Chasse-galerie

As punishment for this sin he was condemned to fly forever through the night skies, chased by galloping horses and howling wolves, in a fashion reminiscent of the Wild Hunt stories.

When French settlers arrived in Canada, they swapped stories with the natives and the tale of Gallery was combined with a First Nations legend about a flying canoe.

[1] After a night of heavy drinking on New Year's Eve, a group of voyageurs working at a remote timber camp yearn to visit their sweethearts some 100 leagues (500 kilometres) away.

While passing over Montreal, they narrowly miss running into a church steeple, and soon after the canoe ends up stuck in a deep snowdrift.

Another variation has the devil himself steering and deliberately trying to break the rules on the return journey, at which point they throw him out of the canoe to save themselves.

The tale appeared in a book of French-Canadian folktales called Legends of French Canada by Edward C. Woodley, published in 1931, republished in 1938.

It is a basic sawmill log ride, but overhead is a representation of the flying canoe, with the devil perched behind the terrified men.

The science fiction author Gordon R. Dickson wrote a novelette titled "The Immortal" in 1965, which was later incorporated into the collection Mutants (1970).

A French-Canadian spaceman, piloting a spaceship called "la Chasse Gallerie" (the misspelling is consistent through the story), is the victim of an attack by aliens that misfires, sending his ship hundreds of light-years away.

[7] Claude Dubois sings a song called "Chasse Galerie" on the live album Rencontre de rêves (1992).

Montreal folk metal band Blackguard use an image of the flying canoe on the cover of their 2009 album Profugus Mortis.

During the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, a canoe containing fiddler Colin Maier was lowered from the ceiling in an allusion to the legend.

[8] The radio program C'est la Vie retold the story on December 28, 2001, narrated by storyteller Marylyn Peringer.

[citation needed] The first feature film adaptation, Wild Run: The Legend (Chasse-Galerie: La Légende), was released in February 2016.

[10] A stage play written by Tyrone Savage, with music and lyrics by James Smith, was produced by the Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto in 2016.