The Kelpie, the malignant water-sprite of the Scottish Lochs, which was said to lurk by the waterside, disguised as a horse, waiting for human victims.

A kelpie is a creature from scottish/swedish legends. It lives preferrably in lakes. It's a water sprite that can take the shape of a beautiful young horse wearing a golden bridle. A weary traveller will try to ride the horse and then it's true nature shows: The Kelpie will run into the water and drown it's rider.

[Edited on 5-1-2004 by blobby]

Ive always felt this was an exaggerated folk tale, possibly based in fact/myth but now resides as a mutated story. IKind of like mermaids, I'm of the school of thought that they're really sea cows (can't remember the scientific name) when you sea pictures of the underwater you can see a mild human like resemblance, and how saliors could have been mistaken. Theres many stories like this and I put the Kelpie in with them. Something natural if odd, that has been misinterpreted and exaggerated.

sea cows = manatee.... Lots of them where I live in FL...

Weren't the kelpies the seals that turned into women from scottish lochs? I've never heard the horse thing before. It doesn't really matter, they're still in the realm of fiction..

Originally posted by feygan
Ive always felt this was an exaggerated folk tale, possibly based in fact/myth but now resides as a mutated story. IKind of like mermaids, I'm of the school of thought that they're really sea cows (can't remember the scientific name) when you sea pictures of the underwater you can see a mild human like resemblance, and how saliors could have been mistaken.

The myth is talking about horse-resemblance, not human-resemblance..

As an employee of a fish and reptile store, the answer is obvious - giant sea horses.