In
Scottish and
Northern English folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...
, a shellycoat is a type of
bogeyman that haunts rivers and streams.
Name
The name comes from the coat of
shells these creatures are said to wear, which rattle upon movement.
Distribution
Many places on the coast of Scotland have names that reference the shellycoat. Supposedly, shellycoats are particularly fond of the area around the
River Hermitage.
Characteristics
Shellycoats are considered to be relatively harmless; they may mislead wanderers, particularly those they think are trespassing upon the creature's territory, but without malice. A common tactic of a shellycoat would be to cry out as if drowning and then laugh at the distracted victim.
As described above, the shellycoat shares many of the traits of the
Brag,
Kelpie
A kelpie, or water kelpie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Each-Uisge''), is a shape-shifting spirit inhabiting lochs in Scottish folklore. It is usually described as a black horse-like creature, able to adopt human form. Some accounts state that the kelpi ...
and
Nix
Nix or NIX may refer to:
Places
* Nix, Alabama, an unincorporated community, United States
* Nix, Texas, a ghost town in southwestern Lampasas County, Texas, United States
* Nix (moon), a moon of Pluto
People
* Nix (surname), listing people wit ...
.
Schellenrock
Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of t ...
stated in his ''
Deutsche Mythologie'' that the Scottish
goblin
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on ...
Shellycoat is one and the same as the German
Schellenrock, that is bell-coat:
Thomas Keightly quotes Grimm and classifies the shellycoat as a type of
brownie.:
[Keightly, 1870, in the section "Brownie".]
The domestic nature of the shellycoat emphasized by Grimm and Keightly stands in contradistinction to the wild nature of the water sprites mentioned in other sources.
Bibliography
* Briggs, Katharine Mary. ''The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature.'' University of Chicago Press, London, 1967.
* Grimm, Jacob. ''Deutsche Mythologie''. Vollständige Ausgabe. Marix Verlag: Wiesbaden 2007, . English version at
Northvegr ''Grimm's Teutonic Mythology Translation Project''. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/017_14.php
* Keightley, Thomas. ''The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries.'' 1870. Available online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tfm/tfm130.htm.
References
Northumbrian folklore
Northumbrian folkloric beings
Scottish folklore
Scottish legendary creatures
English legendary creatures
German legendary creatures
Water spirits
Bogeymen
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