| Cheval Gauvin | |
| Grouping: | Evil spirit |
| Aka: | Cheval Gauvain, chevau Gauvin, tchevâ Gâvïn |
| Similar Entities: | Cheval Mallet |
| Folklore: | Legend |
| Region: | Franche-Comté, Jura, Bernese Jura |
The Cheval Gauvin (French: Gauvin horse) is a legendary evil horse of Franche-Comté, France and the Jura Mountains in Switzerland. It is said to wander along watercourses, through forests and graveyards, and to attempt to kill those who ride it, either by drowning them or throwing them into an abyss.
A legend relating to this horse was first collected in Chamblay by Désiré Monnier, who published it in 1854. Identical stories are also told in Montbarrey, Joux, Dole, in France as well as in the Swiss canton of Jura and in the Bernese Jura. In Switzerland, the horse gallops through villages and abducts young girls. Several legends are attached to it, one of which makes it the mount of the medieval lord Amauri III de Joux. A woman's account of meeting him in the Chamblay cemetery has been commented on and told since the 19th century. A harbinger of death, the Gauvin horse seems to have acted as a bogeyman for children. Perhaps the result of a goblin's transformation (a hobgoblin), he joins a large number of legendary Jura horses.
The Gauvin horse bears the same name as a famous knight of the Round Table, nephew of King Arthur.[1] Two forms exist: "Gauvin" is the most common, "Gauvain", which may also the animal's actual name, may also appear occasionally. In Franche-Comté, it is mentioned as tchevâ Gâvïn in the archives of popular traditions.[2] The form chevau Gauvin exists in Jura patois.[3] The origin of this name remains unknown.