Shetland folklore

Njuggles (or njuggl)

Njuggles are another feature of Shetland’s folklore, but much more feared than the trow. A njuggle is a mythical horse-like creature, similar to the Scottish kelpie, who lures unsuspecting people onto their winged-backs before careering off, carrying them to a watery grave. Njuggles are almost always associated with water – burns and lochs, or damp areas such as meadows and marshes.

Njuggles were the most dangerous to milling, they would get into the mill’s underhouse and stop the tirl (the mechanism that drives the mill). The only way to get rid of the njuggle was to throw down a burning peat, where the njuggle would then disappear with a roar of thunder, a blinding flash and a blue flame.

Where trows were generally just mischievous, the arrival of a njuggle was almost always a dangerous encounter and these creatures were very much feared for they always meant ill.

Sea creatures

It’s unsurprising that, given Shetland’s reliance on the sea, sea creatures are a prominent feature in stories from the folklore. The sea was a food source, plentiful and abundant, but it was also a dangerous expanse, shrouded in mystery with unknown monsters lurking below the waters.

In days before modern weather forecasting, fishermen depended entirely on their senses and freak-weather was often explained by a higher power – in the case of sudden storms, or freak waves, these were usually blamed on witchcraft, and the work of someone who wished to do the boat, and or, a member of the crew an ‘ill turn’.

Fishermen were terribly superstitious and very much believed in other-worldly beings. The sea was a dangerous highway for the men who went to the fishing or used it for transport and there are many stories, unsurprisingly, from folklore associated with the sea.

Witches

Witches were women in the community believed to have powers. No favour that these women asked of a neighbour was ever refused for fear of repercussions. They were often avoided, sometimes shunned and periodically sought out in a family’s hour of need but, generally, they were always quietly respected and feared in equal measures.

There are many stories across Shetland of women with healing powers, those who were able to help an ailing child or animal, particularly if they had come under a trowie spell or curse. These women are generally portrayed in folklore as older spinsters who live alone and have powers greater than the everyday being.

These witches, on the whole, were harmless, yet quietly feared. Throughout the 17th century, many women were tried and executed for witchcraft during a particularly bleak period in our history. The last witches are thought to have been executed around 1700 in Scalloway.

Giants

Giants are another prominent player in tales of Shetland’s lore and even today, these are the stories that I tell my children as we pass through the places giants are said to have lived. Many of the features of our landscape that, today, we explain with science and geology were, in the past, explained in far more imaginative ways.

My favourite giant story comes from Petta Water, on the road north. It’s said that a giant once lived here, alongside the trows. The trows were endlessly harassing the giant, endlessly hounding him as he tried to sleep, whispering in his ears and pulling at his whiskers. The giant resolved to rid the area of the trows. He made a kishie [straw basket, carried on the back] and began gathering the trows up, loading them carefully into the kishie. Once he was happy that they were all rounded up he began to carry them, with the intention of tossing them out to sea. Unfortunately for the giant, the cumulative weight of the trows was enough to cause the bottom to fall out of the kishie, and all the trows fell to the ground and dispersed in all directions. Utterly fed up, the giant packed up his bits and pieces and left. It’s said he crossed the North Sea and went to Norway, leaving only his footprint in the form of Petta Water and a hollow in the hill – known as Kneefell – where he stooped down and landed his knee.

Selkies

There was a widespread belief that selkies, the local name for seals, could take the form of a human by casting off their seal-skins, which they left concealed on the beach until their return. Often seals would come ashore and dance by the moonlight on secluded beaches, particularly at midsummer. Sometimes they would use their innate power to lure a human mate back to sea.

Often posing as a handsome shipwrecked sailor these selkies in the guise of a man would knock at the door of a house, usually on a dark and stormy night. They would gain entry to the house by seeking shelter and a bed for the night and, invariably, would seduce the maiden of the house. They would then disappear, with the woman, returning to sea in the form of seals once more.

Similarly, stories exist that tell of how a seal-skin is stolen, usually from a beach, and hidden away somewhere so that, usually a maiden of exceptional beauty who has shed her skin, can be kept in the human world and married. These women always long to return to the sea and usually always find a way to go back home, even if it is many years later, and they are forced to abandon their human family to return to the sea to live.

Mermaids

There are several tales of mermaids who sought the love of a mortal man, and they would seek them out to marry. Mermaids were always very beautiful women when they appeared in any of the tales from folklore. Perhaps the most famous mermaid comes from the north of Unst. She lured the two bickering giants, Herman and Saxa, into the sea, challenging them to follow her to the North Pole – both giants drowned trying.

Shetland’s folklore is rich and vibrant and this blog has merely scratched the surface. For further reading, my favourite books are: Shetland Folklore by James. R. Nicolson and Shetland Folklore by John Spence.