Hebridean Myths And Legends

Information about Hebridean Myths And Legends

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The Inner and Outer Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland are made up of a great number of large and small islands. These isolated and mostly uninhabited islands are the source of a number of Hebridean myths and legends. It is a part of Scotland which has always relied on the surrounding sea to sustain the small communities which have occupied parts of the islands for centuries, therefore, it is natural that these seas are a source for many of these legends.

Water Spirits

Kelpies

"Boy on white horse" by Theodor Kittelsen.

Kelpies were said to occupy several lochs, including one at Leurbost.

Blue Men

The Blue Men of the Minch (also known as storm kelpies), who occupy the stretch of water between Lewis and mainland Scotland, looking for sailors to drown and stricken boats to sink.

Seonaidh (Shonny)

Seonaidh - a water-spirit who had to be offered ale.

Merpeople

A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse.

It has been claimed that there is a mermaid's grave in Benbecula, but the exact location is unknown. The mermaid was killed in the early nineteenth century after having been seen for a couple of days, before a teenage boy threw a rock at it, killing the entity. Accounts stated that the upper part of the creature was the size of an infant, while the bottom was like a salmon.

Water Monsters

Loch Monsters

Searrach Uisge - a monster who was said to occupy Loch Suainbhal. Resembling a capsized boat, this creature has been reported swimming around for one and a half centuries. Locals say lambs were once offered annually to the creature^[1">[1]]. Other such creatures have been reported in several other lochs, including Loch Urubhal.

At Loch Duvat in Eriskay, while out looking for a horse that escaped his farm in the mist, a farmer saw what he thought was his missing beast in the loch. As he approached, he realised he was looking at a strange creature which gave an unearthly yell, sending the farmer running home.^[1">[2]]

Sea Monsters

Various sea monsters have been reported off the shores of Lewis over the years, including a sighting reported in 1882 by a German ship off the Butt of Lewis. The ship, 15 kilometres off the coast, reported a sea serpent around 40 metres in length, several bumps protruding from the water, along its back. Sea serpents have also been reported at the southern side of the island.^[1">[3]]

Werewolves

A German woodcut from 1722

A family of werewolves were said to occupy an island on Loch Langavat. Although long deceased, they promised to rise if their graves were disturbed.^[1">[4]]

Will-o'-the-wisp

Wills-o'-the-wisp have been reported in the area of Sandwick. The lights that float around the area normally announce approaching death for a local. Some say the light belongs to an Irish merchant who was robbed and murdered on the island.^[1">[5]]

Fairies

At Luskentyre in Harris, a hound has been known to leave oversized paw prints on the damp sand which vanish suddenly half way across the beach. It is alleged that this is a fairy hound.^[1">[6]]. Then in South Uist, a woman walking with two friends in the pitch dark watched as a self-illuminating dog, the size of a collie but with a small head and no eyes, ran towards her. The creature vanished as it bounded past. On reaching home, she described what had happened to her aunt, the older woman told her it was a Cu Sith, a fairy dog.

References

1. ^">[7] Paranormal Database, Outer Hebrides Pages
2. ^">[8] Paranormal Database, Outer Hebrides Pages
3. ^">[9] Paranormal Database, Outer Hebrides Pages
4. ^">[10] Paranormal Database, Outer Hebrides Pages
5. ^">[11] Paranormal Database, Outer Hebrides Pages
6. ^">[12] Paranormal Database, Outer Hebrides Pages

Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure.
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Celtic polytheism refers to the religious beliefs and practices of ancient Celts until the Christianization of Celtic-speaking lands. At various times those lands included Gaul, Ireland, Celtiberia, Britain, certain territories on the Danube, and Galatia in Asia Minor.
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The gods and goddesses of Celtic mythology are known from a variety of sources. From the classical and pre-classical period, many statues, dedications, votive offerings, and cult objects survive.
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druid denotes the priestly class in ancient Celtic societies, which existed through much of Western Europe and in Britain and Ireland until they were supplanted by Roman government and, later, Christianity.
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bard was one of a caste of poets and scholars of medieval and early modern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.

Etymology

The word is a loanword from Proto-Celtic *bardos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *g^werh₂:
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The earliest Latin writers used vates to denote "prophets" and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil [1] . Then Ovid could describe himself as the vates of Eros (Amores 3.9).
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Gallo-Roman religion was a fusion of Roman religious forms and modes of worship with Gaulish deities from Celtic polytheism. It was a selective acculturation.

Deities

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Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin.
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Breton mythology is the mythology or corpus of explanatory and herioc tales originating in Brittany, now in France. Bretons were a subset of Celtic people that adopted Christianity.
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Mabinogion is a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. They draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and on early medieval historical traditions.
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Taliesin (c. 534 – c. 599) is the earliest poet of the Welsh language whose work has survived. His name is associated with the Book of Taliesin, a book of poems that was written down in the Middle Ages (John Gwenogvryn Evans dated it to around 1275).
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Cad Goddeu (English: The Battle of the Trees) is a sixth century Welsh poem from the Book of Taliesin. It is set during a battle fought between Gwydion and Arawn, the god of the underworld, Annwn, in which Gwydion animates the trees of the forest to
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The Welsh Triads (Welsh Trioedd Ynys Prydein, literally "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three.
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Series on
Celtic mythology

Celtic polytheism
Celtic deities
Ancient Celtic religion
Druids · Bards · Vates
British Iron Age religion
Celtic religious patterns
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King Arthur is a fabled Brython leader and a prominent figure in Britain's legendary history. A real individual may have been the inspiration of the legend, but later stories of Arthur are almost entirely fictional.
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The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic
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Scottish mythology may refer to any of the mythologies of Scotland. Myths have emerged for various purposes throughout the history of Scotland, sometimes being elaborated upon by successive generations, and at other times being completely rejected and replaced by other
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Hebridean myths and legends. It is a part of Scotland which has always relied on the surrounding sea to sustain the small communities which have occupied parts of the islands for centuries, therefore, it is natural that these seas are a source for many of these legends.
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The Mythological Cycle is one of the four major cycles of Irish mythology, and is so called because it represents the remains of the pagan mythology of pre-Christian Ireland, although the gods and supernatural beings have been euhemerised by their Christian redactors into
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The Ulster Cycle, formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly
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The Fenian Cycle or Fiannaidheacht (modern Irish: FiannaÃocht), also known as the Fionn Cycle, Finn Cycle, Fianna Cycle, Finnian Tales, Fian Tales, FÃ©inne Cycle, FeinnÃ© Cycle and Ossianic Cycle
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An Immram (pl. Immrama) is one of a class of Old Irish tales concerning a hero's sea journey to the Otherworld (see TÃr na nÃ“g and Mag Mell). Written in the Christian era and essentially Christian in aspect, they preserve elements of Irish mythology.
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An Echtra or Echtrae (pl. Echtrai) is one of a category of Old Irish literature about a hero's adventures in the Otherworld (see TÃr na nÃ“g and Mag Mell); the otherworldly setting is the distinctive trait of these tales.
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Celts, normally pronounced /kɛlts/ (see article on pronunciation), is widely used to refer to the members of any of the peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages or descended from those who did.
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Gaul (Latin: Gallia) was the name given, in ancient times, to the region of Western Europe comprising present-day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of
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Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus, on the south by Lycaonia and Cappadocia, and on the west by the remainder of Phrygia, the eastern part of which the Gauls
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Celtiberians (or Celt-Iberians)^[1] were a Celtic people of late La TÃ¨ne culture living in the Iberian Peninsula, chiefly in what is now north central Spain and northern Portugal, before and during the Roman Empire.
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Cruithne or Priteni (c. 700 - 500 BC)

The Builg or Ã‰rainn (c. 500 BC)

The Lagin, the Domnainn and the GÃ¡lioin (c. 300 BC)

The Goidels or Gael (c.
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Prehistoric Wales in terms of human settlements covers the period from about 225,000 years ago, the date attributed to the earliest human remains found in what is now Wales, to the year 48 AD when the Roman army began a military campaign against one of the Welsh tribes.
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