Basajaun

Basajaun or Baxajaun, the so-called "Basque Yeti", is the Lord of the Forest or the "Señor Salvaje": they are characters from Basque-Navarrese mythology of prodigious size and strength that the first settlers of those lands found living in the most remote mountains and forests. Their female partner is called Basandere (Lady of the Forest or "Wild Lady").

They lived in the forests of Gorbea (Álava) and also in the Selva de Irati (Navarra) and in the area of Ataun, in Guipúzcoa. They walked in human form, with their bodies covered in hair and very long hair that reached their feet.

Far from being aggressive, he was protective of flocks of sheep, and they indicated his presence with a unanimous shake of cowbells. When a storm or wolves approached, he would shout and whistle on the mountain to warn the shepherds. In exchange, the Basajaun receive as tribute a piece of bread that they collected while the shepherds slept.

Despite what has been said, the Basajaun sometimes appear in the stories as terrifying forest men, with colossal forces that it was better not to run into, while in others the Basajaun appear as the first farmers and holders of secrets, from which men learned through tricks how to cultivate wheat, the manufacture and use of saws, welding, etc.

Basajaun and Basandere.

Along with Tartalo and the gentiles (jentilak), it forms part of the group of mountain giants in Basque mythology.

In the origins, the Basajaunes were the holders of the secrets of architecture, agriculture, blacksmithing and sedentary life, and it was the civilizer Martin Txiki who, through trickery, snatched their secrets to divulge them to humanity.

This mythological being also exists in the Aragonese mythology of the Tena, Ansó and Broto valleys, where it receives the names Basajarau, Bonjarau or Bosnerau.

Basajaun is a character similar to those found throughout the Eurasian continent in the form of ogres, trolls, yetis and other "men of the woods" that some anthropologists and ethnographers link to the memory of our coexistence with Neanderthal man and that has been written in our collective memory in the form of myths and legends.

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