Nuckelavee

An Orkney fairy, part man, part horse, skinless, and water-dwelling. His sole purpose is to torment the people of the Orkneys by blighting the crops with mildew, or the opposite, causing a drought.

A good site about the Nuckelavee is found at Orkneyar, where a nineteenth-century encounter is recorded.

Its name is likely related to the similar Sheltand monster, the noggle, while the Sheltanders call him "Mukkelevi." Both figures have analoges in other Celtic fairy lore (the Welsh ceffyl dwr, the Irish each uisge), but the name is probably from Norse influences, being a corruption of the earlier name "knoggelvi."

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