Is there a tradition amongst the French in Canada of house guardians like the Lutin and the Matagot in France?
Thanks!😊
@dvoeverie-stitches
Indeed there is! The lutins travelled with our ancestors to these shores! The tradition of lutins is widespread among French Canadians and Acadians alike. Though nowadays they don't really frequent urban centres. They rather stick to the countryside. I know when I'll be living in a rural community eventually, I'll start minding my way around my property for these little folk.
Ideal offerings: dairy products, white teacakes drizzled with molasses, sugar loaves/sucre a la crème.
Lutins lore came over with immigrants from Normandy, Brittany, and Wallonia, marrying with the folklore of the little folk from their Irish neighbours. These little people would be about sixteen inches tall (almost as tall as a horse's head is long), and in most Quebec communities, donning green garb. In Côte-Nord, they wear red and blue. They adore vibrant colours, and will often steal fabric from your stash to make their clothes.
Sometimes, people wanted to keep these lutins away from their crops. In that case, if any priest is locally known to keep away grasshoppers and birds from the crops, they were usually called upon to banish lutins. Lutins usually hate cats, bats, garlic, and roosters. (1) To avoid their tricks, you can keep a piece of bread in your pockets.
Antonine Maillet detailed that lutins were part of the wide array of local spirits under the jurisdiction of the Devil, along with the marionettes (puppets, or the northern lights), feux follets, loups-garous, farfadets, and more. Lutins can be what you'd expect little folk to look like, but they can also transform into rabbits, dogs, and pure white cats. They mostly play tricks on people, like leaving pebbles in your shoes. Almost no one has directly witnessed them. If you dare witness even one, your horse will disappear. (2). So don't go looking for them. They get really angry if they get perceived.
The lutins in the kitchen
In the household, they inhabit those unfrequented and unheated corners of your house, and the attic, where they live in communities of friends. Many Acadian families would boast if they were rumoured to house a cute little lutin couple. Woe be to whomever keeps a lutin wife hostage, or face the lutin husband's wrath. These little folks are mostly around the kitchen. Some Quebec folklore says they cook soup in your kitchen at night, and take the food to the edge of the woods to feast. They often stole vegetables from the neighbour's garden for it. You can appease them by giving them white teacakes dripping in molasses. Chances are they'll reward your offering with little gold nuggets. If they especially like your house's cleanliness, you can rest assured your pantry and fridge will be restocked from their midnight feasting. (1)
The lutins of the sugar shack
In eastern Quebec, our sugar bushes are awakening in the springtime with the arrival of the little sugar bugs, and the chickadees, signalling the beginning of the sugar season. This is where you find lutins watching over the maple sugar pails, and at night, they can be found making little sugar loaves in shapes like rabbits, hearts, horses and stars, and hid them in secret stashes. (1)
The lutin's best friend, your horse
The most popular story for lutins would be finding them in the stables, sleeping by day in the hay bales, and at night, weaving little braids in the horse's mane so they can use these as little reins to ride the horse all night long. When the farmer would go to the stable to see the horse, they'd know they had a night out if the horse was all sweaty and tired before the day's work even started. Lutins usually fed the horses really well, and made sure the horse remained healthy. To undo the really tight braids in your horse's mane, you can use your wife's blessed wedding ring. To keep these little folks away from your stables, paint crosses with lime wash over your doorways and on its landing, as it burns their little feet. If you ever anger them, beware! Your horse will become ill. Your car will lose its bolts... (1)
My great-grandma would always check her family horse's mane for braids and knots.
Lutins as environmental protectors
In the oral folk tale from the Magdalen Islands told by Azade Harvey, "Les habitants du plâtre à Arsène... face à la Soquem", Placide witnesses lutins inhabiting the tunnels of a salt mine owned by the Soquem Company. These men of little stature, with dark green beards, rose-tinted skin, bright teeth and black beady eyes demanded to Placide to bring a memo on a plaster tablet to the company superintendent to stop mining the quarry, as it is their kingdom and they were trespassing with their machines, signed, Amiak, chief of the lutins. Otherwise, they warned that they would use psychic means of terror. So it is that they caused flashes of light that blinded workers, and tampered with machinery. They made a truck drive on its own towards the ocean. The company stopped working in that salt mine after all these setbacks. (3) These little folk are known to be close to the realm of the dead, living mostly underground.
Mischievous cousins, les farfadets
These little hyperactive beasts were often rumoured to be seen traveling to the Ile d'Orleans to party by crossing the Saint Lawrence river. They especially love harmonium music. These farfadets and local lutins can also be rumoured to play with the dug up bones of those buried alive to guard buried treasure, especially in the Gaspésie region of Quebec. These are called the "petits bonhommes gris" (little grey men) which are known to be the souls of mariners buried by their sea captain to guard the treasure. It's said that on All Souls' Day night, we can see little lights in those areas, showing where the treasure is buried. These oral traditions can also be found in the Ardennes region of France, where elves were known to gnaw on the bones in cemeteries. They were called 'croqueurs d'os'. (1)
Sources:
Jean-Claude Dupont. Des histoires de lutins. Les éditions GID. 2014.
2. Antonine Maillet. Rabelais et les traditions populaires en Acadie. Les presses de l'Université Laval. 1980.
3. Azade Harvey. Contes et légendes des Iles-de-la-Madeleine 3: Azade nous ramène dans ses iles. préface de Fernand Lapierre. Les éditions Intrinsèque Inc. 1977.
For further reading into a lutin story, enjoy:
AND in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, Quebec, there's a Lutin Crossing that the municipality keeps up with year-round! Other villages in Quebec do this at Christmas in a "Christmas elf" way, but come on, give me good ol' lutin lore that's not generic.
