![]() The Manx Gaelic for water-horse is the Cabbyl-ushtey and the Irish have their Capall uisce (also known as the Glashtin). In Orkney there is the Nuggle or Nuggie, with the Shetland Islands the home of Tangi, the Shoopiltee, and the Njogel. For Faroe islanders there is the Nykur and in Iceland it is known as the Nykur or the nennir. These include the Each uisge, the N eck (a water spirit) and the Nix. In Scandinavia the Norwegians have the brook horse other wise called the Backahasten, which is also called the nokken. There are a number of regional variations of the water-horse and the kelpie and similar mythological creatures. However, the kelpie was also feared as a cannibalistic and foul-tempered water sprite with webbed feet and tail and mane of a horse. Artists have portrayed the kelpie in this way as a seductive and languorous maiden seated on a riverside rock or beside a pool. In terms of mythology and folk-tale the kelpie is described as a sky-blue and white horse of strong physique that can shapeshift into beautiful women. The Kelpie is usually to be found beside or in isolated and fast moving streams where she, in common with the Ceffyn dwr, lures travellers to ride on her back into deep pools where they are drowned and consumed (McKillop, 1998 Coleman, 2007). ![]() Another supernatural water-horse, or kelpie, is the glaistig which haunts Scottish waters and is “…associated mainly with domesticated animals and with the agricultural mode of life, and is attached to certin families, but has a similar sinister aspect as a river fury.” (Harris, 2009). Kelpie or Water-horse sculptures, Forth and Clyde Canal, Falkirk.Ī nickname applied to the lake monsters of Scotland is the kelpie, such as the Each-uisge, the Morag of Loch Morar, and Lizzie of Loch Lomond. It is a mammal of acquatic habit resembling a horse that lives in fresh water lochs, sea lochs, and the sea itself. 1937).The shape-shifting Each-uisge can appear as a horse, a pony, or as a handsome man. The mischievous or at worst malevolent Kelpie has its origin in the Scottish Gaelic tradition (Drever, H. In Ireland the term has been Anglicised ‘anghisky’. The water-horse known as the Each-uisge in Scotland, each-uisce in Ireland, is often mistaken for the kelpie. It is always considered a dangerous encounter with a creature, apparently measuring some 50 to 60 feet in length, with a tail 70 feet long, despite the fact that mortals can achieve power over the animal (Harris, 2009).Ĭalling the Water-horse by Ida Sofia Foss. Resembling a long-necked seal in appearance, the water-horse has a long neck supporting a small head, a horse’s mane, and two sets of flippers. Water-horses, kelpies, and glaistigs have a much greater folkloric ambiguity when compared to mermaids, sea hags and dragons. The shores and banks are the home of the glaistigs whereas the raw’ga are the revenants of seals. The name was bestowed originally on the kelpie which allegedly resembled the horse-like hippocamp of classical myth and antiquity. The confusion can be cleared by the fact that the water-horse haunts only lakes lochs and never rivers (Green, 1992), whereas the kelpie inhabits torrents, waterfalls, and fjords. Some authors regard the kelpie as being synonymous with the water-horse. ![]() It is one considered opinion that such mythical creatures appear in Scottish tales because “…the fierceness of the sea is characterised as a powerful and preternatural hage whose form…embody aspects of a stormy sea.” (Harris, 2009), the female described as the Muileartach. The mythical water-horse is also known as the Capaill Uisce or the Manx Cabyll-ushtey, the Ceffyl dwr in Wales, as well as often being confused with the Kelpie. There is a tradition of water horses in some sixty of the thousands of lochans and lochs of Scotland (Watson, 2011). ![]() In the Scottish highlands the water-horse, or Each Uisge, is a supernatural water spirit in mythology and folklore.
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