Trow
In the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) a trow is:
“A mischievous sprite or fairy, a supernatural being common in Scandinavian mythology from which it passed into Shetland and Orkney folk-lore”.
[Illustration by Bob Dewar]
They come in various guises and often seem positively dangerous. John Brand mentions their destructive habits in his A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland etc. (1701):
“Sea-Trowes, great rolling Creatures, tumbling in the Waters, which if they come among their nets, they break them, and sometimes takes them away with them”.
According to The Scots Magazine of January 1949 they tend to have nocturnal habits:
“The fern, which is the floral symbol of Shetland, the trows’ homeland. In the autumn, at Hallowmass, folk had seen the ferry-kairds being parted, and the peerie [little] folk, or trows, coming forth on their nightly travels”.
Trowes are firmly established within the local culture and landscape. In June 1996, the Herald reported on an influx of rabbits causing problems in Orkney, with one islander saying:
“We are crying out for a Pied Piper who can vanish the rabbits forever over Fowl Craig or feed them to the trows beneath our North Hill”.
This connection with the landscape was taken up again in the Scotsman in June 2017:
“The rocks have been weathered over the years into curious shapes and have even been identified in Shetland folklore as Trowes who were caught out at daybreak and turned to stone!”.
Bear that in mind the next time you’re appreciating the picturesque scenery.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
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