Shellycoat
Also called Spelly Coat, Shellicoat, Shelly Coat.
Shellycoat is a Scottish and Border water bogle whose coat of rattling shells announces a spirit devoted to harmless, elaborate trickery rather than harm.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Scottish folklore
- Region
- Anglo-Scottish Border (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The False Guides
Near this figure
and 3 more
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Behaviour
- Mimics human voice to mislead
why
It is said to imitate a drowning person's cries to lure the curious or the helpful toward a riverbank, or to call out in a human voice from within the water, only to reveal itself, or vanish laughing, once the listener has been thoroughly led astray.
- Confuses travelers into losing their way
why
Other accounts have it setting false lights or footprints to send travelers wandering in circles near its home stream.
Sight and sound
- Rattling sound precedes supernatural approach
why
the covering of shells that hangs about its body and clatters as it moves
- Deceptive lure light over water
why
setting false lights or footprints to send travelers wandering in circles near its home stream
Utility powers
- Vocal mimicry
why
It is said to imitate a drowning person's cries to lure the curious or the helpful toward a riverbank, or to call out in a human voice from within the water, only to reveal itself, or vanish laughing, once the listener has been thoroughly led astray.
Curses
- Mischief pranks
why
Shellycoat is a Scottish and Border water bogle whose coat of rattling shells announces a spirit devoted to harmless, elaborate trickery rather than harm. Shellycoat is a bogle of Scottish and Anglo-Scottish Border tradition, a freshwater spirit associated with streams, rivers, and coastal shallows and named for the covering of shells that hangs about its body and clatters as it moves.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Trickster carries both readings
4 citations
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Shellycoat."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Shellycoat."
- Patricia Monaghan, The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore, p. 418.
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Shellycoat."