Fuath

A "fua" of the river grabs hold of The King of Ireland's Son.

—Illust. Willy Pogany. Colum, Padraic (1916). King of Ireland's son

A fuath (Scottish Gaelic: fuath; Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [fuə]; lit. ‘hatred'; plural: fuathan; phonetic English: vough, vaugh) is a class of malevolent spirits in Scottish Highland folklore and Irish Folklore especially water spirits.

In Sutherland was the so-called Moulin na Vaugha/Fouadh, ‘Mill of the Fuath', haunted by the fuath and her son, the amorphous brollachan. The mill was along a stream off Loch Migdale, and belonged to the Dempster family (Skibo Castle) estate.

A fuath once seen at this mill was a nose-less banshee with yellow hair wearing a green silk dress; in the story of its capture^[a] it was tormented into submission by use of steel (awl, and more effectively by a sewing needle), but it turned to a jellyfish-like mass when light was shone on it. A fuath on the estate farm, encountered on a different occasion, had webbed feet.

They sometimes reputedly intermarry with human beings (typically the female), whose offspring have developed a mane and tail.

Nomenclature

The term "fuath" has been explained to be a generic class of spirits inhabiting the sea, rivers, fresh water, or sea lochs,^[1][2] with several "subspecies" falling under it.^[3]

The Scottish Gaelic term fuath has been explained to mean 'hatred' or 'aversion', derived from Old Irish fúath 'hate, likeness'.^[3] The term is also glossed to mean 'ghost' or 'spectre'.^[4]

An alternative name for this class of monsters is the arrachd or fuath-arrachd.^[3]

Generalization

Aquatic nature

J. F. Campbell characterized the fuath of Sutherland as a water spirit,^[5] but it has been stressed by John Gregorson Campbell that the term designates a spectre or goblin more generally, not necessarily of aqueous nature or habitat.^[6]

Conflated description

J. F. Campbell also conflated the traits of the fuath from different accounts in a generalized description of the fuath of Sutherland^[b][5] and this has also fallen under criticism by Gregorson.^[6][c]

Furthermore, J. F. Campbell ascribed the mane and tail to the fuath, though these traits had evidently developed in the human progeny of the Munroe family, to which there was attached a floating rumour that their ancestor had interbred with a fuath several generations back.^[7][d]

While it has been generalized that the fuath of the locality wears green,^[5] "golden and silken gear" was worn by the weird woman seen plunging into the River Shin was seen by a (games)keeper of the Charlotte Dempster's family.^[9]

Tales

A fuath (in this instance spelled "fua") appears in the tale "The King of Ireland's Son". In it, the creature emerges from a body of water and attempts to steal the anvil of Goban Saor, a mythical craftsman. The King of Ireland's Son wrestles with the creature over the course of three nights in order to gain the favor of Goban Saor.

The story of "The Brollachan" (and several of its variant tales) from Sutherland were collected by Charlotte Dempster in 1859, and supplied to J. F. Campbell who printed it. The stories are set in locales within the Dempster family estate (otherwise known as Skibo)^[10][11][e] The writer Charlotte was a relative of the Dempsters of the estate (being the granddaughter of Harriet, the illegitimate daughter of the captain).^[11]

• (1) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860) "The Brollachan" (Popular Tales II, Tale #37);^[12] Charlotte Dempster ed. (1888) "The Brolachan MacVaugh"^[13] (Sutherlandshire, Moulin na Gleannan "Mill of the Glenn")^[f]

Two redactions collected from the same storyteller.^[g] The brollachan is the son of a fuath, as the latter title indicates.^[h][14][2] The brollachan possesses eyes and mouth, but a shapeless mass of a body, and capable of speaking only two words/phrases, "Myself" and "Yourself" (mi-phrein and tu-phrein).^[14][15][i]

The brollachan was lying at the mill when the "Allay na Moulin" Murray, the resident alms-receiving crippled man around the mill came and stoked the fire with peat, causing burns on him. But due to the limits of his vocabulary, the blob could not properly speak the name of the perpetrator.^[j]

• (2) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860) "Moulion na Fuadh";^[16] Dempster ed. (1888) "The Vaugh of Moulinna Vuagha"^[14] (Sutherland, same mill as above.)

A man who lives in Inveran wagers he can go and capture the "kelpie" of the mill (also called the vough, vaugh) and return. He succeeds thanks to a black-muzzled dog, and binds the kelpie to a second horse. When fording the burn at the far end (south) of Loch Migdale the vough grows agitated, and the man pokes it with an awl and a sewing needle into submission. The creature declares the needle is worse. Upon arrival, when the others shine a light at it, it falls down, a shapeless jelly-like clump, which is much like the so-called "dropped stars" of the moors, strange objects like beached jellyfish.

• (3) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860), untitled variant;^[17] Dempster ed. (1888) "The Banshee, or Vaugh, or Weird Woman of the Water"^[10] (Sutherland, same mill as above.) ^[k]

At the mill haunted by the brollachan, a banshee was spotted who had yellow hair like ripened wheat, wearing a fine silk green dress, but she had no nose.

• (4) J. F. Campbell ed. (1860), untitled variant;^[18] Dempster ed. (1888) "The Web-footed Kelpie"^[9] (Sutherland, Dempster family sheep farm.)^[l]

The (family's) shepherd found a dirty and lamed banshee and piggybacked her, until he noticed her webbed feet, throwing her off and flinging away the plaid she lay on.

Fuath tribe members

Below are the supposed "subspecies" of the fuath class, according to certain commentators.^[19]

• peallaidh^[1][2][3]
• fideal^[2][3]
• beithir, in modern oral tradition^[3]
• ùruisg, or at least many of them^{[20][m][2][3]}
• shellycoat^[3][2]
• nuckelavee^[m][2]

Similar beings

Similarity or equivalence to the bean nighe or Northern Ireland's uisges have been noted.^{[citation needed]}

Explanatory notes

1. Where the fuath is called a "kelpie"
2. The traits are already enumerated above, in the leading paragraph.
3. Although the main tale and many of the variants he conflates are set in the same mill, as explained below
4. Carol Rose's amalgamation has confers a "long spikey tail" on the fuath, emerging from the green robe.^[8]
5. As mentioned in another variant, where it is explained that "from Skibo there is a lake.. Migdall.. at one end a burn runs out past Moulinna Vaugha, or the kelpie's mill".^[10]
6. The same mill also is known as Moulin na Vaugha "Mill of the Fuath" according to the variant tale below about the capture, Campbell's variant 1 (Dempster's vii).^[14] This mill was within (or at least near) the expansion to the estate purchased by Captain John Hamilton Dempster, and on the purchased land's survey map the mill is labeled with the sprite's name spelt "fouah".^[14]
7. Marie Calder, aka Widow M. Calder
8. The fuath and vough(vaugh) spellings are interchangeably used.
9. Dempster concludes that the brollachan is the equivalent of the Manx glashan or brounie, and also equatable to the Boneless bug or goblin mentioned by Reginald Scot in Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584).
10. Briggs refers to this tale as a Nemo type,^[2] where Nemo is Latin for "No One", referring to the name ("Outis" in Greek) that Odysseus employed on the isle of the Cyclops. Cf. Campbell's variant/parallel 9 (p. 198).
11. Misspelt lake name in Campbell: "Nigdall", (recté Migdall), as confirmed in Dempster's redaction.
12. Though not specified, the Creich farm near mill is known for sheep-raising.
13. Briggs states "many at least of the urisks, and presumably nuckelavee".

References

Citations

1. Mackenzie, Donald A. (1935), "Fuath", Scottish folk-lore and folk life; studies in race, culture and tradition, London: Blackie, p. 233, hdl:2027/inu.39000003533341; Reprint: Read Books Ltd 2013 [1] ISBN 9781447482703
2. Briggs (1976), Briggs (1977) Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "fuath", p. 182.
3. Mackillop (1998) Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, p. 243, s. v. "fuath, fuathan, vough".
4. Macleod, Norman; Dewar, Daniel (1831), "Fuath", A Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Glasgow: W.R. M'Phun, p. 308
5. Campbell (1860), 2: 191. He gives an amalgamated descriptions of the fuath, drawing from the main brollachan tale and variants 1.–5. He is also quoted in Briggs (1967), pp. 52–53
6. Campbell, J. G. (1902), pp. 188–189; Campbell, J. G. & Black (2008), pp. 274–275 "Fuath".
7. Campbell (1860), 2:191. "XXXVII, var. 3".
8. Rose, Carol (2001). "Fuath". Giants, Monsters and Dragons. Oxford: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 126. ISBN 9780393322118.
9. Dempster (1888). "III.xiiia The Web-footed Kelpie", p. 228. The number "xiii" has been doubly assigned by error.
10. Dempster (1888). "III.xii The Banshee, or Vaugh, or Weird Woman of the Water", p. 228.
11. Evans, John (2004). "Ch. 3 Salad Days 1761–1763". The Gentleman Usher: The Life & Times of George Dempster 1712-1818. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473814585.
12. Campbell (1860), 2:189–190. "XXXVII. The Brollachan".
13. Dempster (1888). "III.viii The Brolachan MacVaugh", pp. 225–226.
14. Dempster (1888). "III.vii The Vaugh of Moulinna Vuagha", pp. 224–225.
15. Briggs (1976), Briggs (1977) Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "brollachan", p. 43.
16. Campbell (1860), 2:190–191. "XXXVII, var. 1. Moulion na Fuadh".
17. Campbell (1860), 2:191. "XXXVII, var. 4".
18. Campbell (1860), 2:191. "XXXVII, var. 5".
19. Mackillop (1998). "Highland subspecies of the fuath include the beithir, fideal, pellaidh, and ùruisg.
20. Mackenzie states categorically "Peallaidh was a fuath" and adds "a form of Peallaidh or the urisk on the east coast of Scotland in the Lowlands was shellycoat"）

Bibliography

• Briggs, Katharine Mary (1976), A Dictionary of Faeries, Oxford: Lane, ISBN 9780394734675
• —— (1977), An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, New York: Pantheon, ISBN 9780713910056 (U.S. edition)
• —— (2002) [1967], The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, Routledge, ISBN 9780415286015
• Campbell, J. F. (1860), Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Edinburgh: Edmonston, Vol. 1, Vol. 2)
• Campbell, John Gregorson (1902). Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland: Tales and Traditions Collected Entirely from Oral Sources. J. MacLehose and sons. pp. 188–189.
• Campbell, John Gregorson (2008) [1990 & 1902]. Black, Ronald (ed.). The Gaelic Otherworld: Superstitions of the Highlands and the Islands and Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Birlinn. ISBN 978-1-84158-733-2.
• Dempster, Charlotte H. (1888), "Folk-Lore of Sutherlandshire", The Folk-Lore Journal, 6: 149–189, 213–252, doi:10.1080/17442524.1888.10602890; text @ Internet Archive
• Mackillop, James (1998), Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192801201

External links

• Description of the Brollachan