The Horse from Hell - the Nuckelavee

Of all the supernatural beings once believed to roam Orkney, none was as feared as the creature known
as the Nuckelavee.

The Nuckelavee was a creature of abject terror, and spoken of with bated breath until comparatively
recent times.

Although many folklore creatures had a dualistic nature, the Nuckelavee was a creature of sheer evil. His
sole purpose was to plague the islanders - a task from which he rarely rested.

According to the old Orcadians, who lived in constant fear of the Nuckelavee, only the power of the 'Mither o'
the Sea' kept the beast in check. Were it not for the fact that she restrained him in the summer, and that
his terror of fresh rainwater kept him hiding in the winter, they were sure that the Nuckelavee would have
driven mankind from the Northern Isles long ago.

Despite the fact that his home was considered to be the sea, the Nuckelavee was known to wander freely on
land. It was during these landward excursions that he was most often encountered by mortals - usually riding a steed as monstrous as himself.

The surviving accounts vary, with some storytellers merging the two monsters so that rider and horse become one
- a vile hybrid of man and beast that, they swore, was Nuckelavee's true shape.