A. Sutherland  – AncientPages.com – A water-horse spirit of Scottish folklore is a kelpie.

In Scottish folklore, this supernatural horse-shaped creature lures humans into riding it. This behavior proves fatally dangerous for its human rider because Kelpie suddenly carries the rider into a river or lake, plunges into the waters, and perishes.

Credit: Adobe Stock – Pol Solé

Despite being ᴀssociated with the fairies’ realm, they were less frightening than other beings from their magnificent fairyland. Kelpie has always been linked to the fairies, not necessarily under the direct command of the fairy folk, mainly due to its otherworldly nature.

The Scottish Kelpie, inhabiting running water, was a shapeshifter. According to lore, it usually appeared in the shape of a beautiful, powerful, black horse or pony walking alone on the shore.

Occasionally, it could ᴀssume the form of a shaggy-looking man. One of the Kelpie’s common characteristics is that its hooves are backward compared to an average horse.

However, the Scottish Kelpie has always been terrifying and extremely dangerous to humans, no matter their appearance. The creature’s goal is only one – preying on any humans it encounters.

As a peacefully grazing horse, Kelpie, also known as “a demon in the shape of a horse,” could easily lure wandering travelers to mount them. Then, nothing could change the fate of Kelpie’s victim.

More scary stories say the kelpies disappear in the water, where they eat their victim, especially his liver. Their other way to reach a human body was to jump on a lonely rider driving his horse mad and thus endangering the rider, crushing his body in their mighty grasp and even tearing people into pieces and eating them.

Also, malevolent kelpies could have endangered boats, and only careful and experienced skippers could force the Kelpie away from the vessel. The kelpies could effectively frighten travelers. In disguise as a horse, a kelpie sometimes had a magic bridle. Based on lore, anyone, who forced a kelpie to do something against its will, takes a terrible risk of being cursed by it and meeting with misfortune in the future.

Theoretically, it is believed that the kelpies can be commanded and controlled, but first, the Kelpie must be captured, which can only be done but capturing its bridle. The Kelpie’s Achilles heel is its bridle.

There is also the belief it is possible to capture and tame a kelpie by getting a bridle over its head; however, this is a dangerous and challenging task as the Kelpie is physically strong and has a singularly rebellious nature. If a kelpie is bridled, it will serve its new master well and make for a good and versatile horse.

Kelpies are not normal horses; they are spirits, and thus, they can perform many magical functions.

As we have seen, the typical form taken by a Kelpie is equine (adult or pony horse), and the hint that can help unquestionably identify the creature’s idenтιтy may be its mane and tail that never stop dripping, even on a dry day.

This magical creature can still surprise us because it can also take a form of a gorgeous woman dressed in green.

In one terrifying Scottish legend called “The Hour is come but not the Man,” a kelpie took the form of a female nymph in the River Conan in Ross-shire.

A group of farmers working in a nearby field witnessed the water spirit as it called out, “The hour is come but not the man,” and then plunged into the waters.

Just then, a rider on a horse dashed up to the false ford as though to dive in after the Kelpie, but the reapers immediately intervened, stopped the horse, and dragged the man, kicking and screaming, into a nearby church. They told him they would keep him locked there for an hour—the “Ill Hour,” they called it, as the Kelpie was trying to work evil for that period. When the hour was up, the reapers returned to the church and found their man ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. He had fallen into a stone ditch of water and drowned himself.

Written by – A. Sutherland  – AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

Updated on March 13, 2023

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