Creature Feature: Nuckelavee
Take the M9 out to Stirling from Edinburgh, and you’ll come upon two giant steel horse-head sculptures rearing up into the sky. At 30-metres tall, they’re very hard to miss. Completed in 2013, the sculptures are said to be a ‘monument to horse powered heritage across Scotland’ - but for many, they are a monument to the creatures from which they are named, ‘The Kelpies’.
A kelpie is a Scottish water spirit that often appears as a horse, but can shape-shift into a human being. They inhabit bodies of water, and, after tempting a victim on to their back, they ride into the deep water; subsequently drowning the rider. It’s not always as clean or clear as this - other tales tell of the spirit devouring the rider, and leaving the entrails on the shore.
Kelpies have an incredibly rich history in Scotland, but the Nuckelavee - though similar - is a far more disturbing beast. Specific to Orkney, this horse-demon damages crops, kills livestock, spreads plague and can even limit rainfall on the island - leading to droughts and terrible harvests. Unlike kelpies, the Nuckelavee lives in the sea surrounding the island, and only ventures ashore before and after the summer months. It’s appearance is terrifying. One encounter with the monster is described as follows:
[...] like a great horse with flappers like fins about his legs, with a mouth as wide as a whale's, from whence came breath like steam from a brewing-kettle. He had but one eye, and that as red as fire. On him sat, or rather seemed to grow from his back, a huge man with no legs, and arms that reached nearly to the ground. His head was as big as a clue of simmons (a clue of straw ropes, generally about three feet in diameter), and this huge head kept rolling from one shoulder to the other as if it meant to tumble off. But what to Tammie appeared most horrible of all, was that the monster was skinless; [...] the whole surface of it showing only red raw flesh, in which Tammie saw blood, black as tar, running through yellow veins, and great white sinews, thick as horse tethers, twisting, stretching, and contracting as the monster moved [...]
Having heard of this creature before, Tammie managed to escape the beast by crossing to the other side of a freshwater stream. Like many salt-water demons, the Nuckelavee cannot stand fresh-water, and so Tammie was saved. The same cannot be said for the livestock the creature has sickened with its breath, nor the deaths caused by the plague.
Historians say that the Nuckelavee is likely an Orkadian explanation for stormy seas during tempestuous months. GIving further weight to this is the Sea Mither, which is the only creature capable of controlling the dreadful Nuckelavee - imprisoning it during the summer months.