A fairy tale route, the lands of the minairons

Who are the minairons?

Minairons are tiny beings similar to elves and with a mischievous nature. They often sport a beard and wear a red barrette, although they are said to look indistinguishable because of their size. These are also called manairons or menairons, depending on the geographical area.

They usually move in groups and perform different shapes. These can be found in the containers where their owners keep them (in a tube of needles, inside bottles,...). Or, through the mountains and their places during the Nit de Sant Joan, such as caves or spaces where the menaironera herb blooms since the minairons can be caught in this plant on the Nit de Sant Joan when the old moon shines.

Minairons are characterized by being fantastic and hard-working beings that exhibit dual behavior. On the one hand, they benefit their owner when carrying out tasks and, on the other hand, they punish him if he does not give them enough work.

It is said that in Pallars they had a small bottle with hundreds of minairons that when they opened them they only repeated " What will we do?" What will we say? ”.

In the past, when things were going well in a peasant house in the Pyrenees, they attributed their fortune and luck to the minairons since they believed that their inhabitants possessed a tube of needles with these beings inside.

The stone tarters ( Els tarters de rocs )

We will start the route in the town of La Guàrdia d'Ares. Very close to the entrance of the town, located in the Obaga de la Guàrdia forest, there are some screes (piles of loose stones) or “ tarters de rocs ”. These tarters are one of the testimonies that remain today that prove the incredible strength of the minairons since, according to what they say, they were the ones who formed it with thick and not very mobile stones, and boulders.

This “ rocs lunchbox ”, as has already been said, was built by minairons by order of the young man of the heir of the Borda del Feu de La Guàrdia d'Ares, Ton, when he was bragging that he kept the canute of needles that it contained. The minairons opened it, despite its owner's warnings. These, consequently, began to demand work from him and he ordered them, unexpectedly, to take all the stones they found and accumulate them on the other side of the ravine from the Feu house, where it is currently located.

Just 12 minutes from La Guàrdia d'Ares is the town of Taús, where a strange and inexplicable lunch box has been located in a flat area in the middle of the forest. It is also believed that it was the work of the Minairons after someone freed them and ordered them to do this work in order to save their lives. Furthermore, it was also in Taús, according to legends, where the last Moor of the country lived.

Add that all the spaces and points described on this route are illustrated with ceramic murals.

In some areas, minairons are closely related to Christmas traditions, such as Tió.

The Biscarbó dolmen

The next town we will visit is the municipality of Biscarbó, which is accessed via the LV-5134 highway. In the Pyrenees, and specifically in Les Valls d'Aguilar, the legend of the minairons is not the only one that persists.

In Biscarbó, for example, it is explained that the dolmen found in the Obac, also known by the townspeople as the Llosa del Corralet, indicates the point where they had buried a king of England who had died in a great war that took place. place in the limits of this town.

It is said that many people have come to Biscarbó to visit the dolmen and unearth a treasure that, according to what they say, seems to be hidden precisely under the dolmen.

The Biscarbó dolmen is located at the top of a mountain range, to get to it you have to take the old road that connects with the town of La Torre. From this point you can enjoy a panoramic view of the Cantó and inside you can still see some fragments of the ceramics.

In ancient times, dolmens were understood as cabins similar to those of the Moors since people did not understand how these large stones could be moved. As at that time the Moors were so feared and great strength was attributed to them, they believed that they had been able to place them easily.

The mystery of the Enchanted

The next town that makes up this story route is Castellàs del Cantó, where we can recognize who the Enchanted Ones were, other fantastic beings related to water.

Castellàs is a town that is drained by the Castellàs river. For this reason it is likely to be able to meet some Encantada, only on the Nit de Sant Joan in the forests where moors, bushes and pines predominate.

Furthermore, to recognize these characters you have to know that the Enchanted Ones, specifically, were very, very small women who spent their days hidden at the bottom of puddles of water, except on the Nit de Sant Joan, when they dared to come out of there. They left the puddles overnight to wash clothes, which was highly regarded by the townspeople as it was like a treasure. It is said that whoever got a piece of clothing from the Enchanted ones was guaranteed to avoid misery in their home.

The other legends, Argestues and Noves Segre

To finish the route and discover what remains of this legendary world, we will make a last stop in the towns of Noves de Segre and Argestues. The small town of Argestues, also called Argestugues, is located in the valley of the Pallarols river, we can visit the church of Santa Coloma d'Argestues, which has been modified since the Romanesque.

Legends are instruments that allow us to remember phenomena that have a reasonable and logical explanation. These have been transmitted, over time, from generation to generation, which has allowed these human explanations to reach us today. This explains, for example, the formation of the Pyrenees mountains.

Legend has it that God decided that the flat world that existed until then would be abrupt. So, he took a bag full of stones and threw it wherever he wanted. The bag was so heavy that it finally broke and all the stones ended up in the same place, between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. So, they say that those stones created the mountains of the Pyrenees.

As we have seen, Les Valls d' Aguilar has a large number of these narratives that explain the stories of fantastic beings or strange phenomena.