Atrow (/traʊ/,[a] alsotrowe,drow, ordtrow) is a malignant or mischievousfairy or spirit in thefolkloric traditions of theOrkney andShetland islands. Trows may be regarded as monstrous giants at times, or quite the opposite, short-statured fairies dressed in grey.
Trows are nocturnal creatures, like thetroll of Scandinavian legend with which the trow shares many similarities. They venture out of their 'trowie knowes' (earthen mound dwellings) solely in the evening, and often enter households as the inhabitants sleep. Trows traditionally have a fondness for music, and folktales tell of their habit of kidnapping musicians or luring them to their dens.
The formdrow derives from an unrecordedNorn: *drau (or thereof), fromOld Norse:draugr, an old word forrevenant,devil,troll, and thereof.[2][b] Similar development also appear inNorwegian:drau (1729)[6] →drauv,drøv,drov,[7][8] as well as inScanian:dråe,drå,dro.[9]
The formtrow is thought to stem fromL-vocalization oftroll ("troll"), and then intermixing withdrow via linguistic and figurative convergence.[10]
Thetrow is also calleddrow under its variant spelling in theInsular dialects of Scots;[16] the "drow" being mentioned byWalter Scott.[c][17] However, the term "drow" could also be used in the sense of "thedevil" in Orkney,[16][19] a motif also found inScanian descendants ofdraugr, and thereof.[9]
Asdrow is not a Norse language spelling, linguistJakob Jakobsen proposed it was taken from the common (Scots) term "trow" altered todrow by assimilation with a Norn descendant ofOld Norsedraugr[18] (cf.Norwegian:drau, 1729).[6] The reconstructed Shetland word would be *drog if it did descend from Old Norsedraugr, but this is unattested, nor was it adopted into theNynorn vocabulary to supersede the known form.[20]
Hogboon orhogboy are partial synonyms totrow inOrcadian and Northern Scotland.[13] The words stem fromOld Norse:haugbúi (definitehaugbúinn →hogboon), "mound dweller", originally referring to "the dead living within its mound (tumulus)", akin to revenants likedraugrs, but evolved along the lines of the "hidden-folk/mound-folk" (Faroese:huldufólk,Norwegian:huldrefolk), to refer to supernatural critters living underground, likewights,nissar,brownies, and thereof, in descendant forms.[11][13][12][14]
Hjogfinni ("mound found") is theShetlandic analog tohogboon, deriving from similar etymology, initially meaning "something found in a tumulus".[12]
An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland (1928) gives the definition: "a strange, odd-looking object or person; an odd, dwarfish being; brownie."[12]
It was consideredtaboo to speak about trows.[d] It was also considered unlucky to catch sight of a trow, though auspicious to hear one speaking.[22]
Their portrayed appearance can vary greatly: in some telling gigantic and even multi-headed, as are some giants in English lore;[23] else small or human-sized, like ordinary fairies, but dressed in grey.[24]
Trows consist of two kinds, the hill-trows (land trows) and sea-trows,[25] and the two kinds are said to be mortal enemies.[26]
Of the hill-dwelling types, it is said they can only appear out of their dwellings ("knowes"=knolls; "trowie knowes") after sunset, and if they miss the opportunity to return before sunrise, they do not perish but must await above ground and bide his time until "the Glüder (the sun) disappears again".[27]
The trows are fond of music and constantly play thefiddle themselves.[22] Sometimes a human learns such tunes, and there are traditional tunes purported to have been learned from the supernatural creatures (cf.§Trowie tunes below).
Tales are also told of human fiddlers being abducted by trows to their mounds, and although released after what seems a brief stay, many long years have elapsed in the outside world, and the victim turns to dust,[28][29] or chooses to die.[32]
There are varying descriptions concerning the sea-trow.
An early account is that of the trow (Latin:Troicis →Trowis)[e] ofStronsay, as described by Jo. Ben (i.e., John or Joseph Ben)'s[f]Description of the Orkney Islands (1529); it was a maritime monster resembling acolt whose entire body was cloaked in seaweed, with a coiled or matted coat of hair, sexual organs like a horse's, and known to engage insexual intercourse[g] with the women of the island.[35][39]
The sea-trow of Orkney is "the ugliest imaginable" according toW. Traill Dennison, who says that it has been represented as a scaly creature with matted hair,[40] having monkey-like face and sloping head. It was said to be frail-bodied with disproportionately huge sets of limbs, disc-shaped feet ("round as a millstone") with webbings on their hands and feet, causing them to move with a lumbering and "wabbling" slow gait.[26][41]
However, in Shetland, "da mokkl sea-trow", a great evil spirit that dwelled in the depths,[43][42] was said to take on the shape of a woman, at least in some instances.[45]
It is blamed for awaiting in the depths and stealing from the fish caught on fishermen's lines,[26] and otherwise feared for causing storms or causing ill luck to fishermen.[42] In the form of the wailing woman, she portends some misfortune befalling the witness/audience.[42]
According toSamuel Hibbert the sea-trow was a local version of theneckar, and he specified that it was reputed to be decked with various stuff from out of the sea, especiallyfuci (Fucus spp. of seaweed),[46] whose larger forms near shore are known as "tang" in Shetland.[47][48] And though Hibbert does not make the connection, E. Marwick equated the sea-trow with the "tangy", as already noted.[49]
Most mounds in Orkney are associated with "mound-dweller[s]" (hogboon;Old Norse:haugbúinn;Norwegian:haugbonde) living inside them,[50] and though local lore does always specify, the dweller is commonly the trow.[51]
A reputedly trow-haunted mound may not in fact be a burial mound. The Long Howe inTankerness, aglacial mound, was believed to contain trows, and thus avoided after dark.[52] A group of mounds around Trowie Glen inHoy are also geological formations, but feared for its trows throughout the valley,[53] and also unapproached after dark.[54]
Thestone circle onFetlar has been dubbed theHaltadans (meaning ‘Limping Dance’) since according to legend, they represent a group of petrified music-loving trows who were so engrossed by dancing to the trowie fiddler's tunes that they failed to hide before dawn's break.[55]
On the mainland inCanisbay, Caithness is a "Mire of Trowskerry" associated with trows.[1]
Some Shetlandfiddle tunes are said to have come to human fiddlers when they heard the trows playing, and are known as "Trowie Tunes".[55][56][57] A selection is offered in the anthologyDa Mirrie Dancers (1985).[58]
"Da Trøila Knowe" ('The Knoll of the Trolls') is one example.[59] "Da Trowie Burn" is also an alleged trowie tune, though its composition is attributed to Friedemann Stickle.[60] This apparent contradiction is resolved in the case of "Da Trow's Reel", which was allegedly a tune that another man reputedly obtained from a trow, and he had whistled the tune over to Stickle on a different boat for him to set down the score.[59] "Da Peerie Hoose in under da Hill" ('The Little House under the Hill') is yet another trowie tune as well.[55]
A Kunal-Trow (or King-Trow) is a type of trow in the lore of Unst, Shetland. The Kunal-Trow is alleged to be a race without females, and said to wander after dark and sometimes found weeping due to the lack of companionship. But they do take human wife, once in their lives, and she invariably dies after giving birth to a son. The Kunal-Trow would subsequently require the service of a human wet-nurse, and may abduct a midwife for this purpose.[61][62]
They are said to consume earth formed into shapes of fish and fowl, even babies, which taste and smell like the real thing.[61]
One (a King-Trow) famously haunted abroch ruin. Another married a witch who extracted all the trow's secrets, and gave birth to Ganfer (astral body) and Finis (an apparition who appears in the guise of someone whose death is imminent), yet she has cheated death with her arts.[61]
Ben's sea-trow (trowis) bore resemblance to the anciently knownincubus, as it "seems to have occupied the visions of the female sex", as noted byJohn Graham Dalyell (1835).[33]
The learning of music from fairies is recognized as a recurring theme in Scandinavian and Celtic folklore. Examples in Irish tradition relate how alutharachán (dialect form ofleprechaun) orpúca teaches tunes,[63] like the Shetlandic trow who lets his music be heard from his fairy mound or otherwise; such tales classifiable as Migratory Legends "Type 4091, Music Taught by Fairie (Fiddle on the Wall)" underBo Almqvist's modified system[64][i]
The tale of a fiddler being taken to a fairy mound by fairies or trows is known by several versions in Shetland, but has also been collected from Orkney and the Scottish mainland (Inverness), and the group is assigned "F24. Fiddler Enlisted to Play for Fairy Dancers" under Alan Bruford's provisional classification scheme.[28]
Book author Joan Dey (1991) speculates that the tradition concerning the trows[j] may be based in part on theNorse invasions of theNorthern Isles. She states that the conquest by theVikings sent the indigenous, dark-hairedPicts into hiding and that "many stories exist in Shetland of these strange people, smaller and darker than the tall, blond Vikings who, having been driven off their land into sea-caves, emerged at night to steal from the new land owners".[66][k]
Shetland folklore spoke of the presence of the Pechs (mythologized version of the Picts) inside the fairy knolls ("trowie knowe"), who could be heard clinking their tools on silver and gold.Saxby (1932), pp. 89, 186
^Australian female writerHenry Handel Richardson (aka Ethel F. L. Robertson) in her uncredited 1896 translation ofBjørnstjerne Bjørnson'sFiskerjenten (tr.The Fisher Lass) rendered the Norwegiandraug as "bogies", and defended this to her critical reviewer by noting ONdraugr and Scots "drow" as the word's cognates.[3] In her letter (writing as Miss Robertson) toAthenaeum, she gives herself credit, as translator of theFisher Lass.[4] Cf. her chronology of year 1896.[5]
^Scott (1835)Demonology, p. 122: "Possession of supernatural wisdom is still imputed by the natives ofOrkney andZetland Islands, to the people called Drows, who may, in most other respects, be identified with theCaledonian fairies".[16]
^Briggs's entry on "trows" explains that a special exemption to the taboo was extended to ShetlanderJessie M. E. Saxby who, as the ninth child of a ninth child, was able to learn the lore.[21]
^Ben's "trowis" is mentioned byDalyell in 1835,[33] but read as "Troicis" and recognized as "trow" bySamuel Hibbert (1822).[34] The word was later also misread or misprinted asTroicis in MacFarlane & Mitchell edd. (1908),[35] though emended back toTrowis against three manuscripts in Calder & MacDonald (1936).[36]
^Jo. being an abbreviation for "John"[37] or "Joseph".[38] He was said to be a non-local itinerant, a Scottish ecclesiastic making a tour of Orkney.[37]
^"... a troop ofpeerie folk came in. A woman took off the nappie from her baby and hung it on Gibbie's leg, near the fire, to dry. Then one of the trows said, "What'll we do ta da sleeper?" "Lat him aleen," replied the woman, "he's no a ill body. Tell Shanko ti gie him a ton." Said Shanko, "A ton he sall hae, an we'll drink hisblaand." After drinking, they trooped out of the mill, and danced on the green nearby ...".
^Reidar Thoralf Christiansen's originalMigratory Legends established "Type 4090, Watersprite Teaches Someone to Play", and included Shetland as having this tale type; so a Shetlandic tale of some water-sprite teaching music is assumed to exist.[65]
^Briggs (1977), p. 413: "others of human size, and .. clothed in grey";Briggs (1977), p. 413 andSaxby (1932), p. 132: "Our Shetland Fairies are.. unlike Lover's Irish 'good people'.. They are small, grey-clad men".
^"The Fiddler o Gord", told by George P. S. Peterson, Brae, Shetland. Recorded by Alan Bruford 1974 (School of Scottish Studies recording SA 1974/204B1). Transcript by Bruford (1977);[30] summarized with excerpt by Hillers (1994).[31]
^abBen, Jo. (1908)."Ben's Orkney". In MacFarlane, Walter; Mitchell, Arthur (eds.).Geographical Collections Relating to Scotland. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: Scottish History Society. pp. 303–304, 315.(in Latin and English)
^Ernest Marwick restates the same physical description, and remarks that the seaweed-covered, monstrously large creature is also known as "tangy" (tangie), in contrast to the Norse merman which is human-sized if not a bit smaller.[25]
^Translated as "the big sea-troll" by Teit, with the reminder that Scotstrow is defined as‘sprite or fairy’, and Teit himself notes:"'trow' 'trou' or 'troll' seems to be applicable to any kind of super-natural being, but particularly to fairies or elves".[42]
^Charlton, Edward, M. D. (1920), Johnston, Alfred Wintle; Johnston, Amy (eds.),"A Visit to Shetland in 1832",Old-lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, vol. 8, London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. 124{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Edward Charlton (historian) remarks that a piece of coral from the deep "which bore a rude though striking resemblance to the human face and figure... was no doubt, regarded with awe by the.. Shetlanders, who would .. believe it to be a petrified mermaid or a great sea-trow converted into cranzie (coral)".[44]
^Muir (1998) and Lee, D. (2010),Roeberry Barrow, Cantick, South Walls, Orkney, with Additional Survey in Hoy. Manuscript, Data Structure Report apudLee (2015), pp. 139–140
^Johnston, Alfred W. (1896), "The' Dwarfie Stone' of Hoy, Orkney",The Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist, new series,2: 100
Dennison, W. Traill (1891),"Orkney Folklore, Sea Myths",The Scottish Antiquary, or, Northern Notes and Queries,5 (20), Edinburgh University Press:167–171,JSTOR25516381, archived from the original on 15 February 2022, retrieved14 February 2022{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Dey, Joan (1991).Out Skerries - an Island Community. Lerwick: The Shetland Times.ISBN0-900662-74-3.
Muir, Tom (1998).The Mermaid Bride and other Orkney Tales. Kirkwall: Orcadian Press.
—— (2003). "The Creatures in the Mound". In Downes, Jane; Ritchie, Anna (eds.).Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the Later Iron Age AD 300-800. Balgabies: Pinkfoot Press.
Shuldham-Shaw, Patrick (December 1962), "A Shetland Fiddler and His Repertoire John Stickle, 1875-1957",Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society,9 (3):129–147,JSTOR4521648
Stewart, John; Moar, Peter (1951),Tait, E. S. Reid (ed.), "When the Trows Danced",Shetland Folk Book, vol. 2, Shetland Folk Society, pp. 17–25
