Noggle

The Noggle is a playful creature from the British isles that may look like a horse but it’s not one.

Those who have seen one say it looks like a little gray mare, saddle and everything, but if you dare mount it, the Noggle dashes into the water where it turns into a burning, blue cloud. Much like other horse-like creatures from Norther Europe—i.e., Nukyr & Shopiltee—the Noggle has no problem killing people. Underwater, however, the rear legs transform into a powerful fin.

These creatures are also a mills’ pest, because they keep the mills’ wheels from turning. If such thing happens, and you suspect a Noggle is the cause, the best is to stick a long knife into a hole in the wheel to scare or wound the Noggle. You know you have pierce the beast the moment the wheel starts turning again.

The Noggle who likes to intrude a mill’s mechanism when the grinding is taking place generally does it by taking the shape of a beautiful pony so that it may attract the attention of the miller. Once the Noggle seizes and holds the wheel steady, its natural that the miller goes out to examine the cause of the stoppage. Of course, what the miller will see is a beautiful pony, saddled and bridled, standing and ready to be mounted. If miller neglects warnings about the Noggle—thinking them nothing else but stories aimed at scaring children—and put his foot in the stirrup, his fate is sealed. Off the pony will go, bog or bank won’t arrest its course until in the deep sea it will throw his rider to vanish in a flash of flame.

It is said that Noggles are almost most certainly deceitful rather than courageous. Their sole bent seemed to be to play mischievous pranks on the human race. Much like the Mourioche of Brittany, in Scotland, Noggles liked to frequent footpaths near a loch in the form of a pony to offer their services to any unsuspecting wayfarer who might feel disposed to take advantage of them, in order to facilitate his progress. But no sooner had it felt the weight of his victim on its back, than with lightning speed he would fly into the water, to drown its rider by disappearing in cloudy vapor or blue flame.

Reference

-Black, G.F., 1894. Scottish charms and amulets. Neill and Company (Illustration p. 128).

-Froud, B., 1998. Good Faeries Bad Faeries. Simon and Schuster.