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
294-297. 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. I have
cleared up the spelling and punctuation
of the Gaelic version as I have seen
fit.
My English Translation:
An Urisk was living once in a mountain
at the foot of Sgurr-a-Chaorainn in
Lochaber. This Urisk, was apparently
very annoying to the shepherd of Blar-
a-Caorainn, and when he happened to
be going by the Sgurra, there wasn’t an
evening that he would go past it, that the
Urisk wouldn’t stick his head out of a
hole in the face of the mountain and yell
after him:
“Loser, son of a loser, son of a loser!
That three losers: you’re a loser, and your
Father’s a loser and your son will be a
Loser, and his son will be a loser, and
You’ll all be losers, like it or not!”
Then the shepherd of Blar-a-Chaorainn
left, and another guy replaced him, who
his friends called Big Donald.
Donald was in town just a little while
until he got to be as fed up with the the
Urisk as the last shepherd. There wasn’t
an evening that he returned from the
hills, that he didn’t hear called after him:
“I hate you, big Donald!” This greeting
was far from pleasant to dear old Donald,
but he kept his opinion to himself for
as long as he could. Finally, his
patience was completely exhausted by the
Urisk’s abuse and he couldn’t keep it
in any longer.
One evening, as he was returning cold
and hungry from the hills, the Urisk
was shouting after him as usual: “Big
Donald, I hate you!” He turned around
in a rage, and yelled as loud as the Urisk
himself: “The feeling is mutual!” The
Urisk dropped his derision and from then
on, no one else heard his voice.
My Edited Version of the Gaelic Text:
Bha Uruisg a’fuireachd roimhe seo ann
an creig chas aig bun Sgùrr-a’-Chaorainn
an Lochabar. Bha an t-Uruisg seo, a réir
coltais, ro dhraghail do bhuachaille
Bhlàr-a’-chaorainn an uair a thuiteadh
dha a bhi a’ dol rathad a Sgùrra. Cha
robh feasgar a rachadh e seachad
oirre, nach cuireadh an t-Uruisg a
cheann a mach air toll an aodann na
creige, agus nach glaodhadh e na dhèidh:
“Bodach mac bhodaich ’ic bhodaich!
Tha sin de bhodaich a triùir: is bodach
thu fhéin, agus is bodaach d’athair, agus
na bhodach bithidh do mhac, agus
bithidh mac an fhir sin na bhodach, agus
bithidh sibh uile nur bodaich, ìoc air an
achd.”
An uair a dh’fhàg am buachaille so
Blàr-a’-chaorainn, thàinig fear eile na
àite ris an abradh a luchd-eòlais
Domhnull Mór. Cha robh Domhull ach
goirid air a’ bhaile gus an robh e cho
mór air a shàrachadh leis an Uruisg is a
bha am buachaille a dh’fhalbh. Cha robh
feasgar a thilleadh e o’n mhonadh seach
a’ chreag nach glaodhadh e na dhéidh:
“Dhomhnuill Mhóir, cha toigh leam thu.”
Bha an fhàilte so fada o bhi taitneach le
Domhnull còir, ach ghlèidh e a bheachd
dha fhéin cho fada is a b’urrainn e. Mu
dheireadh bha a fhoidhidinn cho glan air
a claoidheadh le sìor-sgallais Uruisg is
nach b’urrainn e cumail air féin na
b’fhade.
Air feasgar àraidh, is e a’tilleadh gu
fuar, ocrach as a’mhonadh, agus an
t-Uruisg ag glaodhaich na dhéidh, mar
b’àbhaist: “Dhomhnuill Mhóir, cha
toigh leam thu,” thionndaidh e air a
shàil ann am feirg, agus ghlaodh e cho
àrd is a rinn an t-Uruisg fhéin: “Chan
eil sin ach comain duit.” Sguir an
t-Urisg d’a sgallais; agus o sin go seo,
cha chualadh a ghuth le duine air bith
eile.
Notes on the Gaelic Text:
In the Urisk’s speech, he constantly
Uses the word “bodach” as an insult.
Bodach usually just means "old man"
in modern Gaelic, but I think in
official documents of the government
of Scotland it is frowned upon and
seen as insulting and does not use it
in official documents, preferring
“seann duine”. I have seen it before
used in relation to “supernatural”
figures. The root of the word “bod”
appears to be “penis", designating it
as something male. There are words
used in English which are below the
belt body-parts, using one of the those
would be acceptable for use as a trans-
lation of this word that I would pre-
fer, but I am trying to keep this blog
clean. In this case it is definitely
being used to disparage the shepherd,
and probably means he is low class
and ignorant. In tales of this period
you will hear characters being
referred to as a “carl” or “clown” in
the same way. Similarly, in English
“villian” has come to mean a bad guy,
when originally it simply meant some
ordinary person from a village. Just
being an simple poor person was
seen as being something disgraceful.
“Chan eil sin ach comain duit”, is
a difficult phrase to translate, and my
translation is very loose, I was just
trying to capture the frustation of
Donald and use a more modern come-
back. A closer translation might be
something like “and that's just like
you”, but it does not carry the same
sting in English.
What is the meaning of this story?:
In this story we see the Urisk acting like
an echo again, repeating a word over
and over again (“bodach”) in an almost
mindless way. The trick of outsmarting
the monster by claiming to be “myself”
is a direct parallel to Odysseus telling
the Cyclops his name was “nobody”
in the Odyssey, and thus avoiding the
wrath of the other Cyclops. This fact
tells us two very important things:
that the Scottish tale is related to the
source material for the ancient Greek
story, and that we should equate Urisks
and Cyclops and cross reference them
to understand both more fully. Interest-
ingly, in this context, MacDoughall
has put his Urisk tales under “Water
Sprites” and the Cyclops, the son of
Poseidon, was classified similarly
a sea-god by Lucan and is described
as hairy (not the common perception
of cyclops, thanks to art. We should
we thinking of cyclops as more like
Bigfoot, and see both the Urisk and
Cyclops as giants, and have a more
realistic idea of how big a “giant”
was traditionally viewed.
Once again, an encounter with an
Urisk is depicted in a humourous way,
which it seems very unlikely to have
been the case. Remember from the
previous tale discussed, and what is
known of Cyclops, that these are crea-
ture that eats humans. Knowing this,
an Urisk calling out your name to you
every day on your way home sounds
more horrific than comical. However,
it was in the tradition of this era of
folktale-telling to mock and dismiss
these beings regardless of previsous
knowledge of them, the Urisk is
humanized and mocked as if it was
just an annoying and stupid person
being annoying for no reason.
What is more likely to have scared
the Urisk off is being seen when
Donald Mor whirls around on his
heel (think of videos where Bigfoot
flees a camera), than any particular
thing that Donald Mor would have
said. The theme of “supernatural”
creatures disappearing after the being
acknowledged is pervasive in folk
and fairy tales: the leprechaun that
disappears when you take your
eye off him, the brownies that are
never seen again after you give
them clothes (as in Grimm's The
Elves and the Shoemaker).
© C.A. MacLennan 2025
