Monsters of Grenhaven Part 3: Lou Carcolh

Here's another entry from James A.S. Lee's "Monsters of Grenhaven". Posted with the author's permission.

"LOU CARCOLH

If you are walking in the woods and you happen upon a strip of grass long and winding as a ribbon with blades that are thin and brown like hair, tread not upon this peculiar foliage or you may become a meal for the dreaded Lou Carcolh.

The Lou Carcolh, so the old folks of Little France say, is something like a snail and something like a serpent. There is no precise description of the beast since almost no one has seen it. At least, no one who has escaped its traps. The Lou Carcolh is believed to inhabit caves beneath the woods outside Grenhaven, in particular, the section of forest called “Leeds’ Hop” is said to be the preferred territory of this malevolent mollusk.

To feed, the creature extends from its burrow its flat, ribbon-like tentacles which can each be almost a mile long. These tentacles are covered with sticky brown hairs rather like a sundew. Indeed, some stories claim that the Lou Carcolh is not an animal at all, but a gigantic, mobile species of the common Drosera found in New England bogs. Others have compared the beast to Spaghetti worms (Loimia medusa) of the South Pacific. Like the Lou Carcolh, these annelids live in burrows- though theirs are in heads of coral rather than underground- and drape their long, sticky tentacles along the reef to ensnare prey.

Legends of the Lou Carcolh originated in Southwestern France, near the border with Spain. According to the legends of Nouvelle France a rich Huguenot merchant, Etienne Coustou, collected several of the creature’s eggs as curiosities and took them with him when he sailed to the New World to escape Catholic persecution. Upon arrival he was robbed in the port. Among the items stolen were several Lou Carcolh eggs. Apparently at least one of them hatched and survived to haunt the dark hemlock hills surrounding Grenhaven.

Not all of the eggs were stolen, however. Two still remain in the possession of the Coustou family. They have put them on display at various times, the latest being a display of family treasures at the Trompe-l’oeil House.

Though some have suggested that the “eggs” are nothing but polished spheres of peridotite, this hypothesis must remain untested for now since the Coustou family has refused to allow anyone to examine the eggs."