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Mythic Animals

Manx Water Bull (Tarroo-Ushtey)

Tarroo-Ushtey, the water bull, is a troublesome beast (or shapeshifter) long believed to exist on the Isle of Man. Accounts of the bull describe him as having large, glowing eyes; a ferocious bellow; and the ability to disappear into water.

From Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe

 

High on the parapet, Cliodhna stood with outstretched arms. The ground shook when something huge and heavy struck the rocky cliff outside Peel Castle. Maggie and Tessa reached the wall, ducked down and covered their heads with their arms before the something soared overhead, landing with a rumbling quake on the castle’s plain.

 

It looked like a creature from the Ice Age. Enormous, horned, and angry, a translucent bull made of water thundered across the green, terrifying everyone before it.

 

 

Sidhe Hounds

In Welsh Legend--

Prince Pwyll of Dyfed, meets white, red-eared hounds chasing a stag. Gwyn ap Nudd, lord of Annwn (the underworld) keeps a pack of snow-white, red-eared supernatural hounds called the Cŵn Annwn (Hounds of Annwn).

 

In Irish Legend--

Fionn MacCumhail (Finn McCool) kept five hounds called Bran, Sceolan, Lomaire, Brod and Lomluath. Bran and Sceolan were Fionn’s cousins, human children turned into white, red-eared hounds of the Sidhe. When Fionn's son, Oisin, goes to Tír na nÓg with the Sidhe woman Niamh, Oisin sees pure white, red-eared hounds as Aonbharr strides over the waves.

Aonbharr, Steed of

Manannan mac Lir

From Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe

 

…the dog who guarded the sheep of late—a rangy, lean creature with a white coat and pointed, red-furred ears—sprang up from rough turf to lope toward her. His coloring marked him as a fairy hound who would bring bad luck, or so her neighbors would say. Brigid found him useful, so she fed him and let him stay. She called him Cu, meaning dog in the old tongue.

 

 

Manannan’s mount and warhorse, the white mare Aonbharr, could travel over land or sea. Aonbharr later carried Lugh after he became king of the Tuatha dé Danann.

 

Warhorses were often female because they would not be distracted by the scent of a mare in heat, as might geldings or stallions.

 

Aonbharr (pronounced EEN-var) may mean “one mane”, “froth", “unique supremacy” or “imagination”.

 

From Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe

 

Tessa couldn’t drag her gaze away from the battle on the far shore. She sucked in her breath when the horse changed gait, running full out at the Ould Warriors.

 

The pair jumped apart, but the one on the right threw his spear. Aonbharr hopped left to dodge the spear, slamming her haunch into the attacker on her other side. He went down to be trampled by her back hooves. Sam threw alcohol in the spear thrower’s face, then backhanded him with the bottle. The mead-spattered warrior dropped his weapon, to stagger, hands clutching face.

 

Aonbharr swung her hindquarters to the right and kicked out high, smacking the warrior’s chin with her hoof’s front edge. What was left of the attacker’s face split. Sam skewered him with the spear. Jerking the spear loose and twisting to the other side, Sam stared down at the trampled warrior. Finishing this one, he sat back and stroked Aonbharr’s neck.

 

 

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