Northern mythology

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22 NORWEGIAN TRADITIONS.
dashing liis hand into the water, drew up a black creature
resembUng a Kttle dog. He then ordered the men to row
further up, at the same time placing the animal firmly
between his feet, and keeping a constant silence. Having
now reached the stone-mound at Tvet, he conjured the
Nok into it. From that time no one has perished in the
fall.
In Iceland, where the Nok is called Hjiikur, he appears like a handsome
grey horse, though ^ith his hoofs turned backAvards, and strives to tempt
people to mount him, when he will gallop off with them into the water.
Some efforts to tame him have been partially successful, and he has been
made to work, though for a short time only.
In the Faroe islands the Nikar has his abode in fresh waters or lakes,
where he will drag people down and drown them.
In Scotland the Nok is sometimes represented by Shellycoat, who is
covered with sea-weed and muscle-shells ;
sometimes by the Kelpie who,
at least in the Highlands, appears in a horse's shape. In the Orkneys he
appears either as a little horse, or as a man under the name of Tangled
In Shetland he is called Shoopiltee, and appears as a handsome httle horse,
tempting persons to mount him, when he runs with his rider into the sea.
In the Scottish islands they make him an offering, in the shape of a cup
of good beer^.
Grimm (D. M.p. 479) interprets the name of Shellycoat by the German
Schellenrock (Bell-coat), supposing him so named from his coat being
hung with bells ; and cites the instance of a Puck, who for thirty years
served in the kitchen and stable of a Meklenburg monastery. He appeared
always well-disposed, and only stipulated for tunicam de diversis coloribus
et tintinnabulis plenam.
The Norwegian Nok and the Kelpie of Scotland are identical beings.
When one of the Grahams of Morphie was building the old castle, he
secured the assistance of the water-kelpie or river horse, by the accredited
means of throwing a pair of branks (a sort of yoke) over his head. When
released from his labour, and about to return to the water, he said :
" Sair back and sair banes,
Drivin the Laird o' Morphie's stanes !
The Laird o' Morphie '11 never thrive
"
As lang 's the kelpie is alive ^ !
^ In Ben's Descript. of Orkney (1599) he is thus described: " Indutus
est algis marinis toto corpore, similis est puUo equino convoluto pilis,
membrum habet simile equino, et testiculos magnos." Hibbcrt, 504.
2 Sec Ilibbert, 5. 20. ^ Chambers' Pop. Rh. p. 35.