Basque Mythology, Ancestral Religion, Spirituality, and Modern Religions
BASQUE MYTHOLOGY
List of Basque mythological figures
List of gods worshipped by the Basques
Aide-Goddess of the Air and Wind
Akerbeltz-Demon God of Evil Lust and Sex
Amalur-Goddess of the Earth
Eate-God of Storms and Fire
Egoi-God of the Wind
Gaizkin-Demon God of Disease
Gaueko-Demon God of Darkness and Night.
Ilargi-Goddess of the Moon
Inguma-Demon God of Nightmares
Mari-Queen of the Gods
Orko-God of Thunder
Sugaar-King of the Gods
Basque Mythology is one of the most reachest from Europe.A territory leaded by our magnificent goddess Ama Lur (mother earth), and inhabited by giants , lamias, magical creatures, dragons, witches and a big ammount of fantastic beings. We organise events concerning to the equinox, where we stage ancient traditions and rituals.This activity may be readjusted to the guests. The scenes where the activity takes place are caves, Basque housefarms and special locations as Palaces or Castles.We create an amazing atmosphere and dramatize different rituals as…..
– AKELARRES The witches´ party.
– NOCHE DE SAN JUAN The most magical night of the year.
– EUSKAL JAIAK Basque fests with lots of characters, rituals and dances.
In Basque mythology, Basajaun (“Lord of the Woods”, plural: basajaunak, female basandere) is a huge, hairy hominid dwelling in the woods. They were thought to build megaliths, protect flocks of livestock, and teach skills such as agriculture and ironworking to humans.
The Basque people or culture occupied Europe before the spread of Indo-European languages to Europe. Analysis of Basque genetic patterns has shown that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula, 7,000 years ago. The mythology of the ancient Basques largely did not survive the arrival of Christianity in the 4th century AD. Most of what is known about this original belief system is based on legends, the study of place names and scant historical references to pagan rituals practised by the Basques.
In Basque mythology, Galtxagorriak, meaning the red-pants, are a type of iratxoak or imp. According to the legend, a certain peasant who sought a way to do less work, was advised to go to certain shop of Bayonne and buy a box of galtzagorriak. He did that and, when he was back to his farm, he opened the small box. A bunch of little imps with red pants jumped immediately from it asking “what do we do, what do we do?”
“Mari is the Basque Goddess of the Moon. She is the supreme Goddess of the Basque pantheon. Mari is associated with the various forces of nature including the wind, storms, and lightning. She creates storms to chastise disobedient people. She often travels across the sky as a fireball or as a blazing crescent going from one mountain peak to another. Sometimes Her chariot is being pulled by four white horses and other times, She is seen riding a white ram. The most prominent mythical being of the Basque traditions, without any doubt, is a beautiful woman: Mari. She habitually resides in the interior of the Earth and emerges at the surface in specific epochs via various caves and caverns. She alternates, therefore, moving from one mountain to another before the amazed look of man. Mari is beautiful and dressed in elegance, the quintessential essence of feminine guile. At other times, she adopts the form of different animals, or becomes a ball of fire crossing the horizon.
The Basques are a group of people living in the area of northern Spain and southern France. The Basques are a distinct ethnic group, although they have genetic similarities to many Portuguese, Britons, French, Irish, and Spaniards. The modern-day Basques are thought to be holdouts of the early people of Western Europe, most of whom were exterminated or enveloped by early conquerors. Various Basque tribes, notably the Aquitani and Vascones, were mentioned by Roman writers. The Basque region was known as Vasconia during the Middle Ages, and was eventually divided during the time of Charlemagne into two distinct kingdoms, the Kingdom of Pamplona and the Kingdom of Castille. The Kingdom of Castille annexed a great deal of the Basque territory from the 11th to 16th centuries, and this land eventually became a part of Spain. The rest of the Basque territory would become part of France.
Basque Tribe: People and Cultures of the World
The Basques (/bɑːsks/ or /bæsks/; Basque: euskaldunak[eus̺kaldunak]; Spanish: vascos[ˈbaskos]; French: basques[bask]) are a Southwestern Europeanethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, an area traditionally known as the Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria) — a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.
The Basques (Basque: Euskaldunak) are an indigenous ethno-linguistic group mainly inhabiting Basque Country (adjacent areas of Spain and France). Their history is therefore interconnected with Spanish and French history and also with the history of many other past and present countries, particularly in Europe and the Americas, where a large number of their descendants keep attached to their roots, clustering around Basque clubs which are centers for Basque people.
In Basque, people call themselves the euskaldunak, singular euskaldun, formed from euskal- (i.e. “Basque (language)”) and -dun (i.e. “one who has”); euskaldun literally means a Basque speaker. Not all Basques are Basque-speakers. Therefore, the neologism euskotar, plural euskotarrak, was coined in the 19th century to mean a culturally Basque person, whether Basque-speaking or not. Alfonso Irigoyen posits that the word euskara is derived from an ancient Basque verb enautsi “to say” (cf. modern Basque esan) and the suffix -(k)ara (“way (of doing something)”). Thus euskara would literally mean “way of saying”, “way of speaking”. One item of evidence in favour of this hypothesis is found in the Spanish book Compendio Historial, written in 1571 by the Basque writer Esteban de Garibay. He records the name of the Basque language as enusquera. It may, however, be a writing mistake.
Early anthropological and genetical studies from the beginning and end of the 20th century theorized that the Basques are the descendants of the original Cro-Magnons.[14][15] Although they are genetically distinctive in some ways due to isolation, the Basques are still very typically European in terms of their Y-DNA and mtDNA sequences, and in terms of some other genetic loci. These same sequences are widespread throughout the Western half of Europe, especially along the Western fringe of the continent.[16][17] The distinctiveness noted by studies of ‘classical’ genetic markers (such as blood groups) and the apparently “pre-Indo-European” nature of the Basque language has resulted in a popular and long-held misleading view that Basques are “living fossils” of the earliest modern humans who colonised Europe.
Basques and the American Indians
Basques and Indians were in their places for a very long time, probably before anyone else. Archaeologists have found Navajo tools and Basque skulls dating long before Columbus or the Romans. Both groups had ways of living and speaking that didn’t seem to come from anywhere else, and both lived that way for millennia. Then outsiders and time came in and cleared it all away. The Basques are the Indians of Europe: I liked the idea. I’d grown up in the Western United States with Basque ancestry, and I suppose I felt a kind of solidarity with Indians.
The Basques are the Indians of Europe
I think there’s something to it. They have a past, present, and future. Some tribes are wealthy, some are impoverished, some are active, some have living languages, and others are barely there. In 2008, the last speaker of the Eyak language died in Alaska. The Siletz tribe in western Oregon only has a few hundred speakers of its Athabaskan language, but now a few of them are teaching it in their schools. A Basque or an Indian has to do something more. That can be a blessing or a curse. An Apache woman can move into a city, do nothing, and a piece of the tribe dissolves. Or she can do something else. Basques and Indians, separated by thousands of miles and years, actually might have a few things in common, a similar past and some of the same questions:
Does your background mean something to you? And if it means something, what are you doing about it?
THE BASQUE OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS OF THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE IN THE 16TH CENTURY
The Algonquian–Basque pidgin was a Basque-based pidgin spoken by Basque whalers and various Algonquian peoples. It was spoken around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It was last attested in 1710. There were three groups of First Nations that the Basque people distinguished. The ones with which they had good relations were the Montagnais and the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. They also knew of the Inuit, whom they considered hostile. The Basque people referred to them as the Montaneses, the Canaleses and the Esquimoas, respectively.
Researchers Unravel The Mysteries Of The Basque People
Are the Basques the Oldest Europeans?
The Basques May Not Be Who We Think They Are
How the Basque language has survived
Basque People: Mystery Unfolded Through the Years
The Basque People: Who Are the Basques?
The mystery of the origins of the Basque people of northern Spain and southwestern France have baffled anthropologists for years. They speak a language that is unrelated to any other in the world and have a unique genetic makeup. So are the Basques the oldest Europeans? The language families of Europe fall into a few broad categories. There are the Indo-European languages, which include the Romance, Germanic, Slavic and Celtic subgroups, along with Greek and Albanian. The Iranian languages and most of the languages of India are also Indo-European. Then there are the languages of Finland and Hungary, which are hypothesized to be of a broader Finno-Ugric family. Basque is a language isolate. Spoken in a region that spans northern Spain and across the border into southern France, it is not part of the Indo-European language family. It’s not related to Spanish or French or German or Greek or any known language. The origins of the language are a bit of mystery. In fact, you can almost hear the history of the European continent in the language according to Basque language scholar Xabier Irujo.
The ancient origins of the Basques
The Basque people may be the oldest culture not only in Spain, but in Europe. They are thought to have descended from Neolithic farmers long before the Roman invasion of the Iberian peninsula, and they maintained their distinct language, identity, and culture largely due to their geographic isolation — the area in which they live is largely rough, mountainous terrain. The Basque people have been an enigma to anthropologists for years. With a unique language, traditions, and customs, Basque origins have long been a mystery. Researchers now believe they have finally pinpointed the beginnings of this special group of people – from the results of a study of eight ancient skeletons found in a cave in northern Spain.
Basques are some of the oldest Europeans and live today in a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France. Since the Basque language is unrelated to Indo-European, it has long been thought to represent the people or culture that occupied Europe before the spread of Indo-European languages there. A comprehensive analysis of Basque genetic patterns has shown that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula, about 7,000 years ago. The Iberian Peninsula – Basque population data represent DNA samples from 50 individuals born in the Kingdom of Spain’s Gipuzkoa province (Gipuzkoa), and who had four Basque grandparents (Basques) also born in this area – the western region of the Pyrenees Mountains known as Basque Country. Samples were obtained by the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, in the Dept. of Molecular Biology and Evolution, at Spain’s Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona/Catalonia. These data were later augmented to 248 samples.
Behind The Basques: The Most Misunderstood Culture in Europe
Basque Firsts: People Who Changed the World
Throughout history, Basque men and women have made contributions in navigation, education, science, fashion, politics, and many other fields. Too often these achievements have been overlooked, or have been claimed as the accomplishments of others. Basque Firsts: People Who Changed the World profiles seven remarkable Basques who were the first in their fields to do something—something extraordinary—that had a dramatic impact on others who followed them. The profiles use primary sources to tell fresh stories and offer a wonderful variety, showing the astonishing breadth of Basque contributions.
They include Juan Sebastían Elcano, the first person to circumnavigate the earth; St. Ignatius of Loyola, the first Jesuit to seed a worldwide movement in education; Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the Father of Neurology and a Nobel laureate; Cristóbal Balenciaga, the king of haute couture; Paul Laxalt, one of Ronald Reagan’s closest friends in politics; and Edurne Pasaban, the first woman to climb the world’s fourteen tallest mountains. Basque Firsts provides a rare look at a culture’s people, revealing the significant contributions they have shared.
The beauty and the mistery of one of the most isolated people in the world. Imagine for a second; an indigenous ethnic group located in the heart of Europe that has barely changed over the centuries, unique, culturally different, even genetically distinct. A group of people that the Visigoths were unable to conquer. Settled in lands of lush green highlands and daunting, gorgeous high-rock cliffs. A place where, not long ago was common to see whales breaking the cold waters of its Atlantic Ocean shores. Imagine a culture with a shared ancestry, a common social structure so distant and strong that has survived the most prominent historical changes — invasions, kingdoms, and empires — the European continent has ever seen. Meet: The Basques.
Where are Basque people from?
When we speak of the Basque Country, it’s important to distinguish between the historic territories where the Basque people lived and the autonomous community in modern Spain often referred to as “Basque Country.” The Basque people lived in a region that stretches between modern-day northern Spain and southern France. It contained 7 historical provinces. Only 3 of those provinces (Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa) are included in the modern-day Basque Autonomous Community, which is one of the 17 autonomous communities in modern Spain. Another of the 17 autonomous communities is Navarre, which is also a historic Basque province. Navarre was actually a Basque kingdom in the Middle Ages, but it was assimilated into Castile in 1515, joining what would eventually become a unified Spain.
The Basque Country is one of Europe’s oldest and strongest cultures. It encompasses the region located in northern Spain, on the Bay of Biscay at the western end of the Pyrenees mountain range, straddling the frontier between southern France and Spain. Our culture and origins are distinctive from that of the rest of Spain in many ways and from the spanish way of life. We are deeply proud of our origins, uniqueness, traditions, language and culture. Surrounded by a privileged landscape, dotted with charming ancient villages which contrast the old industrial cities converted into postmodern cities through emblematic architecture; this place we call home hosts global events and offers superior services that ensure visitors will enjoy their stay in the Basque region.
The Basque Country consists of three provinces in northern Spain and another three in south west France. The main cities in Spain are Bilbao, San Sebastian (Donostia) and Vitoria-Gasteiz. In the six provinces combined there are altogether more than three million people, two-and-a-half million in Spain and 270.000 in France, not forgetting a significant community in northern Navarra.
Euskera. One of the Oldest languages spoken
Euskera or Basque, linguistically speaking has no direct link to any other known language, it is totally isolated from any other living language and may be the oldest in Europe.
Even though there are different dialects spoken in the Basque territory, Euskara Batua was created as a link between all Basque speakers to be used and understood by most.
| I.–LEGENDS or THE TARTARO | 1 |
| The Tartaro | 4 |
| M. d’Abbadie’s Version | 4 |
| Variations of above | 5 |
| Errua, the Madman | 6 |
| Variations of above | 10 |
| The Three Brothers, the Cruel Master, and the Tartaro | 11 |
| The Tartaro and Petit Perroquet | 16 |
| II.–THE HEREN-SUGE.–THE SEVEN-HEADED SERPENT | 20 |
| The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge | 22 |
| Variation of above | 32 |
| The Seven-Headed Serpent | 33 |
| The Serpent in the Wood | 38 |
| III.–ANIMAL TALES | 42 |
| Acheria, the Fox | 43 |
| The Ass and the Wolf | 45 |
| IV.–BASA-JAUN, BASA-ANDRE, AND LAMINAK | 47 |
| Basa-Jauna | 49 |
| The Servant at the Fairy’s | 53 |
| The Fairy in the House | 55 |
| The Pretty but Idle Girl | 56 |
| The Devil’s Age | 58 |
| The Fairy-Queen Godmother | 59 |
| V.–WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY | 64 |
| The Witches at the Sabbat | 66 |
| The Witches and the Idiots | 67 |
| The Witch and the New-Born Infant | 69 |
| The Changeling | 73 |
| VI.–CONTES DES FÉES | 76 |
| (A) Tales like the Keltic | 77 |
| Malbrouk | 77 |
| The Fisherman and his Sons | 87 |
| Tabakiera, the Snuff-Box | 94 |
| Mahistruba, the Master Mariner | 100 |
| Dragon | 106 |
| Ezkabi-Fidel | 111 |
| Variation of above | 120 |
| The Lady-Pigeon and her Comb | 120 |
| Suggested Explanation of above | 130 |
| Laur-Cantons | 132 |
| The Young School-Boy | 136 |
| The Son who Heard Voices | 137 |
| The Mother and her Idiot Son; or, the Clever Thief | 140 |
| Juan Dekos, the Blockhead (Tontua) | 146 |
| Variation of the above–Juan de Kalais | 151 |
| The Duped Priest | 154 |
| (B) Contes dos Fées, derived directly from the French | 158 |
| Ass’-Skin | 158 |
| Variations of above | 165 |
| The Step-Mother and Step-Daughter | 166 |
| Beauty and the Beast | 167 |
| Variation of above | 172 |
| The Cobbler and his Three Daughters (Blue-Beard) | 173 |
| Variations of above | 175 |
| The Singing Tree, the Bird which tells the Truth, and the Water which makes Young | 176 |
| Variation of above | 181 |
| The White Blackbird | 182 |
| The Sister and her Seven Brothers | 187 |
| Variations, etc. | 191 |
| List of Publication of Foreign Legends in France | 192 |
| VII.–RELIGIOUS TALES | 194 |
| Fourteen | 195 |
| Variation of above–Jesus Christ and the Old Soldier | 199 |
| The Poor Soldier and the Rich Man | 200 |
| The Widow and her Son | 202 |
| The Story of the Hair-Cloth Shirt (La Cilice) | 206 |
| The Saintly Orphan Girl | 209 |
| The Slandered and Despised Girl | 211 |
| AN ESSAY ON THE BASQUE LANGUAGE | 219 |
| APPENDIX.–BASQUE POETRY |
Indigenous Peoples Literature 