In Scottish and Northern English folklore, a shellycoat (also called spellycoat) is a prankster water spirit that haunts rivers and streams. They are mainly described on the east coast of Scotland.

Description

The shellycoat is said to have long hair all over its body, along with webbed feet. The hair is covered in shells and other ocean debris, making a clattering sound as it moves. They are similar to a tangie, which is covered in seaweed.

Shellycoats are considered to be relatively harmless compared to other water spirits like the kelpie. 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 like a horse at the distracted victim. If they are disrespected shellycoats may physically fight the offending party, a trait that they share with urisks and glaistig. It is believed that the shellycoat cannot cross running water and that it leaves women with children alone.

Shellycoat of Leith

The shellycoat of Leith was described as a large, evil spirit that was capable of flight. He would hide his magic coat of shells under a rock when not wearing it, during which times he was harmless. Young boys in Leith would sometimes run thrice around the rock he was said to haunt while chanting the following rhyme:

The shellycoat of Leith has been called more violent and dangerous than other shellycoats, with one story saying that he once played with a man until he dropped dead. Another story tells of a man named English Dick, who tried to challenge the shellycoat. His friends found him by the rock hours later with his legs broken, and he told them that the shellycoat had grabbed him and flown him to Inchkeith and thrown him against the rocks several times before bringing him back.

The shellycoat's rock was destroyed during dock construction in the early 1900s.

Academic study

Jacob Grimm stated in his Deutsche Mythologie that the Scottish goblin Shellycoat is one and the same as the German Schellenrock, that is bell-coat:

Thomas Keightley quotes Grimm and classifies the shellycoat as a type of brownie:

Notes

Bibliography

• 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