Nuckelavee

Stories of mythical Orcadian demons are recorded in the 16th-century Latin manuscripts of Jo Ben,[lower-alpha 1] who may have been referring to the nuckelavee in his description of the Orkney island of Stronsay.[10] Dennison transcribed much of the information available about traditional tales told on Orkney, but to an extent romanticised and systematically altered certain elements of the stories in the process of transforming them into prose.[11][lower-alpha 2]

The nuckelavee is a mythical sea-creature that appears as a horse-like demon when it ventures onto land.[13] Writer and folklorist Ernest Marwick considered it very similar to the Norwegian nøkk, the nuggle of Shetland and the kelpie. A unique and solitary creature possessing extensive evil powers, its malevolent behaviour can influence events throughout the islands.[5] Islanders were terrified of the creature and would not speak its name without immediately saying a prayer.[14] It was often found in the vicinity of a beach, but would never come ashore if it was raining.[15]

No tales describe what form the nuckelavee takes when in the sea,[4] but its appearance on land has been recounted in graphic detail.[16] An islander, Tammas, claimed to have survived a confrontation with the beast and, after much cajoling from Dennison, reluctantly gave his description of the monster, the only known first-hand account.[lower-alpha 3] According to Tammas, the nuckelavee has a man's torso attached to a horse's back as if it were a rider.[4] The male torso has no legs, but its arms can reach the ground from its position on top of the equine body, the legs of which have fin like appendages.[14] The torso has a large head – possibly as much as 3 feet (90 centimetres) in diameter – that rolls back and forth.[15] The monster described by Tammas has two heads;[18] the equine head has an enormous gaping mouth that exudes a pungent, toxic vapour, and a single giant eye like a burning red flame. A particularly gruesome detail is that the nuckelavee has no skin;[19] black blood courses through yellow veins, and the pale sinews and powerful muscles are visible as a pulsating mass.[14] Other reports state that the creature resembles a centaur;[20] narratives are inconsistent in the finer details of the demon's description however.[3] Traill Dennison only describes a man's head with a "mouth projected like that of a pig".[14] Marwick also only mentions one head with a single red eye, and he borrows some of Tammas's characterisation by recording the creature's mouth as "like a whale's".[15]

The nuckelavee's breath was thought to wilt crops and sicken livestock, and it was considered responsible for epidemics and drought.[14] Seaweed burning to create what was known at the time as kelp began on Stronsay in 1722. The product – soda ash – was an alkali mainly used to treat acidic soil,[5][14] although as time went on its commercial importance in soap and glass manufacture increased. The pungent smoke emitted during the process was believed to enrage the nuckelavee,[5] resulting in a wild rampage of plague, the deaths of cattle and the destruction of crops.[21][22] The nuckelavee was said to have infected horses on Stronsay with the deadly disease known as mortasheen,[lower-alpha 4] to demonstrate its fury and exact its revenge against the islanders for burning seaweed; the infection subsequently spread to all the other islands involved in the industry.[5][24] The creature was also blamed for prolonged periods of abnormally low rainfall, leading to water shortages and poor harvests.[5]