English Folklore II "Kelpie"

The Kelpie is a water horse from Scotland. Fierce and frightening, seeing a Kelpie is always a bad omen, and they are known to devour both humans and fairies. The Kelpie is a water spirit inhabiting deep pools in Scottish streams and rivers. It normally takes the form of a small horse - sometimes said to be black, but also "green as glass" with a jet black mane and tail. The Kelpie can also take the form of a human, but it always has something of the water which gives it away - like waterweed in its hair.There was one way in which a Kelpie could be defeated and tamed; the Kelpie's power of shape shifting was said to reside in its bridle, and anybody who could possess such a bridle could force the Kelpie to submit to their will. A Kelpie in subjugation was highly prized, it had the strength of at least 10 horses and the endurance of many more, but the fairy races were always dangerous captives especially those as malignant as the Kelpie. It was said that the MacGregor clan were in possession of a Kelpies bridle, passed down through the generations from when one of their clan managed to save himself from a Kelpie near Loch Slochd.

"Kelpie as Useful"

A man in carting home his peats for winter fuel was in the habit of seeing a big black horse grazing on the banks of the Ugie, at Inverugie Castle, near Peterhead, each morning as he passed to the "moss". He told some of his neighbours. They suspected what the horse was, and advised the man to get a "waith-horse" bridle, approach the animal with all care and caution, and cast the bridle over his head. The man now knew the nature of the creature, and followed the advice. Kelpie was secured, and did good work in carrying stones to build the bridge over the Ugie at Inverugie. When his services wereno longer needed he was set at liberty. As he left he said:--

"Sehr back and sehr behns

Cairryt a´the Brig o´Innerugie´s stehns."

The old man, who handed down this story to his childre, from one whom I have now got it, used to say any of them that complained for geing tired after a hard day´s work: "Oh, aye, you´re like the kelpie that carryit the stehns to big the Brig o´Innerygie, `sehr back and sehr behns´.

(Darker Superstition of Scotland, "Folk-lore of the northen counties)

"The Kelpie´s wife"

Kelpies were also well known for stealing human girls to take as wives, never to see their families again. There is a story of a Kelpie's wife who managed to escape to dry land again, leaving the Kelpie and their baby son. Although she wept to leave her child, she longed for human company, and she knew the Kelpie loved his son and would care for him. She returned to her family who were overjoyed to see her again, thinking that she had been drowned years ago. But as they celebrated, a dreadful storm blew up, with howling winds and lashing rain. Above the noise of the storm they could hear the furious screams of the Kelpie. In the middle of the night, when they storm was at its worst, they heard a loud thump against the door of the house. They did not dare look, in case it was the Kelpie come for his wife. But in the morning the storm abated, and they opened the door to see what had crashed into it in the night... It was the severed head of the baby son.