Moonstone Research & Publications                                                         

Mermaids, Water-Bulls, &c.

Source: John Brand. Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain 3rd Edition (1843)

London: Henry Bohn (1843).

Vol. III 411-16.

 This selection primarily concerns the Isle of Mann.

[The natives of the Isle of Man say that, many centuries before the Christian era, the island was inhabited by fairies, and that all business was carried on in a supernatural manner. They affirm that a blue mist continually hung over the land and prevented mariners, who passed in ships that way, even from suspecting that there was an island so near at hand, till a few fishermen, by stress of weather, were stranded on the shore. As they were preparing to kindle a fire on the beach, they were astonished by a fearful noise issuing from the dark cloud which concealed the island from their view. When the first spark of fire fell into their tinder-box, the fog began to move up the side of the mountain, closely followed by a revolving object, closely resembling three legs of men joined together at the upper part of the thighs, and spread out as to resemble the spokes of a wheel--hence the arms of the island.

Collins, the poet, in a note to his Ode to Liberty, gives a different version of the story. "There is," says he, a tradition in the Isle of Man, that a mermaid having become enamoured of a young man of extraordinary beauty, took an opportunity of meeting him one day as he walked on the shore, and opened her mind to him; but her proposal being received with much coldness, occasioned by his horror and surprise at her appearance, was so misconstrued by the sea-lady, that in revenge for his treatment of her, she punished the whole island by covering it with mist, so that all who attempted to carry on any commerce with it, either never arrived there, or were, upon a sudden, wrecked upon its cliffs, till the incantatory spell or pishag, as the Manks say, was broken by the fishermen stranded there, by whom, notice was given to the people of their country, who sent ships in order to make a further discovery. On their landing, they had a fierce encounter with the little people, and having got the better of them, possessed themselves of Castle Rushen, and by degrees, the whole island."

Waldron tells another story of a mermaid, in the words of a native fisherman, whom he happened to meet at Port Iron. "During the time that Oliver Cromwell usurped the government of England, few ships resorted to this island, which gave the mermen and mermaids frequent opportunities of visiting the shore, where, on moonlight nights, they have been seen combing their hair; but as soon as they saw anyone coming near them, they jumped into the water, and were soon out of sight. Some people who lived near the shore spread nets, and watched at a convenient distance for their approach, but only one was taken, which proved to be a female. Nothing," continued my author, "could be more lovely; above the waist it resembled a fine young woman, but below that all was fish with fins, and a spreading tail. She was carried to a house and used very tenderly; but although they set her before the best of provisions, she could not be prevailed on to eat or drink, neither could they get a word from her, although they knew these creatures had the gift of speech. They kept her three days, but perceiving that she began to look very ill by fasting so long, and fearing some calamity would befall the island if they kept her till she died, they opened the door, on perceiving which she raised herself on her tail from the place where she was lying, and glided with incredible swiftness to the sea-side. Her keeper followed at a distance, and saw her plunge into the water, where she was met by a great number of her own species, one of whom asked her what she had observed among the people on the earth. 'Nothing,' answered she; 'but they are so ignorant as to throw away the very water they have boiled their eggs in.'"

The tarroo-ushtey, or water-bull, it appears, was formerly a regular visitant of the Isle of Man. Waldron says: "A neighbour of mine who kept cattle, had his fields very much infested with this animal, by which he had lost several cows; he therefore placed a man continually to watch, who bringing him word one day that a strange bull was among the cows, he doubted not but it was the water-bull, and having called a good number of lusty men to his assistance, who were all armed with great poles, pitchforks, and other weapons proper to defend themselves, and be the death of this dangerous enemy, they went to the place where they were told he was, and ran altogether at him; but he was too nimble for their pursuit, and after tiring them over mountains and rocks, and a great space of stony ground, he took a river and avoided any further chase, by diving down into it, though every now and then he would show his head above water, as if to mock their skill."

The belief in this imaginary animal is not yet become extinct. Only a few years ago, the farmer of Sliu Mayll, in the parish of Onchan, was, on a Sunday evening, returning home from a place of worship, when at the garee of Slegaby, a wild-looking animal, with large eyes sparkling like fire, crossed the road before him and went flapping away. This he knew to be a tarroo-ushtey, for his father had seen one at nearly the same place, over the back of this animal he broke his walking stick, so lazy was it to get out of his way. This man's brother had also seen a tarroo-ushtey, at Lhanjaghyn, in the same neighbourhood. When proceeding to the fold, very early one morning in the month of June, to let the cattle out to feed before the heat of the day came on, he saw a water-bull standing outside the fold; when the bull that was within with thecattle perceived him, he instantly broke through the fence and ran at him, roaring and tearing up the ground with his feet, but the tarroo-ushtey scampered away, seeming quite unconcerned, and leaping over an adjoining precipice, plunged into deep water, and after swimming about a little, evidently amusing himself, he gave a loud bellow and disappeared.

The glashtin is a water-horse, that formerly, like the tarroo-ushtey, left his native element to associate with land animals of the same class, and might frequenlty be seen playing gambols in the mountains among the native ponies, to whom the glashtin is said at one time to have been warmly attached, but since the breed of the native horses has been crossed with those of other countries, he has wholly deserted them.

The dooinney-oie, or nightman, of the former Manks peasantry, seems to have been somewhat akin to the benshee of the Scots and Irish, who were reverenced as the tutelar demons of certain families, as it appeared only to give monitions of future events to particular persons. A manuscript account of Manks Superstitions says: "The voice of the dooinney-oie was sometimes very dismal when heard at night on the mountains, something like h-o-w-l-a-a, or h-o-w-a-a. When his lamentation in winter was heard, on the coast, being a sure prediction of an approaching tempest, it was so awful that even the brute creation trembled at the sound. Perhaps the propensities of this creature more nearly resembled those of the daoine-shie, or men of peace of the Scottish Highlanders, who, according to popular fancy, "sometimes held intercourse with mistresses of mortal race, and were inconsolable when their suits were rejected."

Another cherished phantasm of Manks superstition is the phynnodderee. This creature of imagination is represented as being a fallen fairy, who was banished from fairy land by the elfin-king for having paid his addresses to a pretty Manks maid, who lived in a bower beneath the blue tree of Glen Aldyn, and for deserting the fairy court during the harvest moon to dance in the merry glen of Rushen. He is doomed to remain in the Isle of Mann till the end of time, transformed into a wild satyr-like figure, covered with long shaggy hair like a he-goat, and was thence called phynnodderee or hairy one.

The Manks phynnodderee is seemingly analogous to the swart-alfar of the Edda, somewhat resembles the lubber fiend of Milton, and possesess several attributes of the Scottish brownie.

"His was the wizard hand that toil'd

At midnight's witching hour,

That gather'd the sheep from the coming storm

Ere the Shepherd saw it lour,

Yet ask'd no fee save a scatter'd sheaf

From the peasant's garner'd hoard,

Or cream-bowl pressed by a virgin lip,

To be leaft in the household board."

The phynnodderee also cut down and gathered in meadow grass, which would have been injured if allowed to remain exposed to the coming storm. On one occasion a farmer, having expressed his displeasure with the spirit for not having cut his grass close enough to the ground, the hairy one in the following year allowed the dissatisfied farmer to cut it down himself, but went after him, stubbing up the roots so fast, that it was with difficulty the farmer escaped having his legs cut off by the angry sprite.

For several years afterwards no person could be found to mow the meadow, until a fearless soldier from one of the garrisons at length undertook the task. He commenced in the center of the field, and by cutting round, as if on the edge of a circle, keeping one eye on the progress of the scythe, while the other

"Was turned round with prudent care,

Lest Phynnodderee catched him unaware."

he succeeded in finishing his task unmolested. This field, situate in the parish of Marown, hard by the ruins of the old church of St. Trinian's, is, from the circumstance just related, still called the Round Meadow.

The following is one of the many stories related by the Manks peasantry as indicative of the prodigious strength of the phynnodderee. A gentleman having resolved to build a large house and offices on his property, a little above the base of Snafield mountain, at a place called Sholt-e-will, caused the requisite quantity of stones to be quarried on the beach; but one immense block of white stone, which he was very desirous to have for a particular part of the intended building, could not be moved from the spot, resisting united strength of all the men in the parish. To the utter astonishment, however, of all, not only this rock, but likewise the whole of the quarried stones, consisting of more than a hundred cart-loads, were in one night conveyed from the shore to the site of the intended onstead by the indefatigable phynnodderee, and in confirmation of this wonderful feat, the white stone is yet pointed out to the curious visitor.

The gentleman for whom this very acceptable piece of work was performed, wishing to remunerate the naked phynnodderee, caused a few articles of clothing to be laid down for him in his usual haunt. The hairy one, on perceiving the habilments, lifted them up one by one, thus expressing his feelings in Manks:

"Caps for the head, alas, poor head;

Coat for the back, alas, poor back;

Breeches for the breech, alas, poor breech;

If these be all thine, thine cannot be the merry glen of Rushea."

Having repeated these words, he departed with a melancholy wail, and now

"You may hear his voice on the desert hill,

When the mountain winds have power;

'Tis a wild lament for his buried love,

And his long lost fairy bower."

Many of the old people lament the disappearance of the phynnodderee; for they say, "There has not been a merry world since he lost his ground."

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Last modified: 01/17/05