Legendary horses in the Jura

[1][3][4] It appeared in the air in the form of a white horse,[5] sometimes along with wispy spirits, sylphs, or ridden by an armed hunter who then roamed the sky.

He will show them dracks appearing in the air in the form of a white horse, annoying damsels frolicking in the moonlight on the banks of the ponds, the guivre with the sparkling carbuncle, flying from the tower of Dramelay to that of Montcroissant, werewolves, sorcerers running to the Sabbath, mounted on spindles.

He will make them hear the voice of the hospitable genius hidden under the ruins of Montcroissant, who invites all passers-by to come and taste the generous wine buried for centuries in the cellars of this old castle".The white horse of Foncine, or Pegasus of Foncine, is a marvelous winged white horse, specific to Foncine-le-Haut, Foncine-le-Bas, and Les Planches, which formed a single community until 1790.

Many shepherds affirm to have had the pleasure to see "this elegant white steed" grazing at the sources of the Saine, near the barn of the Doye,[9] then flying away with "an admirable lightness" towards the top of the sacred mountain, which invaded them with an indefinable emotion.

[21] Another headless horse used to live in this area: it was also white, and seemed to have been given the task of guarding the entrance to a path that entered the Commenailles woods because it was always at this point that it was encountered.

He travels the skies, caracoling in "the mountains bristling with black fir trees" near the lakes of the Haut- Jura, such as those of Bonlieu and Narlay.

[23][24] Some observers report having seen the horseman of Bonlieu booted, armed and helmeted, riding in the air on his white pony to fall down in the plain without touching it and to leave as quickly as lightning.

[27] At the time the legend was recorded, in the first half of the 19th century, old men reported that in their younger years, they were looking for a book written by "le Merlin du pays" who had "deposited in it the secret of interesting the sylph in his favor".

[28] In 1864, Paule Méré evoked the Jura and its legends in the Revue des Deux Mondes: "Dark woods, green pastures, steep and angular crests where the plants that the sun and the goshawks delight, marly combes that the spring gentian cherishes, brownish or chalky cliffs, rocky cirques, narrow cluses enclosed between grey walls, abrupt summits that the horseman sylph and the spirit of the stones inhabit, nants where a bubbling water precipitates, clear brooks which at three steps of their source disappear in chasms, transparent lakes with the naked shores bordered of fir trees, stony slopes where the red viper crawls, peat bogs where sleep yellowish mosses and stunted shrubs, swamps decorated with horsetails and bulrushes, mounts and valleys, ravines and meadows, barren fields, patient labor of man and oxen to overcome the refusals of the earth, white houses scattered on the heights, humble dwellings covered with shingles whose inhabitants work with iron and wood to make up for the indigence of a stingy soil, wandering herds, deep silences, cawing of the crow, half-veiled sky of the long afternoons, grayish vapors trailing on the side of the mountains, clearings that the evening wind fills with its boredom, serene royalty of the moon at the hour of mystery when it takes possession of the old astonished forests".This three-legged horse comes from the Doubs department, as it lives in the woods of Nancray, in the middle mountains overlooking Besançon,[30] but also frequents a few other places.

In the French department of Jura, the Gauvin horse is known to frequent the Loue Valley[34] and the Forest of Chaux, where it used to kidnap young girls.

When the fairy horse felt her on its back, it gave his rider a slight idea of his merit, by doing countless evolutions on the beach near the port.

It is a monster considered dangerous at the beginning of the 20th century, since in the neighboring villages, especially in Relans, the old men give the people instructions to avoid the presence of the drack which, it is said, guards the entrance to the wood.

[39] The work of comparison carried out by Monnier and Émile Vingtrinier was heavily criticized by M. Bourquelot of the École des Chartes, in 1857, who accused them of having simply noted similarities, without proving the origin of the legends.

[8] Celtic sustenance in the Jura concerns Christmas and the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe, the public almsgiving on New Year's Day near the Cheverie bridge, or the druidic monuments.

The costume worn by the men and women of Foncine "imitated, until a few years ago, with a singular accuracy, that of the ancient Celts, as described by Strabo".

It is attributed to a Celtic origin: "... dwarves or fairies had been heard mowing with great noise during the summer nights in the meadow of the Lady, under the forest at Donzel, at the very foot of the castle.

Others had met more than once the mysterious horseman, the wild hunter, this sylph appeared in so many regions from Scythia, where it seems to have originated, to Brittany, Sevania and all the Celtic countries.

He gallops in the direction of Soyhière and his speed is so great that one believes to hear the rustle of the air which he splits in his fast race, but the feet of his mount leaves no trace on the path which he traverses.

They affirm however to have seen the horseman, they quote witnesses, and however less favored than them, we see in this mysterious character only a myth, a Celtic memory, elusive like the rings of the flood".An origin evoked by Désiré Monnier for the winged and flying horses is that of Pegasus of Greek mythology, who would have "left his footprints all over the Jura region".

The riding sylph of Bonlieu recalls the Greek hero Bellerophon, who rode Pegasus and fell while trying to reach Olympus, and then ended up wandering on foot in the deserts, racked with worries and avoiding encounters.

[24] Monnier saw in the three-legged a "childishness" and according to him, "those who made this myth are perhaps the same ones who invented the Scandinavian mythology, where one sees Héla or Death who governs the nine worlds, mounted on a three-footed horse, and sowing on the nations all the plagues".

[32] The dictionary of superstitions mentions the same origin, inspired by the works of the brothers Grimm, who attributed to Hel, goddess of the underworld in Norse mythology, a three-legged horse.

[26] For M. Bourquelot of the École des Chartes, the resemblance can be an indication of the community of origin of a legend, but not an absolute proof, and it remains to show the process of transmission.

For him, the Chinese general Guan Yu, killed with his son and who became the tutelary genius of the Manchu people, does not seem to be at the origin of the Jura legends, and the belief in the horseman sylph of Bonlieu could not come from Asia.