Selkie

Selkies are seal creatures that can shed their skin once on land to become human. The mythology comes from Faroese, Irish and Scottish folklore although there are several creature like the shape-shifting selkies in other folklore around the world. The word comes from the old English seolh that was then taken by the Scottish selich, meaning seal. The legends have been found to originate in the Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland.

 The selkie's seal skin is what holds their power and if stolen and hidden or burnt they would be under your power, prevented from going back to their water home, they are also like finger prints, unique to each selkie, only one particular skin would work with that one particular selkie, the magic of the skin wouldn't make anyone turn in to a seal if put on. That is why they are so presious. There are a few theories about what happens when the skin is destroyed. they say either the selkie dies or they are doomed to be human until they die, always longing to go back to the ocean but never being able to.
  The males are said to be extremely handsome and with great seductive powers in their human form, drawing women who typically aren't happy with their lives and/or are waiting for their husbands to return from sea. It is said that if a women wanted to make contact with a selkie she had to cry seven tears into the ocean.

  The females also being beautiful and seductive, where said to make great wives. Even having children with their human husbands. Males would have to lure one in and steal her seal skin, this would then force the selkie into marriage.

  The stories and folklore of the selkies are normally romantic tragedies because even though their love of a mortal may be strong, the pull of the ocean is always stronger. Either the stealing of the skins and the force to stay on land or the lover not knowing that they where selkies and waking up one day to find that their love had changed into a seal would also force tragedy into their tales.
 A selkie also couldn't have contact with the same human once left for seven years, unless said human stole their skins. Although their are a few stories where the selkie female is happy married with a fisherman. This tale always ends with the wife having to change back into her seal form to save her husband from the sea and then never being able to go back to her home on land.

  There are two types of selkie. Ones from the seelie court (which is said to be the fae that are more on the light side, often helping those in need, although when bored can make lots of trouble, nothing ending in great harm and not into hating humans) are good natured, shy and would help those in need, they are hard to anger but can do if enough is done to them. Were as the selkies from the unseelie court (being the fae of darker things and hating just about everything especially humans, they are out to harm) where said to be the harbingers of storms, one that would sink ships as revenge for the harm of kin.

Kelpie

Water kelpie or just kelpie is a shape-shifting water spirit originating from Scotland. It inhabits pools and streams, nearly every big body of water in Scotland has a kelpie story, the most well known being that of Loch Ness. It usually appears in the shape of horse but can take the human form, this is where the association with the Christian idea of Satan. In the late 19^th century an interest in transcribing folklore came about, the recorders were inconsistent in their spelling and the frequently Anglicised words result in names differing for the same spirits.

There has been many disagreement about the water habitat of the kelpie. The folklorists who define kelpies as being spirits who live beside rivers has been said to get this mixed up with the Celtic water-horse, who was said to live by lakes and led people astray, the kelpie was used in translation in the English accounts for water-horse. So there is confusion in whether the kelpie actually resides in rivers or bigger bodies of water like lochs.

Others have said the term kelpie is a blanket name for a wide variety of mythical creatures. These have included other Scottish creatures as the shoopiltee and nuggle as well as the welsh Manx cabbyl-ushtey and the ceffyl dwr. There's also parallels to the Scandinavian backahast the Germanic neck and Australian bunyip as well as the Central American wihwinof.

The kelpie is a beautiful and powerful black horse, the spirit of the river Spey was said to be white. One of the most notable feature of a water kelpie is their reversed hooves. The Aberdeenshire variation says the kelpie is a horse with a mane of serpents. They prey on any human that they come across, singing the victim onto i's back by singing. Most of the older tales from Scotland are about the kelpie luring children onto it's back for a ride, to then drown them later and eat them. There would always be one survivor, normally a boy who had stroked the neck and got his hand stuck realising the danger he would either cut off his fingers or hand to escape. The only evidence of the missing children would be a few entrails left behind on the waters edge.

 Kelpies can shift into human form. Nearly all tales are of them being male, one or two of them seeking companionship or love, but most of luring mostly women to a body of water to be drowned, only one was female who drowned a man and boy. They are said to be notable by the water weeds and such things in their hair. A few accounts, especially when Christianity came to Scotland in the 6h century, told of the kelpies keeping their hooves when they where human, this is where the association came along between Satan and the kelpie, it also draws a comparison to the Greek god Pan.

There are a few ways you can stop or even kill a kelpie. Some of them are fitted with a bridle and saddle, to make it more appealing to ride, making it easier to lure people to their watery graves, if these where removed then the strength and power would leave them kelpie. It was said that the bridle and saddle have magical properties, if brandished toward a person it would turn them into a horse or pony, you would also have control of the kelpie, this would earn you respect and would be highly prized as a kelpie is extremely strong and has high endurance, although it would mean a bad end when the kelpie finally got it's freedom.

Another way was to carve a cross into the bridle or shooting it with a silver bullet.

It's been suggested that the origins of the kelpie comes from a reflection of human and horse sacrifices that where made to water gods. Malevolent water spirits like the kelpie would have helped to ward children away fro dangerous waters and a possible warning for young women to be wary of strangers, particularly strange handsome men.

Cyclops.

  The Cyclops, the name means 'round-eyed' was, according to Greek and later Roman mythology, a primordial race of giants, their main and most distinct feature being the one eye in the middle of the forehead.

The three original cyclopes described by Hesiod where Brontes (thunder), Arges (thunderbolt) and Steropes (lightning), said to be the sons of Gaia and Uranus and brothers to the Titans. Cronus imprisoned them in Tartarus, Zeus later freed them so that they could help bring Cronus down. As thanks for their freedom and being the first smiths they made Zeus his thunderbolt, Hades his helmet and Poseidon his trident. Once Cronus fell they continued to work for Zeus on Mount Olympus. It was later said that one of the brothers was killed but Apollo to get vengeance for the death of his son by Zeus and Hermes killed Arges.

Another group of Cyclopes where later writen about by Homer. These being the sons of Poseidon and the helpers of Hephaestus, whose workshop was in the volcanic mountain Etna. The most famous of these brothers was the man-eating Polyphemus who was outwitted and then blinded by Odysseus. Polyphemus fell in love with the nymph Galatea who rejected him, finding out that she had eyes for another, the enraged Cyclops killed his rival Acis by throwing a rock on him, the blood flowing from his crushed body made the stream which now bears his name.

Although there are a few possiblities of the origins for the Cyclops one could be that the prehistoric dwarf elephant skulls that may have been found on the Greek islands Crete, Sicily, Cyprus and Malta could have started the myth. With the skull being about twice the size of a human skull and the large central nasal cavity (which is for the trunk), these could have been interpreted as one large eye socket. The ancient Greeks were unlikely to recognize the skull as an elephants and this would explain why there would be that could be a skull like this.