FANTASTIC CREATURES OF SCOTTISH MYTHOLOGY

Hello again! In this post I am going to deal with Scottish most famous mythological creatures.

One of the attractive of Scotland is that mystical aura that surrounds its history. For mystery lovers, Scotland offers a great variety of myths and legends and I am going to talk about some fantastic creatures that are supposed to live there.  I have elaborated a list of several of these mythic elements, obviously there are not the whole of them, but some that I have considered interesting.  

Brownie

BROWNIES:  “gruagach” in Scottish Gaelic, they are a sort of house elves that live in the unused parts of the houses. They aid in tasks around the house but they only do that at night because they don’t like to be seen. A brownie can live in the same house during its whole life, but it also can leave the house if they feel offended by the owners (they don’t like to hear critics about their works).

Caoineag

CAOINEAG:  “the weeper”, is a female evil spirit of water that is never seen. It is said that who hears her wailings has to be prepared to face a catastrophe or even death.

Cat Sith

CAT SITH: it is a large black cat with a white spot on its breast. It steals the people’s soul before they are buried if it jumps over their corpses. To keep this creature away from the corpse there are some distractions like music or riddles. Some people thought that Cat Sith was actually a witch who could transform herself into a cat.

Cù Sith

CÙ SITH: it is a mythological hound that is said to be the size of a young bull, shaggy and dark green or white. It lives in the rocks of Highlands and it is a harbinger of death, it appears to bear away the soul of a person to the afterlife.

Kelpie

KELPIE: it is a supernatural black water horse that lives in lochs and rivers; it is a very dangerous creature because it can adopt either a human form or a horse form. It can be recognized due to its dripping mane. If a person rides it, he would be attached to its hide and the kelpie would bring him to the deepest water where it devours every part of the human body except the liver. The kelpie was the reason Scottish people didn’t trust in any strange who were near from water.

Ghillie Dhu

GHILLIE DHU: it is a faerie, a guardian spirit of the trees. It likes children, although it is generally very shy. It is said to be dark haired and to wear leaves and moss and to live near Gairloch. It was used to symbolize Charles II, when he was the Stuart heir after his father execution (probably because his physical appearance).  

Nukelavee

NUKELAVEE: it is a horrible creature which has no skin, it is a kind of centaur that lives in the sea. It is thought the cause epidemics, drought and ruined crops with its breath.  It resembles a centaur, although its legs are part fin, it has a gaping mouth and only one eye that is giant and burns with red flames. It has two heads, one is human and the other is a horse one.  It has aversion to running water and to burning seaweed used to create soda ash (“Kelp”).

    

Selkie

SELKIES: water creatures that can transform themselves from seals to humans by shedding their seal skins and can return to their primary form by putting them on. A selkie can make contact with a human person for a short time, and it has to return to the sea soon. They are usually female and they can be controlled by hiding their seal skin. As women, kelpies are goog wives although they are always sad. There are many romantic stories about these creatures.

Wulver

WULVER:  it is a kind of werewolf that is not dangerous if you leave it in peace. It can’t become human, it is always the same form and it is immortal. It is fond of fishing, he has a rock in the deep water   where he sits to fish for hour after hour.

I am not talking about Nessie because you can read about it in the post below, so I would like to mention the other famous monster in Scotland:

MORAG OF LOCH MORAR: its name obviously comes from the name of the Loch where it lives in but also from the female name “Morag”. Sightings date back to 1887 and it was described by witnesses as “a peculiar serpent-like creature about 20 ft long”. The best known encounter, in 1969, featured two men, Duncan McDonnel and William Simpson, and their speedboat, with which they accidentally struck the creature, prompting it to hit back. McDonnel retaliated with an oar, and Simpson opened fire with his rifle, whereupon it sank slowly out of sight. They described it as being brown, 25-30 feet long, and with rough skin. It had three humps rising 18 inches (460 mm) above the loch's surface, and a head a foot wide, held 18 inches (460 mm) out of the water.

Morag

That is all by now, I hope you enjoyed the information as I did investigating. My first intention was to write a post about myths and legends of Scotland, but when I started to search information I realized that there are many of these creatures above involved in the stories, so I preferred to write about them and leave the post about myths and legends for the next time, step by step!

See you soon!

marmarter