Hello!

Today I decided to create a story based on the traditional territory of my family’s clan in the Scottish Highlands that follows the young boy Gweyn (my Gaelic name!) as he embarks on an epic journey with his companion, the Cailpeach (or Kelpi). In Scottish folk tales the Kelpi is actually pretty awful. It was generally used as a deterrence to keep young kids from playing in the ocean. It possesses the features of both a colt and a shark, and possesses the ability to shape-shift. The story is that once you touch its mane, you are fused to the Kelpi, and it would drag you to the bottom of the ocean.

I know it’s pretty dark, but there is always one story (among the many) that depicts beings like the cailpeach, or the sidh, or any other otherworldly being as actually being an ancestor of the celts, and thereby, kin to all Scots. So, for this story I figured it’d be a nice change to depict the cailpeach as a companion rather than an enemy that sees greatness in the lad and imparts knowledge from the otherworld to him.

There isn’t much history here, but I’ve always enjoyed reading about the Jacobitism in Scotland between 1680-1750. Which is also a time where many were leaning on old knowledges and depending on the deeply seated relationships with the earth that the highlander’s possessed in order to survive Britain’s imperial army.

Anyway, here’s the link: https://www.dundoc.com/project/10736/ao1upx95yn