Riding the Seas: Hippocampus, Kelpies, and more other monstrous horses

There are so many interesting myths from around the globe and through the era it refers to the mythical beings which are the same with the horses. 

Shape-shifting and the sacrifices to the water spirits

The Kelpies in Scotland are the shape-shifting water spirits which dwells in pools and lakes. Douglas Harper, the historian defined Kelpies as the demons appearing particularly in the forms of horses. However, there are some legends that state that it may also be assumed in human form.

The Kelpies are being considered as the most usual water spirits in the Scottish folklore history of the world and this can dwell both on the land and in the water. They usually appeared in legends as the beautiful and the strong black horses which dwell in the hidden pools of streams and rivers in Scotland.

The more vicious horse being

The tongie or the tangie is one more shape-shifting spirits from Shetland Isles and the Orkney. It is the sea spirit emerging in the shape of the horse or as the merman. The spirit can appear also as the old man. This creature is believed to be enclosed with seaweed and this supposedly loves to terrorize the loner travelers.

But, as soon as these horses smell water, then, it is the ending part of a rider. The skin of the horse will then be adhesive and this horse creature may immediately take the rider into the profoundest part of the pool and will drown him. The moment the victim has been drowns this each-uisge will rip off the corpse separately and will devour it, and leaving only his liver to float into the surface. And for this cause, the people in the Highlands were usually wary of loner strangers and animals they encountered close by the edge of the water.

On this Isle of Lewis, the Croc-na-Beist, which means the “hillock of a monster”, is the knoll where the each-uisge has been thought to have been killed by the sibling of the woman it attempted to seduce while it is in the form of a human.

Apart from human beings, this malevolent water creature also fed on with sheep and cattle. The use of those animals might also help somebody to lure, kill or even just capture the each-uisge. A very good aroma of roasted meat attracts this each-uisge in the McKay’s story from the “More West Highland Tale”.

Hippocampus and some other Ancient Horses

This hippocampus, which means the “horse monster” in the Greek term is the mythical being in the in the Phoenician and Greek mythology. In English, this being has been named as the “sea-horse”. This being had also been adopted by the Etruscan mythology and this is being described as owning the upper body of the horse and then, the lower body of the fish.

The horses had been present ever since the start of human records and they had also entered the mythology and the legends of the globe in a diversity of forms – sometimes scary and sometimes sweet.