Talk:Rougarou

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"The Rugaru legend is also associated with the swamplands of the southeastern United States, especially in the vicinity of New Orleans." According to what sources? The Rugaru (and other spelling variants) legends seem to be associated with the Dakotas and other plains areas. In south Louisiana, there are references to tales of the Loup Garou. Simply because the source is from Louisiana doesn't grant legitimacy to a mispelling or mispronunciation. A great aunt never accepted that cajun french for bird wasn't "zozo", and that small was petit, not "ti", depsite numerous written examples. She spent her entire life in south Louisiana.

The folk tales of the Acadians, Cajuns, and French Canadians all arose from similar if not the same origins. The association of this legend with the Cajuns and the southeast is in error.-JoeArc 5/5/06

I believe the most authentic references to the Rugaroo are those found on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The Chippewa and Cree have a strong ethnic connection to the French immigrants from Quebec, Canada... especially the Metis or Mixed Bloods. I returned to the Reservation last summer (after an absense of nearly forty years) and I interviewed many of the remaining "old timers". They insisted that the Rugaroo is a Chippewa (Ojibwa) Spirit and that its history and true image have been corrupted by the numerous generational stories told in French/Cree dialect. They insisted that there is little or no connection between the Chippewa Band of Turtle Mountain Indians and the culture of New Orleans. John S. Myerchin 2/12/07

Sorry, I'm pretty sure you're wrong. I've come across quite a few references tying the Roupgarou to the New Orleans area. There is even a Mardi Gras Krewe that calls itself "The Den of the Roupgarou". I saw it in an obituary for a man from New Orleans that was a member. Nortonew 01:39, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, you could try contacting Barry J. Ancelet, professor of French and folklore at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He's apparently a bit of an expert on Rougarou lore in Louisiana. Nortonew 01:45, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article move and rewrite

The moving of this article and significant rewrite appear to be based on one person's original research: "I checked with Barry Ancelet, academic Cajun expert, he wrote: 'Since this represents a variant pronunciation, there is no right answer, but rougarou does come closest to loup garou. It is known pretty much across French.'" (Aaron charles) This appears to be based on equating "ruguru" with "rougarou" when it's not clear they both have the same origin or are the same thing. There was no consultation before this move and rewrite was done, and it is my feeling that it should be reversed. Coyoty 02:25, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

In reference to "equating 'ruguru' [sic] with 'rougarou'", I signal-handedly did not do that, the previous article Rugaru did. Rougarou was redirected to and referenced on the previous Rugaru article, so the move was not as dramatic as you portray. The Cajun legend is a lot older than the comic book reference and garage rock song (both from the 2000s). I think both modern pop culture references benefit being linked to the Rougarou legend article as I suspect they are related, despite their further variant spelling (seemingly based on Americanized phonetics). As for my rewrite, it was more like a cleanup. Nothing significant was deleted. As DreamGuy noted in Feb "listing a bunch of tiny nonscholarly websites in external links is not verifying the info, it's just spreading rumors." An example of a rewrite was revisiing the phrase "half-man, half-alligator and half-Cajun werewolf" from an amateur comic book reviewer which equaled 1.5 of a being. If you have a specific concern about a rewrite, please address it. Thank you -- Aaron charles 04:52, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

UPDATE-- I have done more research and made more udpates. I think that the article is evolving and more representative of the legends. It also has more direct citations. -- Aaron charles 18:16, 29 May 2006

Actually, one reason that there were a bunch of "tiny nonscholarly websites" originally in the references is because at the time this article was first created, there was very little on the web about ruguru or rougarou. Those were the best available references. They were basically just there to show that the legends existed and were not just one person's work of fiction. There has been a large increase in decent info regarding these legends since the article was created. Nortonew 17:51, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Loup garou

While this article still could be refined, I suggest that eventually it be linked to a Loup garou article. At this time Loup garou redirects to Lycanthropy, but I think that it deserves its own article. -- Aaron charles 20:20, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] rougarou?

whats that? reads like a japanese katakana (ルー・ガルー) of french loup-garou. are you sure its not actually spelled loup-garou? Paris By Night 19:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunate, but true. The spelling and pronunciation have been altered from the original French language.Aaron charles 20:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)