The Nuckelavee
image from: https://www.themanual.com/culture/how-to-ride-a-horse-like-a-gentleman/
For this installment of the myth articles I am going to inform you of the mythological creature known as the Nuckelavee (knuckle ah vee) (Nuckalavee is an alternate spelling), this creature is from or found in Norse mythology and Orcadian mythology. Now before I begin giving you the details of this creature, I would like to explain a few things. First, I will give you a description of what this beast looks like at the very end of this article, until then the picture of the man on a horse should suffice, it is a close depiction, but its differences are the absolute worst. Second, I love the different creatures and monsters in mythology and cryptozoology. I do not love this thing. I do not like this creature. It is known and described as one of the nastiest, worst, most evil of all the demons on the Scottish Isles. According to ScottlandInMyHeartsite there are around 60 other mythological creatures in the Scottish Isle, and this thing came in first, and unlike other folklore where these creatures had a dualistic nature this creature is complete and total evil.
There are very few tales that involve a Nuckelavee that end well. It was described as wandering around Orkney island in Scotland, where the inhabitants would not speak the creature’s name without following it with a prayer. The creature was used to explain failing crops and tragedies at sea for the people of the island. It is considered to be similar to that of Kelpies, being a water spirit with the ability to shapeshift into a few different forms. The difference here is that while it is known that a Kelpie can transform into an equine form and a human form, there are no tales to describe the water form of the Nuckelavee. The reason believed for this is that there are no surviving accounts of the creature in that form. An islander named Tammas has given the only known first hand account of the creature, but more on that later. The Nuckelavee was said to act on its soul purpose to plague the people of the island, its breath a black smoke that wilted crops, killed or caused sickness in livestock, it was cited to be the cause of a mortasheen epidemic and droughts to the islanders. It is believed that the burning of seaweed to create soda ash and fertilizer is what angered the creature, and is the reason for its attacks upon the island. Much like other mythological sea creatures, the Nuckelavee has an aversion to fresh water, being unable to cross a stream or wade through ponds, and is never out during the rain. It is said that The Mither of The Sea, a sea spirit responsible for the sea’s calmness in the summer seasons, is the only deity able to control the Nuckelavee, using that control to confine the creature to the ocean in the summer.
Now that you know what powers the creature has and what it is responsible for, I will explain to you what it looks like using Tammas’ account after he escaped from the creature by leaping to the other side of a stream. Starting with the image of a man on a horse, the body of a Nuckelavee is described as a man fused from the waist down to the back of a horse, its height being 6ft to the horse’s head and 3ft taller to the “rider’s” head. The man’s torso had no legs, but his arms were long enough to reach the ground, and strong enough to drag men into the sea. The head of the rider was said to be as large as its body, around 3ft in diameter that rolled back and forth from its neck. The equine head had a huge gaping mouth where its black toxic vapor poured from, with one single giant eye described like a burning red flame. But it doesn’t stop there, It gets much worse. The most noticeable characteristic is the creature’s lack of any skin. It’s black blood visibly circulating through its yellow veins as the creature moves like a pulsating mass.
This is a painting of an islander being chased by a Nuckelavee by James Torrance (1859–1960). This is probably the most comfortable image of the creature that I could find.
