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.