Folklore and Mythology: Kelpies
Imagine yourself to be walking along a dark road one night near a river or loch, you may have had a wee dram too many and it’s still such a long way until you reach hearth and home. All of a sudden you spy a fine horse in the middle of the road unattended, it couldn’t hurt to borrow him to see you home could it? You can always return him to his owner in the morning, and perhaps even receive a little compensation, for surely the owner of such a fine animal will be both wealthy and relieved to be reunited with him. So you mount the beast not even wondering why his mane is wet when it’s a dry night, then all of sudden he’s off racing towards the water. In desperation you try and throw yourself off but you can’t, you’re stuck on his back and nothing you can do will see you free. He gallops into the water, and as your lungs fill and all goes black you realise that it was no ordinary horse you’d chosen to ride, but a kelpie looking for its next meal.
- A kelpie dragging a fresh meal to it’s watery lair.
The kelpie is an evil creature said to haunt the lochs and rivers of Scotland and Ireland where it lurks, ever waiting for the chance to lure a foolish mortal into its lair and devour them, leaving behind only their heart or liver depending on the story.
The kelpie hunts by taking the form of a fine pony or horse, usually black in colour though variations have been known, it waits on paths near rivers and lochs for its prey. It casts a glamour to conceal its unnatural nature, appearing for all the world as a rare and beautiful member of the equine family, so that any who see it are tempted to draw near and mount. The only discrepancy is its mane and tail which are always dripping wet no matter the weather. Its skin is said to be smooth like a seal’s, but once you touch it you’ve fallen into its trap for the skin suddenly becomes more adhesive than glue. The kelpie then gallops down into the depths of the river or loch it calls home drowning the poor unfortunate who fell for its spell and then devouring them.
While the majority of kelpies take the form of a horse to hunt there are stories of some who prefer the form of a handsome young man with damp hair adorned with water reeds. The each uisge is one such and I found a little story I’ll add at the end of this post.
A brave man could manage on occasion to get a bridle on a kelpie, and if he did he was truly blessed for as long as it remained bridled, for kelpies are said to have the strength of ten normal horses capable of pulling vast loads. A nobleman, one Graham of Morphie, once managed to bridle a kelpie and used it to help build his castle. However once freed the kelpie cursed his line for its forced indenture and the Grahams were dogged by tragedy from then on.
So if you’re ever walking near the shores of a river and or loch in Scotland and spie a fine horse withotu a rider keep your distance for it may be a kelpie out hunting.
A Tale of the Each Uisge
‘A maiden, tending her father’s flocks, met a ‘lasgaire loinneil’, handsome young man, on the lone hillside. The man pressed his suit upon the maiden; but though pleased with his appearance, and charmed with his manner, she kept shy of him, and tried to evade him.
He asked her to lift some of the sheep droppings rolling down towards them, and to satisfy him she did so, and lo! they became balls of glittering gold, shining and sparkling in the bright light of the sun, like the fireflies of night. The youth told the maiden that this was only a small part of what he could do for her; and, pressing his suit the harder, asked her to meet him again.
But through her long downcast eyelashes the girl thought that she could discern what seemed like hoofs instead of feet, with clay in their crevices and earth on their edges, and there appeared also to be fragments of ‘rabhagach’, water-reeds, in his moist hair, and she feared in her heart that he might be the ‘each-uisge’, water-horse, of which her mother had warned her. The maiden was sore afraid, and, fearing to say ‘No’, tremblingly promised to meet the man again.’
When the maiden got home she told her mother about the strange young man with water-reeds in his hair. The maiden’s mother told her father and her father told the priest. The priest decided that he would go with the maiden to meet the young man.
The priest took a Bible and made a sanctuary ‘in the name of the Sacred Three, and of the sanctified saints, and of the sinless angels’. Presently the young man arrived, clothed from head to heel in finest garb and gaudiest array, and right full of seductive smiles and enticing words. He tried to come near them, and went round and round three successive times, but could not come through the ‘caim Chriosda chaoimh’ – ‘sanctuary of Christ the kindly’.
And again, and again, and yet again the prideful young man tried to come near, but again, and again, and yet again failed because of the blessed ‘caim’. Then the big cock crowed, and the young man, defeated, fled with a roar, flames of forking fire more deadly than the fangs of the serpent issuing from his ears, eyes, nostrils, and heels, and showing his form anew.
The affrighted girl, trembling like the leaf of the aspen tree, looked in her hand, and lo! the erstwhile pellets of glittering gold were become filth, and in disgust she threw them away.’
‘Ortha Nan Gaidheal, Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations’ by Alexander Carmichael, 1900
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on July 10, 2009 at 8:50 pm
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I had heard of the term Kelpie, but I thought it was a different thing.
I heard the name from a Spanish song of a Heavy Metal band, where they tell the story of a woman that would appear to men that were horny. And that she would take their soul.
However, on this song the woman apparently used to be a mortal, but was somehow turned in to “The lady of dawn”.
Your story is probably more accurate, though. Very nice read
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on July 10, 2009 at 8:56 pm
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Thanks that sounds more like a succubus than a kelpie to me, though having a human origin might tie it to a specific story assuming no artistic license was taken.