Glashtyn

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Legendary creature from Manx folklore

title: "Glashtyn" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["manx-folklore", "manx-legendary-creatures", "legendary-horses", "sea-monsters", "water-spirits", "goblins", "celtic-mythology"] description: "Legendary creature from Manx folklore" topic_path: "general/manx-folklore" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glashtyn" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Legendary creature from Manx folklore ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Colum-KOIS(Holt1916)-Pogany-illustr-p226-glashan.jpg" caption="King of Ireland's son]]''}}}}"] ::

Glashtyn (Manx English: glashtin, glashtan or glashan; or glashtyn ) is a legendary creature from Manx folklore.

The glashtin is said to be a goblin that appears out of its aquatic habitat, to come in contact with the island folk; others claim it takes the shape of a colt, or equate it to the water horse known locally as cabbyl-ushtey. Yet another source claims the glashtin was a water-bull (tarroo-ushtey in Manx), half-bovine and half-equine.

Some tales or lore recount that it has pursued after women, ending in the stock motif of escape by cutting loose the skirt-hem, although in one modern version her escape is achieved by a rooster's crowing; in that tale the glashtin pretends to be a handsome man but is betrayed by his horse-ears.

Lexicography

The word glashtin is thought to derive from Celtic glais (), meaning "stream", or sometimes even the sea.

Celtic Manx language

"Glashtin" is the orthography in the Manx language according to Cregeen's dictionary (1835), and this is the spelling adhered to by Joseph Train, A. W. Moore and various other 19th century authorities of Manx folklore.

However the spelling "Glashtyn" is used as heading in John Kelly's Fockleyr dictionary of 1866.

Manx Gaelic glashtin, glashtyn is pronounced according to a recent paper on the language.

Manx English

In the Manx English dialect, "Glashan, glashtan, glashtin" as 'hairy goblin' is the primary (and most detailed) entry given in Moore's posthumous dictionary (1924), completed in collaboration with Morrison and Goodwin.

Glashtan, glashtin () and glashan () are the phonology given in Moore's dictionary.

The form "glashan" is found in folklore examples collect on a southerly island (Calf of Man) by J. F. Campbell.

Definitions

The Celtic Manx term glashtin is a masculine noun denoting "a goblin, a sprite" according to Cregeen's dictionary, while Moore's Manx English dictionary gives "hairy goblin", which can also be applied figuratively to a "big, hulking boy". Kelly adds that the goblin emerges out of water.

But according to Manx writer Joseph Train, "the glashtin is a water-horse that formerly, like the §taroo-ushtey, left his native element to associate with land animals of the same class".

This dual picture prompted A. W. Moore to comment that the glashan or glashtin is sometimes ascribed a hairy goblin's attributes, like the fenodyree's, and sometimes horse-like attributes, like the cabbyl-ushtey's. Welsh scholar Rhys also concurred, saying that his "informants" were at odds, some of them regarding the "glastyn" as the Manx version of the brownie, while others were adamant it was "a sort of grey colt, frequenting the banks of lakes at night".

Shapeshifter theory

The two conflicting accounts above can be reconciled by regarding the Manx glashtin as a shape-shifter. Recent literature embracing this notion claims that the equine glashtin assumes human form at times, but betrays his identity when he fails to conceal his ears, which are pointed like a horse's.

One modern fairy tale relates how a fisherman's daughter living in Scarlett outwitted the foreign-tongued "dark and handsome" stranger whom she recognized as glashtin by his horse's ears. She knew she was in peril because according to lore, the glashtin had the ill habit of transforming into a "water-horse" and dragging women to sea.

Reversed hooves

Although the glashtin may assume a normal horse's guise, it had hooves which "were back to front", writes Wiltshire native folklore author Ralph Whitlock, writing in 1979.

Folklore attestations

An early commentary on the glashtin occurs in Joseph Train's History (1845).}}

According to Train, the glashtin is a sort of a water-horse, thus providing a dichotomous picture of the legendary creature.

Water horse

In one passage, Train claims the glashtin to be a water-horse, and that this sea-glashtin would at one time emerge from his marine habitat, mingling with the local land-roving ponies, and cross breed to produce foal.

Train drew similarity to the Manx water-bull (see taroo ushtey below) which also shared the trait of mingling with land livestock. In fact the water-bull attempts to mate with domesticated cows as well, only unsuccessfully, according to George Waldron (1731).

The glashtin, it was said, ceased to appear after the islanders started cross-breeding their native horses with breeds from the outside.

Seducer of women

German mythographer Karl Blind noted that Manx glashtin or elashtan "attacks lonely women" as is the case with the Shetlandic nuggle and the Scottish kelpie.

The creature was known to have great curiosity for women and pester them in rather picaresque manner, and would grab hold and tear off pieces of women's attire.

Cutting the grabbed hem off dress motif

One anecdote concerns a glashan who caught a girl by getting a tight grip-hold of her dress. But while he slept, she cut away the dress and escaped, making him cast away the cloth, uttering something in Manx unintelligible to Campbell. Sophia Morrison gives another version with this tale motif, entitled "The Buggane of the Glen Meay Waterfall".

Rooster's crowing

In the aforementioned modern fairy tale, on a stormy night in Scarlett, the girl Kirree Quayle gave refuge to a dark, handsome stranger, but afterwards recognized him be a glashtin, deducing from his horse ears. She feared for herself knowing the creature was reputed to shape-shift into a water-horse and drag women to sea. As her fisherman father was late, she wished for dawn's break which would banish any non-mortals. She resisted his temptation of a strand of pearls dangled before her, and when grabbed she let out a scream, causing the red cockerel to crow, prematurely announcing the break of dawn, scaring the glashtin away.

Fairy fiddler

Train also alleged that the renowned Hom Mooar (which signifies "Big Tom", a name of a fairy fiddler), was a glashtin. He goes on to supply as an example a tale taken from Waldron, describing a man was lured by invisible musicians to a strange banquet, and obtained the silver cup that came to be used for the "consecrated Wine in Kirk-Merlugh (Malew Church), even though Waldron never refers to the enchanted musicians as glashtin or "Big Tom".

Helpful spirit

Manx lore concerning a helpful glashan was collected by Scottish folklorist J. F. Campbell, from a woman living on the Calf of Man in the southern part of the Isle of Man. The story-telling woman described a creature or being which assisted her as farmhand, performing the tasks of rounding up sheep from the fold, or threshing stalks of corn left unbundled.

Similar or conflated mythical creatures

Tarroo-ushtey

tarroo-ushtey (, Manx English pronunciation:, Mx. for "water bull")

The 18th century Manx local historian George Waldron records the superstition about the Water-Bull, an "amphibious creature" with every semblance of a natural bull, but a cow mating with it calves only a misshapen "lump of flesh and skin without bones" and often dies giving birth. Waldron also wrote that a neighbor detected a stray bull in his herd and, suspecting it to be a Water-Bull, rounded up a group of men with pitchforks to give it chase.

John Nelson (1840-1910), a Manx informant well-versed in local Gaelic lore, argued that the water-bull was "supposed to be a goblin half cow and half horse" and so it and the glashtin were one and the same.

Cabbyl-ushtey

cabbyl-ushtey{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Also known as Cabbyl-ny-hoie 'the night-horse'. , Manx English pronunciation:, Mx. for "water horse")

Manx folklorist and historian Arthur William Moore was unable to avoid the dichotomy regarding the glashtin. In one instance, Moore represents the glashtin as "a hairy goblin or sprite", but also says glashtin was another name for a water-horse or the cabbyl-ushtey.

Moore says there was a sighting of the horse in 1859 at Ballure Glen, and after being spotted people from nearby Ramsey flocked to see, but no one caught sight of it. The glen beneath the Glen Meay Waterfall (near Peel; see Morrison's tale above

One tale recounts how a cabbyl-ushtey emerged from the Awin Dhoo (Black River) and devoured a farmer's cow, then later it took his teenaged daughter. Nevertheless, recent literature makes the cabbyl-ushtey as being more benign than the Scottish Gaelic each-uisge.

Explanatory notes

References

;Citations

;Bibliography

References

  1. {{harvp. Cregeen
  2. {{harvp. Train
  3. {{harvp. Moore. 1891, p. 52
  4. {{harvp. Roeder. 1897, Contribb. to Mx. Folk Lore, p.?
  5. {{harvp. Moore. Morrison. Goodwin
  6. {{harvp. Mackillop. 1998, "(in) human form ... could not hide his horse's ears."
  7. Teit, J. A.. (April–June 1918). "Water-Beings in Shetlandic Folk-Lore, as Remembered by Shetlanders in British Columbia". American Folklore Society.
  8. {{Refn. Train claimed he used as his source an ''MS Account of Manks Superstition'', which was a study on folklore he commissioned specifically for his work from an island native.{{harvp. Train. 1845, p. 147, n1.
  9. {{harvp. Train. 1845, p. 142 gives the heading "the Sea-Glashtin"
  10. [[Charles Roeder]] records a similar tale of a woman who loosened her apron-string to rid herself of the glashtin clung on her apron, and he spoke these words: 'Rumbyl, rumbyl, cha vel ayms agh yn sampyl' (The edge or skirt of the garment, I have but the sample).{{harvp. Roeder. 1897, in ''Yn Lior Manninagh''
  11. {{harvp. Moore. Morrison. Goodwin. baə(r)n mūə(r), p. 11
  12. {{harvp. Waldron. 1744 (2nd ed.), pp. 54–55
  13. Also reprinted in [[Thomas Keightley. Keightley]], ''Fairy Mythology'', p. 399, "The Fairy Banquet"
  14. Moore. Morrison. Goodwin
  15. Train
  16. Draskau, Jennifer. (2008). "Practical Manx". Liverpool University Press.
  17. {{harvp. Moore. Morrison. Goodwin
  18. {{harvp. Moore. 1891,''Folk-lore'', p. 52, "..they combine the attributes.. of.. Brownie, and.. and Troll, though the ''Glashtin'' seems to be a water-horse, also"
  19. Jenkinson, Henry Irwin. (1874). "Jenkinson's practical guide to the Isle of Man". Edward Stanford.
  20. [[W. Walter Gill. Gill, W. Walter]] (1929). [http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/scrap1/ch04_gn.htm ''A Manx Scrapbook''] Arrowsmith. Ch. 4.
  21. {{harvp. Mackillop. 1998, cabbyl-ushtey "The Manx *each uisce or water-horse. Not as dangerous or greedy as its Highland counterpart.. appears in relatively few folk narratives. It might seize cows and tear them.. stampede horses, or steal children. Folk motif B17.2.1 (Hostile sea-beasts)
  22. Blind, Karl. (1881). "Scottish, Shetlandic, and Germanic Water Tales(1)". The Contemporary Review.
  23. {{harvp. Briggs. 1977
  24. Campbell, J. F.. (1860). "Popular Tales of the West Highlands, orally collected (New edition)". Alexander Gardener.
  25. Dalyell, John Graham, Sir. (1835). "Popular Tales of the West Highlands, orally collected (New edition)". Richard Griffin.
  26. eDIL, s. v. "[http://www.dil.ie/25955 glais, glaise, glas]". "a stream, streamlet, rivulet, current : common in place-names".
  27. Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling. (1911). "The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries". Henry Frowde.
  28. {{harvp. Kelly
  29. {{harvp. Kelly. Roeder. 1897 and {{harvp. Rhys. 1901
  30. Kelly, Liorish Juan Y. (1866). ''The Manx dictionary'' [Focklayr Manninagh as Baarlagh], Part '''2''', s. v. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=00pBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA156 rumbyl]", s. 'a skirt, a border'.
  31. Kneen, J. J.. (1925). "Parish of Kirk Lonan". Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Society).
  32. Kneen, J. J.. (1931). "A grammar of the Manx language".
  33. McCoy, Edain. (1994). "A witch's guide to faery folk: reclaiming our working relationship". Llewellyn Worldwide.
  34. Moore. (1896). "Manx ballads & music". G. & R. Johnson.
  35. Morrison, Sophia. (1911). "Manx Fairy Tales". D. Nutt.
  36. Miller, Stephen. (August 2009). "'The Kind Cooperation of Many Local Friends': Deemster J. F. Gill's Search for Manx Folk Singers (1895-1898)". Folklore.
  37. Waldron, George. (1744). "The History and Description of the Isle of Man: Viz. Its Antiquity, History, Laws, Customs, Religion and Manners of Its Inhabitants, ...". W. Bickerton.
  38. Whitlock, Ralph. (1979). "In Search of Lost Gods: A Guide to British Folklore". Phaidon.

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