This story is from Folk Tales and
Fairy Lore in Gaelic and English:
Collected from Oral Tradition by
Rev. James MacDougall, and edited
by Rev. George Calder, 1910. It is
in the third section of Fairy Stories
called: “Water Sprites," which deals
with Urisks and Water Horses, pages
298-301. The English translation in
the book is old-fashioned and in Scots
English, so I have provided below my
version in modern English based on
the Gaelic text. I have added words
where I saw fit to make the story flow
easier and make more sense.
My English Translation:
There’s an ravine called the Yellow
falls. There it is said that Urisks
dwelt and nearby there were
some cabins of the farmers of the
valley.
One of the Urisks,
“The Urisk of Eas Buidhe,
Sitting in Glen Maillie,”
was real annoying to one of the
dairymaids that was in a cabin by the
ravine. Thee wasn’t a day when he
wouldn’t come into the shanty where
she was and passed the time sitting
by the fire, asking her about things,
and interfering with her work.
She got sick of him, but she didn’t
know how to get rid of him without
getting the other Urisks angry with
her. Finally, she had had it with him,
and decided she would get rid of him,
one way or another.
One day, when he was hanging
around the fire as usual, he asked her
what her name was. She answered
that it was “Myself and Myself”.
“That’s a strange name” he said.
“Maybe so, but that’s my name.”
There was a pot of whey on the fire,
and she went to take it off, and he was
in her way, as he typically was. It
ticked her off so much that she let
some of the boiling whey splash on
his feet and scald him. He jumped
up from his seat and ran out,
bawling and howling that he was
burnt. As soon as the other Urisks
heard this, they ran down the
ravine to him and asked him who
burned him. He answered Myself
and Myself burnt him.
“Oh, if it was you that burnt
yourself, there is nothing that can
be done; but if anyone else did it,
we would have burned him and
everything in his cabin.
My Edited Version of the
Original Gaelic Text:
Ann an Gleann-Màilidh an
Lochabar, tha eas ùigeil ris an abrar
an t-Eas Buidhe. Anns as eas so
bha e air a ràdh gu’n robh na
h-Uruisgean ag gabhail fasgaidh;
agus b’ann làimh ris a bha bothain-
àiridhe cuid de thuath a’ghlinne
suidhichte.
Bha aon de na h-Uruisgean,
“Uruisg an Eas’-Bhuidhe
’Na shuidhe ’n Gleann-Màilidh.”
ro dhraghail do thé de na bana-
raichean a bha anns na bothain-
àriadhe làimh ris an eas. Cha robh
latha nach tigeadh e stigh do'n
bhothan far an robh i; agus nach
cuireadh e seachad an ùine na
shuidhe mu'n teine, a' h-obair.
Dh'fhàs i sgìth dheth, ach cha robh
fhios aice cia mar a ghràinicheadh
i e gun chorruich nan Uruisgean
chlaoidheadh a foidhidinn cho
buileach leis is gun do chuir i roimpe
a bhi cuidhte is e, ciod air bith a
thachradh.
Air latha àraid a bha e 'na ghurrach
mu'n teine mar b' àbhaist, dh'feòraich
e am measg a cheisdean, c'ainm a bha
oirre.Fhreagair i gun robh: "Mi fhéin
is Mi fhéin. "Is iongantach an t-ainm
sin," ars esan. "Coma co dhiùbh, is e
sin a tha orm."
Bha poit mhèig air an teine, agus
an uair a chaidh i g'a toirt dheth, bha
esan 'san rathad oirre, mar bu ghnàth
leis. Bhrosnaich so i cho mór is gu'n
do leig i d'a deòin le taom de'n mhèag
ghoileach tuiteam m'a chasan, agus a
sgaldadh. Leum e gu grad o a àite-
suidhe, agus ruith e mach a' burra-
laich agus ag glaodhaich gun do
loisgeadh e. Cho luath is a chuala na
h-Uruisgean eile so, ruith iad a nìos
as an eas 'na choinneamh, agus
dh'fheòraich iad cò a loisg e. Fhreagair
e gun do loisg thu, chan eil comas air;
ach, na'm b'e aon air bith eile a rinn e,
loisgeamaid e fhéin agus na tha sna
bothain-àraidhe leis.
What is the meaning of this story?
The little bit of poetry quoted at the
beginning of this story, has a lot of
meaning though it would probably
mean nothing to a modern reader.
What it refers to is the a once
commonly known behaviour of
Urisk-like creatures. That is: sitting
and observing things from a high
vantage point, probably scanning
the landscape for game. I have read
more that one account of people
coming across Bigfoot doing this
exact thing. This explains a lot of
mysterious names you might hear
like: Arthur's Seat or The Brownie's
Chair, which obviously refer to a
place where one of these legendary
creatures was known to and seen to
be looking out on the landscape
below. (Brownies are Urisks,
though Brownies are often des-
cribed as household goblins, I will
discuss this misapprehension in
the future in this blog, when I
discuss further Brownies). These
creatures appear to have no con-
cern about being seen from a
distance, and seem to have a good
gauge of how good human vision
is. Due to our visual limitations
there will always remain a doubt
by many about whether what they
are seeing at that distance is
human, that they seem to be aware
of.
This story clearly has the same
roots as the story of Odysseus and
Polyphemus. After Odysseus
blinds the one-eyed cyclops
Polyphemus, he called to the
other cyclops, and when they asked
him who blinded him, he said:
"Nobody", which was what
Odysseus told him was his name
earlier. Usually, to explain this re-
semblances of this sort experts will
claim that someone read the Odys-
sey to some Highlanders and they
adsorbed into their folktales
(newspapers and books were read
aloud sometimes at gatherings of
Gaels in the past when reading
skills and materials were rare).
Gaels when reading skills and
materials were rare). The sim-
ilarities of the two stories is due
to the both of them both being
based on a common and ancient
folklore beliefs.
What we can learn from the
stories equation of Urisks with
Cyclops is first of all that both
were "giants". We come across
giants often in Gaelic folktales,
we should remember that this is
what a giant is, a monster, and
not simply a large human. The
height of giants we can rest as-
sured is the same as what we
hear in descriptions of our
contemporary hairy giant,
Bigfoot, 7 to 9 feet tall roughly.
If the Cyclops and Urisk are the
same being, we can dismiss the
idea of it being one-eyed as
purely symbolic. One-eyedness
constantly appears in Gaelic
folktales and has great symbolic
meaning (that one is or has be-
come inhuman).
In this story, the Urisk is por-
trayed not as a monster, but as
annoying neighbour, a very com-
mon type in remote places where
people are lonely or bored and
visit too long. This visitor would
typically be an older person, but
the Urisk is portrayed as a child,
only a juvenile Urisk would be
able to fit inside should a dwelling.
Though grossly humanized, the
Urisk still exhibits one key
moster trait: the repeating and
calling out of a human's name,
or in this case, what he assumes to
be a human's name. We have seen
in other stories previously ex-
amined in this blog where a Urisk
repeats word and calls names. It
is dangerous to let a Urisk, or any
similar monster, to know your
name, and the heroine of this story
saves her life by not revealing
her name to the Urisk when asked.
Of course, these beings are not
able to talk to humans in a hu-
man language, that is an invention
of storytellers, they are only able
to mimic what they hear. The
danger is letting them know your
name, is that they might use this
knowledge later to lure you into
danger. There is a folk knowledge
that it is dangerous to let them
know, but in this story the reason
is forgotten or is being obfuscated.
The revenge of the Urisks is sug-
gested to be arson, which is ridic-
ulous, as these creatures have no
use for fire-making, they are to-
tally adapted to outdoor life, and
fire-making would not help them
but serve to give away their pre-
sence. The Urisks are being por-
trayed as simply violent humans.
The true nature of Urisks is
obfuscated as it would ruin
the mocking picture constructed
of Urisk as figures of fun. This
is due to the Scots being Christ-
ians seeking to leave behind
beliefs in these monsters and
former gods. The Cyclops in
his story in the Odyssey, is not
a figure of fun, though he is
tricked by Odysseus. He is
still a fearful and powerful
being as the Greeks were still
pagans, and the Cyclops, even
though a representation of the
divine that had fallen out of
favour by then, was still af-
forded some respect.
© C.A. MacLennan 2025
