Kelpie

The kelpie is a supernaitural shape-shiftin watter horse frae Celtic fowklair that's thocht tae haunt the rivers an lochs o Scotland an Ireland. In Orkney, a sib beastie wis cried the Nuggle, an in Shetland a sib beastie wis cried the Shoopiltee. Ye'll find it in Scandinavie fowklair an aw. In Swaden it's kent bi the name Bäckahästen, the burnie horse. In Norrowey it's cried nøkken, whaur it aft uises the horse shape, but is no it's true shape.

Historie an Mythologie

In Scots fowklair, a kelpie wad wyle fowk ontil its rig an then douk intil a deep loch tae cantriplie saunt.  A kelpie's helter cuid wark cantrips gin it wis stealt. On the ither haund, a human helter on a kelpie cuid garr it tae wark fir a body.Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Kelpie", p 246. ISBN 0-394-73467-X

In Scandinavie, the burnie horse wis a transformation o the Nix, a watter speerit in the shape o a man. It wis aft descrievit as a muckle white horse that wad kythe near watter, parteecular in roukie wather. Onybody wha climmit ontil its rig widnae be able to get aff agin.  The horse wad lowp intil the river, drounin the rider. The burnie horse cuid be harnisht an gart tae pleuch an aw, aither acause it wis ettlin tae geg a bodie or acause the body had geggit the horse tae dae it.
Whiles, the kelpie had the shape o a rochle hairie man wha wid champ an smush traivelers, bit it maistlies teuk the shape o a bonnie tame horse staunin bi a burn. Gin onybody muntit it, it wad chairge intil the deepest pairt o the watter, doukin an takkin the rider wi it. They wad whiles interbreed wi normal horse, an the bairns were thocht ta be guid fast horse. The kelpie wis aye thocht tae spae o  storms bi wailin an yowlin. Whiles, kelpies cuid be freenly. The folktale The Kelpie's Wife descrieve ane in Loch Garve, Ross-shire, wha hud a human wife. The Jethro Tull sang Kelpie, frae the 1988 album 20 Years Of Jethro Tull, descrieves a youthie wifie temptit awa bi a kelpie.  

Bi the wey o the Swadish natralist an writer Bengt Sjögren (1980), the modren thocht in loch monsters in, say, Loch Ness, is tae dae wi the auld leegends o kelpies. Sjögren claims that the stories o loch-monsters hae chynged throu historie. Aulder stories aft talk aboot horse-like monsters, bit mair modren stories aft have mair man-keeper, lizard or dinosaur-like-shapes, an Bengt Sjögren thinks that the leegends o kelpies chynged intil the modren leegends o loch-monsters whaur the monsters "chynged the appearance" tae a mair "real" an "modren" form syne the findin o dinosaurs an muckle watter-reptiles frae the horse-like watter-kelpie tae a dinosaur-like reptile, aft a plesiosaur.

References

 Sjögren, Bengt, Berömda vidunder, Settern, 1980, ISBN 91-7586-023-6

Fremmit Airtins
Kelpie 
Portal of Transformation: Kelpie 
Kelpie (Mysteriousbritain.co.uk) 

Category:Celtic leegendar craiturs
Category:Scots fowklair