A particularly militant spirit is the ly erg, which frequented Glen More. He appears, says Sibbald in his MS. collections, in the habit of a soldier with a red hand, challenging wayfarers, and should anyone engage him in combat he is certain to die soon thereafter. Certain Celtic spirits are of so fantastic and repellent a type as to inspire the feeling that they must have sprung from the imagination of an exceedingly primitive race which preceded the civilized Celts in Ireland and Scotland. Of the terrible fachan we read that he “had one hand out of his chest, one leg out of his haunch, and one eye in the front of his face. He wore a mantle of twisted feathers and his head was crowned by a tuft. Another and similar horror was the bocan, which leapt upon unwary travellers in the Isle of Skye and slew them, mutilating their bodies terribly.” (45) The fuath is a water-spirit resembling the bean-nighe, with webbed feet, yellow hair, a tail, a mane and no nose – yet she dresses in a green kirtle! But the name of such creatures is indeed legion. They have on the whole a close affinity with the water-kelpie.
Perhaps no Scottish spirit has been so frequently described as the water-kelpie, a river goblin which usually appears in the form of a horse, but which on occasion takes the form of a handsome young man. The kelpie haunts fords and pools, and seeks to lure unwary travellers to their doom. The wayfarer may see a horse browsing by the waterside and seek to gain the opposite bank by mounting it. But once in the middle of the stream, the kelpie throws his rider, leaving him to perish in the flood. His general appearance was that of a black horse with wild and staring eyes. Countless tales are told of the demon-animal and nearly every stream of any size in Scotland at one time could boast of its kelpie.
In his human form the kelpie might appear as a goodly youth and sometimes the maiden on whom he had set his affections became timeously aware of his supernatural character by observing a fragment of water-weed or rush in his hair. If caught in his equine form, he could be yoked to heavy work, the best means of capturing him being to cast over his head a bridle on which the sign of the cross had been made. But once in harness, he could be forced to carry stones to build a mill or steading, though in the end he usually contrived to make himself scarce.
In the Island of Lewis a sacrifice to a sea-god known as Shoney, to secure good fishing and plenty of sea-ware, was celebrated at Hallow-tide or Halloween, and was discontinued only about the year 1660. At nightfall the fisher-folk went down to the sea, and having knelt and repeated the Paternoster at a spot some four miles distant from the chapel of St. Malvey, a representative of the community carrying a vessel brimming with ale, waded waist-high’ into the water, crying: “Shoney, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that you’ll be so kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware for enriching our ground the ensuing year.” He then poured the ale as a libation into the sea, after which the company repaired to the chapel for a space, whence, after a brief season of silence, they finally betook themselves to the fields, where they spent the rest of the night drinking and dancing. These folk, it may be remarked, were almost exclusively Protestants. (46) Shoney of the Lews is almost certainly the same as the “Davy Jones” of maritime proverb – that is “the old John”, or fiend, of the sea, in whose “locker” drowned seamen are retained – a memory of the belief that the drowned mariner was once regarded as a sacrifice to the demon or deity of the sea.
The muireartach, or “hag of the sea”, whose legend has spread all over the Highlands from Caithness and Lewis to the Southern Hebrides, is bald and ruddy-haired, with a dark blue-grey face the colour of coal, and protruding jagged teeth. In her forehead gleams one goggle-eye. She is the Carlin of the storm which beats upon our western and northern coasts, the mother of the king of Lochlann, the under-water realm of Celtic myth. (47)
“The Blue Men of the Minch”, who haunt the narrow channel between Lewis and the Shiant Islands, are described as blue in colour, with long grey faces, floating from the waist out of the water and following in the track of boats and ships to lure their occupants to destruction. One of these. Blue Men was captured by the crew of a ship and was bound hand and foot. But his companions followed and, hearing their voices, the captive, by a mighty effort, burst his bonds and regained his freedom. It is scarcely necessary to add that these “Blue Men” are merely personalizations of the waves. (48)
As regards the spirit who presides over the Clyde, the late Professor Rhys was of opinion that she enjoyed a reputation rich in literary tradition. He equated the “Shalott” of late Arthurian romance with Dumbarton, and the famous Elaine of Astolat with the patron spirit of Clutha’s stream. “The original of the name (Dumbarton) which variously appears as Shalott, Escalot and other forms,” he wrote, “was probably Alclut, the old Welsh name of the rock of Dumbarton on the Clyde”, while Elaine was, like Undine, Fand or Vivien, “a woman of the lake-lady type”, and her magic mirror, which cracked when the famous Tennysonian curse came upon her, was a symbol of the water which surrounded her rock-built castle. This, of course, is mythological interpretation with a vengeance and very much according to the methods of the day-before-yesterday. Dumbarton is certainly one and the same with Alclut, a name which became Normanized into Shalott or Astolat, but I can find no sufficient reason for identifying Elaine, “the lily maid”, with a river deity, while the notion that her magic mirror typifies the Clyde seems unsound in view of what we know of scrying-glasses or other visionary, surf aces, rivers never being employed for the purposes of divination, so far as I am aware. “Elaine” is merely a form invented by Sir Thomas Malory from older Welsh myth, and her original is that “Eleu” who was the wife of Merlin, and a British goddess of the dawn. She it was who built the glass castle which imprisoned him, and the cracking of her mirror is. an allegory of the breaking of the morning mists symbolized by the house of glass, at the approach of the rising sun. (49)
Dear Sir,
My grandmother, who was from Derry, Ireland saw the banshee just prior to her sister, Josephine’s, death many years ago. My grandmother lived in Florida and Josephine was living in Canada. My grandmother said she first heard the banshee wailing loudly and mournfully outside her door. Then she saw the old woman in white in a horse-driven carriage going by her house. She noted the date and time and later found out that her sister had died around the same time. My grandmother was a MacDonagh.
No one else in our family has seen the banshee.
i was wondering where you got the name chapel of st. malvey i can trace my family name back to 1734 in ireland county cork
It’s not me that got that name, this article is The Celtic Spirit World
by Lewis Spence
from ‘The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain’
(chapter VII)
i dont want to be a pest but do you have any idea about the origin of the chapel of st malvey?
You’re not being a pest. And, no, I don’t know the origin of the chapel of St. Malvey. Sounds like a good topic for you to research, though (considering your last name).
Dear Sir,
my grandparents lived in Croatia. They have been born in a little village by the name Seona.
It´s an unusually name for a croatic village.
I can remember that ma granny teach me then I was a child a lot of fairys.
She believed in them and the other older pupil in the village , too.
I have heard stories about fairies in this village.
My granny says they always lived there with the people helped them or punished them.
She tells me, if I don´t lost the faith in them, one day I would see the fairies, too.
In the wood of this village is a spring and there was an old man living. The people called him brother John.
He lives like an eremit allone and he was praying for the ill people. He was healing the humans.
My grandmother shaws me the place there the fairies were dancing in the ring.
She gives me so lot my granny and I beginn to understand now.
Three months ago I became the idea to search about the name Seona in Slavonia (Croatia).
This is a name from scotish gaellic and comes from the name Seonaid (God is great).
I´m sure that in Seona the celts build one of them first villages, then they come to Croatia.
All this I tell a Dr. of archeollogy in Zagreb and he writes me back, that he has found some celtic graves and this story from me can be a way to find something more about our history.
Today,if you ask me if I believe in fairiey, yes do.
Why?
So I am catholic, but my grandmother tells me that god is great, he lives everythere and I can talk with him also in the nature.
I grove up with the belive in god and the fairies.
I loved them and talked to them, too. I see them as my sisters in soul.
Sometimes I can here them singing in the wood or crying on places there bads thing happening.
They are real the fairies. My granny says if the humans lost the faith they can´T never see the fairies again.
One day I was so tired, I hear voices from the door like children laughing. I think my children are coming home with my husband, but it was a litle green ghost.
He was small ,like a child from 6 years.
I can´t see a face only circle on his head with symbols like celtic art. He talks somthing to me, but I don´t understand. It was a language warm and deep. The louds sounds like drrhh, krch, shhr, chaarhh,,, somthing like this.
On the top of the wall from my room something litle flyes. They looked like small white princes and they laughed all time. The voice of them sounds like children laughing.
I have open my ices and I was thinking I´m dreaming, but in the next second I feel how thr little green ghost take my plaid from the bed and takes it over me. I was falling in a deep sleep.
Then I awaked I have feel so good. I never sleeped better.
It was a good feeling. This I will never forgett.
Bye, from Germany, yours Mirela
It’s been quite a while but I found out some info about St. Malvey the real name of the church is St Moluag’s church (locally known by its gaidhlig name of Teampull Mholuaidh) is a 13th Century temple in the village of Eoropie in Ness in the Isle of Lewis
Ed I located documentation including a reference from Charles Dickens. The church is still there and active. St Malvey was born in 590 AD and went with St Columba to bring Christianity to Scotland. Are you Molly’s son, brother Jimmy now Father Seamus , my cousin – email for me nihildat@yahoo.com Slainte
I have documentation on the church from a journal written by Charles Dickens in 1887. He calls it the church of St Malvey. I traced him back to 590 AD. He and St Columba et al were called the disciples of Ireland. I think you might be Molly’s son, brother Jimmy now Father Seamus, and my cousin.
i am indeed mollies son please reply cous
Ed
Hiya. Donald Trump’s mother was born on Lewis Island. It’s the largest island in the Outer Hebrides.
Does you know the Gaelic equivalent of the surname “Malvey”?
I had a dream about a year ago that seems to fit with your description of the ‘banshee.’ The dream showed an old woman in a white cloak who was sitting on this throne in a grove of trees. I entered and there was a large hewn stump with three “tree branch fairies” sticking out of it. They started singing a whimsical and melodious song. I didn’t get the feeling that the song was for me. since then there have been several deaths that may have been suggested by the banshee and other dream indicators. I’ve had numerous encounters with spirits, mostly in dreams, over the years who have taken the form of mythical figures. Please share any insights. Is there something I can do to intercede? I get the message that these dreams are to prepare, initiate or to avoid pitfalls. Thanks!