying for it; he managed to convince it to give up its bloodthirsty ways and turn into a herbivore. Like its Scottish “cousin” Nessie, the Monster of Banyoles is supposedly still in the lake today, though sightings are infrequent.
The Cocollona of Girona.
The Cocollona is yet another freshwater-dwelling figure that inhabits the area of Girona. Legend says that a highly devout young novice came to live at a Gironian convent, where the nuns lived an undisciplined, scandalous lifestyle.
When the novice complained, the other women locked her inside a cell in the basement of the convent. After many years of living in the cold and dark, scales grew on her skin, and she transformed into something resembling a crocodile. But, thanks to her purity of spirit and her faith, gorgeous butterfly wings grew on her scaly back. Hence the name “Cocollona,” or half cocodril (“crocodile”) and half papallona (“butterfly”). When she died, her ghost swam away, down the Onyar river.
People have since claimed to have seen her ghost swimming in the river, close to dawn on the night of the full moon.
An illustration of the mythical figure Puigmal from the book "Mitologia dels Països Catalans" by Daniel Rangil illustrated by Laia Baldevey.
Mountainous Creatures
Puigmal is the name of a mountain peak that looms over the valley of Ripollés; it’s also the name of a giant said to inhabit those mountains. He is thought to be a protector of plants and animals, especially the trees, whom he defends against attacks by humans. But Puigmal wasn’t always a mountain-dwelling giant; once, he was a friend to the old gods and a helper of mankind. During the transition period from the Ice Age to the time when men began farming and keeping livestock, Puigmal was tasked with transmitting the wisdom of the gods to human beings, in order to keep them from going hungry. He taught them how to milk, make cheese, and care for their plants. He also taught people to live in harmony with the land and the animals on it, only hunting when necessary.
Other versions of the story say that Puigmal isn’t a giant who inhabits the peak, but rather the peak itself: that after teaching men all that he knew, he transformed into a mountain himself, sleeping until the end of time.
Another mountain-dwelling personality is Tombatossals, a kindly giant made of stones, who originated in the folk tales of Castellón but who made his way into Catalan folklore as well. According to legend, he is the son of two mountains, Penyeta Roja and Tossal Gros. When he came of age, the giant founded the town of Castelló de la Plana, with the help of some of his friends: Cagueme, Bufanúvols, Arrancapins, and Tragapinyols, all with powers of their own.
There have been songs and animated films made about this beloved figure, and schools are named after him, reflecting his importance to the locals. The city even dedicated a 20-meter-high statue to their mythical founder.
The figure of Sant Jordi sits atop a fountain in the Pati dels Tarongers in the Palau de la Generalitat in Barcleona. Photo courtesy of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Public Domain via Flickr.
Historical Figures: Parables with a Moral Function
Some figures in the Catalan mythological canon are thought to have been real people, and are closely associated with the country’s Catholic past: Saint George, or Sant Jordi, is one of the symbols closest to Catalans’ hearts, and has been known as the official patron saint of Catalunya since 1456. He represents the triumph of good over evil, and is most often portrayed slaying a dragon, or rescuing a princess.
His feast day is celebrated every year on the 23rd of April in various regions around the world; in Catalunya, it’s marked with the gifting of books and roses. April 23rd is the day that the high-ranking soldier who inspired the legend was supposedly executed in the year 303 CE, for refusing the Roman Emperor’s orders to persecute Christians.
But in Catalan mythology, not all noblemen are good guys. There’s more than one tale about a formerly rich and powerful man consigned to doom and despair as a result of his lasciviousness, greed or cruelty. The Comte, or Count, Arnau of Ripollès, is one of the most popular. For his many sins, the Count was condemned to ride around on a dead (or undead) horse, his body consumed by flames, with a group of demonic dogs trailing behind him. This story dates back to the 16th century, and has since been immortalized in a folk ballad that has been sung by some of Catalunya’s most famous folk or canço singers, including Joan Manuel Serrat and Roger Mas.
Another similar tale is that of Count Guifred Estruch, sometimes spelled “Estruc” or “Estruga,” a 12th-century Catalan nobleman of undefined Central European origin who served King Alfonso II. The Count was tasked by the King with extinguishing heretical cults and witches’ coven in the Pyrenees, in the area that is Alt Empordà today. He was said to have executed dozens upon dozens of so-called heretics, including one old woman who cursed him before she died. When the Count himself was murdered around the year 1173, the curse caused him to be resurrected as a vampire-like creature who terrorized the peasant population. Some say the vampire-Count was eventually killed by a nun, while others say a Jewish hermit laid his soul to rest with ancient rites.
Other Mythical Figures
La Vella Quaresma is a traditional Catalan figure that represents the period of Lent. She’s usually depicted as an old woman with seven legs, symbolizing the seven weeks of Lent. Every Friday, a leg is torn off to count down to the remaining days of Lent, until Holy Week. (Yes, Catalans seem to have a thing for characters losing their extra appendages in the countdown to a momentous date on the calendar.) As Lent is a period of fasting and abstinence from life’s pleasures, she is usually shown carrying a salted cod and a basket of vegetables: modest foodstuffs that are typical of the Lenten season. She is considered to be the antagonist of the Rei Carnestoltes, the Carnival King, who represents bacchanalian fun and transgression.
Advanced age is a common element when it comes to describing many of the sinister figures who haunt the Catalan popular imagination. The Papu or Papus, as well as L'Home del Sac (“The Man with the Sack”) are two of the most ubiquitous malevolent figures, and both are depicted as evil, ugly old men. These two can be thought of as the equivalents to the Catalan bogeymen.
L'Home del Sac is depicted as dressed in rags and carrying a giant sack slung over his shoulder. He wanders the streets looking for children who are misbehaving, or wandering far from home. He supposedly offers them candy or other treats to lure them into his sack, before whisking them away. The legends as to what he does with the children vary—some say he eats them, but one particularly gruesome version says that he boils the children to produce an oil, which he uses to grease the train tracks near his home.
The Papu is known by various names on the Iberina Peninsula (Papón in Asturias, Papão in Portugal); he’s known for his wide jaws, and for swallowing his victims whole. These “victims” are usually badly-behaved children. His features are difficult to make out in the dark, but he is usually described as being dressed in black or dark clothes, and sometimes with a cape or hood. It can come and go through any crack or hole, no matter how small, and its eyes can be seen glowing in the dark.
The Marraco in Catalunya, especially in Lleida, is a character who is sometimes confused with a folk fantasy, often considered to be something similar to the Papu; in fact, its significance goes way beyond that. This particular figure is an ancestral totemic figure, the 5th-century BCE symbol of the ancient Iberian Ilergeta people. It’s always depicted as a fierce, powerful, protective force—sometimes with the attributes of a dragon, lion or bull—and it represents the Ilergeta god, and their tribe’s unity and strength.
Dragons
Anyone who has spent time in Catalunya has seen the dracs (“dragons”), víboras (“female dragons”), and other fire beasts that form an important part of traditional festive parades and celebrations. One particularly famous dragon is the cuca fera, also spelled cucafera, which has traditionally preceded the Corpus Christi procession in certain parts of the region that was the medieval Kingdom of Aragon, representing heresy or the sins of idolatry. The first cucafera ever documented in Catalunya was the 14th-century dragon included in the celebrations in Montblanc, and many iterations have been invented in the centuries since.
Catalan dragons take many forms, ranging from serpentine to winged, and from fun to scary. One popular variant among children (especially in Baix de Llobregat) is an unnamed, wingless “dragon” that crawls on the ground like a giant centipede, with many legs. In the popular parades, each moving leg is a different person.
Mythical Animals
The Pesanta is depicted as a massive black dog—or occasionally, as a cat—that enters people’s homes at night and lies on their chests, making it difficult to breath. It also causes terrible nightmares. However it might wish to, the Pesanta can’t steal anything from the households it visits due to the holes in its heavy steel paws. (Why would it have holes in its paws? You’ll have to ask it, if it ever pays you a visit!) During the day, it hides in abandoned churches and other ruins. Many people claim to have been visited by the Pesanta, and there’s even been a documentary made about it, featuring eye-witness accounts.
Evil dogs are a common theme in Catalan folk culture, and the black vampire hellhounds called “dips” regularly haunt rural towns and villages. Dips are said to be emissaries of the Devil, known for sucking the blood of humans and of cattle, and for being lame in one leg. Images of these creatures date back to at least the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century, with images of several dips depicted on the 1602 altarpiece of Santa Marina de Pratdip. It's thought that the tales of these dogs were invented to dissuade the populace from frequenting taverns at night, because the dips were more likely to attack a man walking alone at night than one safe at home in bed.
Luckily, not all the creatures from the Catalan bestiary are bad news! The Gambosí is a popular mythical creature in Catalan and Valencian mythology, which can be found digging tunnels near springs, campsites and picnic areas. Its chief activity is mocking or playing pranks on people, and is generally thought to be a non-threatening magical creature. It doesn’t have a fixed appearance: some say it looks like a mole, rabbit, or rat, but it’s so elusive that it’s impossible to be sure. Adults often send kids to “hunt” for the Gambosí, keeping close watch as they think they spy first one, then another of its minuscule footprints. It has other names in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula: Gamusino (Spain), Gangüezno (Extremadura), Gambozino (Portugal).
Part Animal, Part Human
A Muladona or Donamula is thought to be a female mule with a woman's head. According to legend, a young woman in a small village was irreverent and blasphemous, so the townspeople put a curse on her that turned her into a mule. She then took to the mountains, trying to join mule trains to combat her loneliness, but the mules were often so frightened of her appearance that they ran right off the mountainside. As a result, the Muladona was often blamed for these kinds of accidents, rather than attributing them to rough terrain, or a mistake by the mule driver.
Some muleteers traditionally gave their animals small pieces of bread to eat that were shaped like the donkey woman, hoping that familiarizing them with her shape would prevent them from being afraid if she appeared. They would also count their mules over and over, making sure she hadn’t slipped in amongst them.
Another part-animal, part-human figure is the Peix Nicolau, which some refer to as a sort of merman. Nicolau was a young man, but an experienced diver with a great love for the water. In some versions of the tale, he was cursed by his mother, and so grew scales on his face and fins instead of limbs. Other stories say he drowned when the king sent him on an impossible diving mission to retrieve a golden cup from the bottom of the sea, and was turned into a merman. He sometimes is depicted as a protector of sailors; other times, as a bad omen who brings storms and death. Just looking into his eyes could turn a sailor’s hair white. There are versions of Nicolau’s story all over the Mediterranean, from Catalunya to the rest of Spain to Italy.
Nameless Haunts and Witches
Then there are the generic mythological creatures that are thought to haunt the land, though individuals usually aren’t given names. One of the most common types in Catalan lore are the espantamainades, which can be roughly translated to the “scarecrows.” They are often portrayed as the manifestations of fears, or of the unknown or inexplicable in the world around us, and are used to keep children from talking to strangers or wandering off alone. In the same way your parents might have said not to go alone into the dark woods because trolls or goblins might get you, the espantamainades haunt dark corners and forbidden places.
These are similar to the Valencian and Mallorcan bubotas, which are usually described as floating figures that appear to be covered with large sheets of cloth, and which are only visible when they want to be—but always send shivers up your spine if they’re nearby. Some say they are ghosts of lost souls, and they especially prefer to haunt old streets, houses and cemeteries, where they hover around crosses. They’re also used by parents as a way to scare wayward children into obedience.
And like many European cultures, Catalunya has a tradition of fearing bruixeria, or "witchcraft.” Witches, mostly women, were supposedly identified by certain specific signs, such as bite marks from the Devil's teeth on their buttocks, or having odd-looking pupils in their eyes. They were thought to get their magical powers from having made a pact with, or sometimes becoming the lover of, the Devil. Unfortunately, this aspect of Catalan superstition and mythology had very real consequences for hundreds of women from the 15th through the 18th centuries, who were wrongly executed as witches.
Tiny Creatures
Folklore isn’t limited only to creatures we can see; no mythological pantheon would be complete without its smallest imps and goblins. Catalan nyitus are tiny sprites—so small that they’re impossible to describe—which are said to enter a person’s brain by way of their ear, nose or mouth. They don’t physically harm their hosts, but they do feed on memory, producing fatigue and forgetfulness.
Slightly larger are the negrets. These small, dark-skinned beings turn into a treasure trove of coins if they’re touched by a candle flame—but you’ve got to be quick to catch one! The word is the diminutive of the Catalan negre (black).
And the fada, or fairies, from the Latin root fata, are the same ubiquitous nature spirits that are also found in British, Scandanavian, Chinese, American and other cultures’ mythology. They are almost always depicted as being tiny and beautiful, but often capricious, easily switching between granting boons and causing trouble. They are usually described as wearing green or gold, or clothed in flower petals, and are known to love music; sometimes, they can appear to take on human form. The most famous of all the fairies, La Fada Morgana, is the Catalan version of the story of the Fairy Queen of Arthurian legend, Morgan le Fay.
Not all Catalunya’s fairy stories are borrowed from international lore: follets are mischievous, small, specifically Mediterranean goblins, with yellowish skin, a beard and a red hat with bells, dressed in colorful clothes. Their main hobby is riding through the streets at night and playing pranks on the sleeping townspeople. They are said to have a mysterious hole in the palm of their left hand, and are deathly afraid of knives and razors. Along with the simiots, they are responsible for keeping a hole in the Earth’s crust covered, through which the wind escapes—a task that becomes more challenging as the years pass.
And the minairó, also called manairó, menairó or mineiró depending on the area, is a miniature being known to populate areas near Andorra and the Alt Pyrenees, as well as in the Valencian comarca and the Balearic Islands. These minairóns are said to be born from the menaironera herb, also called Saint John's Wort, because it often blooms on the night of the summer solstice.
According to legend, thousands of these tiny goblins can fit into a small case or tube for holding needles or other small household items. When the owner happens to move or uncover this case, the minairóns demand to be given a task, threatening death if they’re not put to work immediately. That’s why a number of rock slides in the Pyrenees have been “attributed” to the minairóns: when someone lets loose thousands of them by accident and has no work to give them, that person in desperation might tell them to collect as many rocks as they can from a particular point in the mountainside, causing other parts of the terrain to destabilize and slip.