I love horses. Love. them. And so when I first heard of the Kelpie oh so many years ago I thought, oooo, nice! A beautiful mythical horse that lives in the water. Then I learned a wee bit more.
- they may offer you a ride across the deep river, but rather than take you to the other side they drown you (or dump you off and you drown on your own)
- they have been known to lure men, women and children (wether you need a ride or not) into the water, drown you, then eat you
From Encyclopedia Mythica :
In old Scotland, the Kelpie is a treacherous water devil who lurks in lakes and rivers. It usually assumes the shape of a young horse. When a tired traveler stops by a lake to rest or to have a drink, he would see a horse, apparently peacefully grazing. When he mounts the horse, the Kelpie dives into the water and drowns its victim. Occasionally it has helped millers by keeping the mill-wheel going at night.
The mention the kelpie helping millers to keep the mill-wheel going intrigues me. It means they are a bit of good in them? Or maybe the miller offers up...food also known as people?
If this has wetted (I know--really bad pun) your appetite to delve a bit more into the world of the kelpie here are a couple of links to follow:
And that is it from me. Short and sweet (ish). But. There is some more digging I want to know. In my travels (ie the last link, above-Kelpie|Mysterious Britain & Ireland) there is mention of the fact that Kelpie's or Water Horses were not always so evil. I want to know more. Won't be jumping on the back of anyone of them none to soon, but interested to find out if they are in fact a misunderstood monster.
Hi Deb--can't seem to find your email address! You won the autographed copy of THE LEMONADE WAR by Jackie Davies on my blog. I did the random number generator this morning, and your number came up! Email me with your address...
ReplyDeleteI am loving these Monster Fest posts. I had no knowledge of Kelpies.
ReplyDeleteI'd heard of kelpies, but didn't actually know what they were. It would definitely be interesting to pursue the "good" part of them to see why that might come about. Or maybe they were only drowning bad people? Didn't sound like it since you said men, women and *children.*
ReplyDeleteHave you Gillian Philip's excellent fantasy The Firebrand? It has kelpies.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know, Kristine I am so, SO looking forward to reading it and sharing with the book club kids.
ReplyDeleteMedeia--loving the monsterfest posts, too. So inspiring and fun to discover knew creepy things...or misunderstood depending on your point of view.
Shannon--yes, I am really interested in exploring more about these guys. When I was younger I thought they were beautiful horses that lived in the water--didn't know the rest of the story!
Thanks for the book recommend, Jo! I will for sure check it out.