Shellycoat

The Shellycoat is a Scottish water spirit that often draws unwary hikers to their wet death. He wears a shell dress and is described as extremely pretty. The name of these creatures is derived from this fact (Eng. Shell "mussel", coat "coat"). The clatter of the shells reveals their presence to the attentive hiker. In Welsh they are called Gwragedd Annwn .

For the shellycoat it is great fun to lure people to its source and to scare them there, which is why it is counted among the bogeymen .

In his book German Mythology , Jacob Grimm describes the shellycoat as an equivalent of the Germanic bell skirt .

Shelly coats play a major role in the book series Mondsilber by Marah Woolf .

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• Bob Froud, Allen Lee: Elves, Goblins, Haunted Figures. ISBN 3-8289-4909-6 .
• Bob Curran: Little Handbook of the Irish Elves. ISBN 3-8289-8115-1 .