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    Folktales of Water Spirits, Kelpies, and Selkies
    Folktales of Water Spirits, Kelpies, and Selkies
    Folktales of Water Spirits, Kelpies, and Selkies
    Ebook63 pages1 hour

    Folktales of Water Spirits, Kelpies, and Selkies

    By Read Books Ltd.

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    About this ebook

    The beautiful and powerful landscape of Scotland has always inspired awe in any traveller, in this book we look at the superstitions built up around this breath taking scenery. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 22, 2016
    ISBN9781473352377
    Folktales of Water Spirits, Kelpies, and Selkies

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      Book preview

      Folktales of Water Spirits, Kelpies, and Selkies - Read Books Ltd.

      WATER-SPIRITS.

      Influence of Scenery—Science and Superstition—Loch-nan-Spoiradan—Lochan-nan-Deann—Lochan-Wan and its Sacrifice—Jenny Greenteeth—Poetry and Superstition—Tweed and Till—Dee and Don—Folk-practices for Finding a Drowned Body—Deeside Tradition—Salt used by Tweed Fishers for Good Luck—Guardian-Spirit of Conan—Peg Powler—Water-kelpies—Nikr—Halliwell Boggle—Robin Round Cap—Round Hole, near Flamborough—Aberdeenshire Kelpy Legends—Some Sutherland Kelpies—Story about an Islay Kelpy—Mermaids in the North.

      ONE of the great charms of Highland landscape is the gleam of still water that so often gives the element of repose in a scene of broken cliff and tumbled crag, of noisy cascade and driving cloud. No casual tourist can fail to notice what a wonderful variety of lakes he meets with in the course of any traverse he may take across the country. Among the higher mountains there is the little tarn nestling in a dark sunless corry, and half-encircled with grim snow-rifted crags. In the glen, there is the occasional broadening of the river into a lake that narrows again to let the stream rush down a rocky ravine. In the wider strath there is the broad still expanse of water, with its fringe of wood and its tree-covered islets. In the gneiss region of the North-West, there is the little lochan lying in its basin of bare rock and surrounded with scores of others all equally treeless and desolate. So writes Professor Sir A. Geikie in his Scenery of Scotland His point of view is that of a scientific observer, keenly alive to all the varied phenomena of nature. But amid the scenes described lived men and women who looked at the outer world through the refracting medium of superstition. They saw the landscape, but they saw also what their own imagination supplied. In Strathspey, is a sheet of water bearing the Gaelic name of Loch-nan-Spoiradan or the Lake of Spirits. What shape these spirits assumed we do not know, but there was no mistake about the form of the spirit who guarded Lochan-nan-Deaan, close to the old military road between Corgarff and Tomintoul. The appearance of this spirit may be gathered from the Rev. Dr. Gregor’s remarks in an article on Guardian Spirits of Wells and Lochs in "Folklore for March, 1892. After describing the loch, he says, It was believed to be bottomless, and to be the abode of a water-spirit that delighted in human sacrifice. Notwithstanding this blood-thirsty spirit, the men of Strathdon and Corgarff resolved to try to draw the water from the loch, in hope of finding the remains of those that had perished in it. On a fixed day a number of them met with spades and picks to cut a way for the outflow of the water through the road. When all were ready to begin work, a terrific yell came from the loch, and there arose from its waters a diminutive creature in shape of a man with a red cap on his head. The men fled in terror, leaving their picks and spades behind them. The spirit seized them and threw them into the loch. Then, with a gesture of defiance at the fleeing men, and a roar that shook the hills, he plunged into the loch and disappeared amidst the water that boiled and heaved as red as blood." Near the boundary, between the shires of Aberdeen and Banff, is a small sheet of water called Lochan-wan, i.e., Lamb’s Loch. The district around is now a deer forest, but at one time it was used for grazing sheep. The tenants around had the privilege of pasturing a certain number of sheep. Dr. Gregor says, Each one that sent sheep to this common had to offer in sacrifice, to the spirit of the loch, the first lamb of his flock dropped on the common. The omission of this sacrifice brought disaster; for unless the sacrifice was made, half of his flock would be drowned before the end of the grazing season. As in the case of Lochan-nan-Deaan, an attempt was made to break the spell by draining the loch, but this attempt, though less tragic in its result, was equally unavailing. On three successive days a channel was made for the outflow of the water, but each night the work was undone. A watch was set, and at midnight of the third day hundreds of small black creatures were seen to rise from the lake, each with a spade in his hand. They set about filling up the trench and finished their work in a few minutes. Mr. Charles Hardwick, in "Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore," published in 1872, tells of a folk-belief, prevalent in the North of England, particularly in Lancashire. I remember well, he says, when very young, being cautioned against approaching to the side of stagnant pools of water partially covered with vegetation. At the time, I firmly believed that if I disobeyed this instruction a certain water ‘boggart’, named Jenny Greenteeth, would drag me beneath her verdant screen and subject me to other tortures besides death by drowning.

      Poetry and superstition regard external nature from the same standpoint, in as much as both think of it as animate. But there is a difference. The one endows nature with human qualities, and knows that it does so through the imagination; the other does the same, and believes that there is no imagination in the matter. The work of the former is well expressed by

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