Like a Wolf but Not a Wolf: The Beast of the Gevaudan (Part 1)

Ancient History Fangirl

History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 518 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! From 1764 to 1767, an area of southeastern France called the Gevaudan was stalked and terrorized by a mysterious beast. Some said it was a wolf. Others that it was “like a wolf, but not a wolf”—far stronger, faster, more brutal and more intelligent than other wolves. Still others provided much more strange and otherworldly descriptions that did not resemble a wolf at all. This was the Beast of the Gevaudan. It didn’t hunt like a wolf. It didn’t eat like a wolf. And the rugged, poverty-stricken environment that became its hunting ground was a bigger part of the story than most accounts admit. To this day, the Beast of the Gevaudan is a seminal cryptid mystery—and its legend forms the foundation for much of werewolf lore as we know it today. Join us as we unpack the eerie unsolved mystery of the Beast of the Gevaudan. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:02.8	The beast hammered at her, drank her blood, and ate her guts. It's snowing again. It's been snowing all week. All week the driving snow and the sleet and the ice and it's almost May. You wrap your cloak
1:29.7	around you and try to think warm thoughts as you watch the cattle paw at the frozen ground. Their ribs
1:35.5	stand out against their hides. You know how they feel. You've eaten nothing since yesterday.
1:41.1	A little bread and milk. A terrible hollow feeling gnaws at your belly. You didn't want to
1:46.8	come out today, but your mother is still bedbound since the baby came, and your father had to go on the
1:52.3	road and look for odd jobs, roof repairs and carpentry and whatever he could set his hands to,
1:57.9	so the family doesn't starve. There is none to tend the cattle but you. A gust of
2:03.2	wind hits you sideways and steals your breath. You have not stopped shivering since you got here.
2:08.5	Now the sun is about to go down. Your feet are so cold you've stopped feeling them. You wrapped
2:13.9	your soaked cloak around yourself and shiver, your teeth chattering.
2:18.3	You shift your feet and glance again at the forest.
2:21.2	Mist gathers and swirls at the base of the trees.
	...

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