Nuckelavee - The Scottish Bestiary
Artist
Jack Knox
(Kirkintilloch, Scotland, 1936 - 2015)
AssociatedAssociated with
George MacKay Brown
(Stromness, Orkney, Scotland, 1921 - 1996)
Date1986
Mediumlithograph on paper
ClassificationsPrints
DimensionsOverall: 58.4 x 39.4cm (23 x 15 1/2in.)
AcquisitionPurchased in 1986 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.
Copyright© the copyright holder
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG007562.3
Keywords
NUCKELAVEE
NUCKELAVEE- 'devil of the sea'
Ah, what terror for a simple countryman to meet the Nuckelavee on a dark road,
and he coming from the alehouse merry!
The thing Tammas saw was half horse and half man, but all distorted,
all wrenched into ugliness and malevolence.
Nuckleavee was skinless, its blood could be seen flowing through its branching
veins, also the thumping of its black heart.
All hurt that fell on men from the ocean was the work of Nuckelavee:
shipwreck, drowning of fisherman, driving away of the silver shoals.
But Nuckleavee rotted the crops, also, with sea-fogs. If a cow or a sheep fell over a
crag, Nuckelavee had lured it to its doom.
The heart of Nuckelavee beat with a black malevolence towards mankind.
Tammas stood his ground. The worst thing a man could do was turn
his back on Nuckelavee.
The thing Nuckelavee feared- the only thing- was fresh water.
A single silver raindrop, and Nuckelavee, howling and raging , sought the
sanctuary of the sea.
Tammas, emboldened by ale, took a side step into the loch and splash of loch
water fell on Nuckelavee.
The hideous rage of creature, raked with agony by the sweet water!
Tammas slipped past.
A few steps further on, a burn flowed out of the loch to the sea.
Tammas went splashing across the singing water of the burn.
Once on the far side, he was safe.
Nuckelavee made one last despairing clutch at Tammas the crofter. It almost had
him by the hair.
When Tammas got home to his croft, his wife (smelling the ale) cried,
' Your supper' s cold! You drunken lazy weed, where's your bonnet?'
What was all that Nuckelavee had managed to snatch from Tammas: his bonnet.
That is the closest encounter that any living man has had with Nuckelavee.
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