As the night grows long
And the Mither needs rest
A beast that stifles all song
Stirs at the devil’s behest
Captive in the darkest waters
Freed with the tempestuous sea
It will feast upon your daughters
On the island with no trees
Upon Orkney’s fields, it lays.
Steady breath, reeking of plague.
In salty waters, watching its prey.
Leaving corpses, bloody and vague.
A festering frame of flayed flesh
And pulsating yellow veins.
Farmers find no seed to thresh.
Its presence withered all the grain.
A torso stitched to horse back.
Knuckles that drag along the grass.
Bodies left uneaten and stacked
To become one rotting writhing mass
A dead stare from the oversized head.
At orphaned children crying in bed.
– R. K. Lightfoot
The Nuckelavee is a poem about a horse-like demon from Orcadian mythology; the nuckelavee. Orkney is an island off the coast of Scotland that has a rich body of fascinating and horrifying folklore, and the nuckelavee is one aspect of that folklore I felt compelled to write a poem about. In Orkney myth, the nuckelavee is imprisoned by the Mither of the Sea during the summer months. But the Mither tires as the year progresses and she eventually weakens enough that the nuckelavee is able to escape. The Mither’s fatigue is said to be why the autumn and winter months have more violent storms. When the Mither regains her strength she imprisons the nuckelavee again, and brings back the calmer seas of spring and summer. The nuckelavee’s horrifying appearance and it’s association with autumn, made it a perfect subject for the autumn/halloween themed poems I’m uploading this October.
© 2022
Photo via Pixabay CC0
R.K. Lightfoot 