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The 'Famh': Scottish Monster?

gyrtrash

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I came across a mention of a creature called the 'Famh' recently.

It was described as an 'evil and ugly monster known as the famh (gaelic for mole)' and reputedly haunts the Cairngorms around Glen Avin. It posesses a head 'twice the size of it's body' (!) and legend says that to cross it's path before sun-up will result in your untimely death!

Intriguing! :)

Has anyone ever heard of this?

Anyone ever seen it?!:eek!!!!:


C'mon all you Scottish Forteans, what strange beasties are you hiding up in them thar hills?! :D
 
I have heard of this before....

Don't know where though. I'll try a few books when I get home tonight.
 
No success I'm afraid. Affleck Gray is the 'expert' on Cairngorm myths and legends (he wrote the definitive book on the Fear liath Mhor http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/026-9319547-4101221) but find any mention of the Famh in those books of his that I have, nor in anything by Seton Gordon (basically a naturalist/hillwalker but with a surprising number of Fortean tales in his many books, most written pre-WWII).

But I have definitely read about it before somewhere....
 
Loch Avon (pronounced A'an,) in the Cairngorms had a Kelpie legend attached to it. It lies at a height of about 2500 feet between Cairngorm and Ben Macdhui ( the haunt of An Fealich Mhor or the big grey man.) although I have heard of the Fahm before i don't know of any legends specifically attched to the Cairngorms. I grew up in the area but don't recall any connection.

The story about meeting it leading to an untimley death i am sure i have heard in connection with the Big Grey Man - which one of my fathers freinds saw back in the 40's - but i cannot remember where.
 
I was just guessing.

I was under the impression that the afanc was similar to some kind of monstrous beaver!

Trace Mann
 
ZPumpkinEscobar said:
I was under the impression that the afanc was similar to some kind of monstrous beaver!

Trace Mann

THAT I'd like to see! :heh:
 
Egan said:
... although I have heard of the Fahm before i don't know of any legends specifically attched to the Cairngorms. I grew up in the area but don't recall any connection.

Cheers, Egan! So you've heard of it inhabiting a different area?

Can you recall any details?
 
I'm not sure, but something makes me think i heard about it in connecton with The Rothiemurcus area at the foot of the cairngorms. I had a book, years ago, which was full of stories and folktales collected from the central highlands and it may have been in there. Aside from this, nope, my memory fails me.

The difficulty is that i grew up about five miles from Cairmgorm and have walked in the mountains and forests of the area many. many times. Since i wee i have listened to a lot of stories and sometimes they all sort of run together in my head:). There is a lot of weird stuff up there.

Hey Prospect, was it Seton Gordon who wrote about the Mermaid Grave in the village of Nunteon in the hebridies? Seton Gordon is great - i have had to read a fair bit of his stuff just now as research for an article i'm trying to write.
 
You could also try the books of Ronald Macdonald Robertson who collated a lot of folk tales and strange stories back in the fifties. I think they are out of print now, though. He focussed on the Highlands so you may get something there. I'll have to see if i can find out what the books were called later on when i rake out my stuff. I'll keep you posted.
 
Egan said:
Hey Prospect, was it Seton Gordon who wrote about the Mermaid Grave in the village of Nunteon in the hebridies? Seton Gordon is great - i have had to read a fair bit of his stuff just now as research for an article i'm trying to write.

Don't think I've come across that story, but it might well be in one of his books that I haven't read.

Originally posted by ZPumpkinEscobar
I was under the impression that the afanc was similar to some kind of monstrous beaver!


I've read that explanation too.
 
So, while reading Scottish Fairy Belief by Lizanne Henderson and Edwin J. Cohen, I encountered the following passage:


A visit to remote Loch Avon in the heart of the Cairngorms, The 'summer haunt of innumerable tribes of fairies', inspired the ninth bard's song in [James Hogg's] The Queen's Wake. He collected stories of the dreadful fahm, A troll-like mountain creature whose head was twice the size of its body. To cross its tracks before the sun shone on it was fatal, the victim's head swelling until it burst, an affliction the learned shepherd observed, which actually affected sheep, a condition he knew about as the author of a practical tract on sheep diseases.


Intrigued, I did a Google search, and the only match was this old thread on my favourite online hangout. So it seems perhaps the works of James Hogg might prove a source of information about the terrible fahm. Just in case anyone is still interested or perhaps gyrtrash is still watching.
 
So, while reading Scottish Fairy Belief by Lizanne Henderson and Edwin J. Cohen, I encountered the following passage:


A visit to remote Loch Avon in the heart of the Cairngorms, The 'summer haunt of innumerable tribes of fairies', inspired the ninth bard's song in [James Hogg's] The Queen's Wake. He collected stories of the dreadful fahm, A troll-like mountain creature whose head was twice the size of its body. To cross its tracks before the sun shone on it was fatal, the victim's head swelling until it burst, an affliction the learned shepherd observed, which actually affected sheep, a condition he knew about as the author of a practical tract on sheep diseases.


Intrigued, I did a Google search, and the only match was this old thread on my favourite online hangout. So it seems perhaps the works of James Hogg might prove a source of information about the terrible fahm. Just in case anyone is still interested or perhaps gyrtrash is still watching.

I'm sure I've heard the thing about the path/sunlight etc before.
 
... So it seems perhaps the works of James Hogg might prove a source of information about the terrible fahm. Just in case anyone is still interested or perhaps gyrtrash is still watching.

I cannot locate any reference to Fahm that pre-dates Hogg's The Queen's Wake. The subject of Fahm appears both directly (in describing the imp / troll / being) and indirectly (in claiming a deformed and eventually knavish servant is aptly named Fahm).

I found the most focused discussion of Hogg's allusions to Fahm in a 1996 thesis:

The Construction of Scottishness in James Hogg's The Queen's Wake
A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University
Bronwyn Ellen Shanks

... accessible as a PDF file at:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...&isAllowed=y&usg=AOvVaw1wihtGshfiRWo5fCmmeb9J

Shanks quotes the following annotation from The Queen's Wake, which is apparently Hogg's complete description of the entity:

In his annotations Hogg provides a description of this legendary creature: "Fahm is a little ugly
monster, who frequents the summits of the mountains around Glen-Avin, and no other place in the
world that I know of. My guide, D. M'Queen, declared that he had himself seen him and by his
description, Fahm appears to be no native of this world, but an occasional visitant, whose intentions are
evil and dangerous. He is only seen about the break of day, and on the highest verge of the mountain.
His head is as large as his whole body beside; and if any living creature cross the track over which he
has passed before the sun shine upon it, certain death is the consequence. The head of that person or
animal instantly begins to swell, grows to an immense size, and finally bursts. Such a disease is really
incident to the sheep on those heights, and in several parts of the kingdom, where the grounds are
elevated to a great height above the sea; but in no place save Glen-Avin is the Fahm blamed for it" (QW
pp.174 -5).

(Shanks, p. 30)
 
Seeing as how Hogg's best known work is one of the earliest horror novels, I wouldn't put it past him to invent a monster or two.
 
It struck me, too, that the name 'Fahm' (if not the creature so named ... ) may have originated with Hogg.

Here's why ...

One cannot help but note the similarity between 'Fahm' and the Norwegian / Swedish curse words 'faen' / 'fan' (respectively). These are archaic words for the devil or 'the evil one', employed to this day as all-purpose heavy-duty curses. The Swedish version 'fan' is pronounced 'fahn'.

This possible Scandinavian connection is reinforced by Hogg's "... combining Scandinavian legend with Scottish beliefs." (Shanks, p. 29)

Shanks even notes additional evidence for Hogg's self-ascribed resonance with Scandinavia:

Hogg may have felt some affinity with Scandinavian legend, due to a distant ancestor: "The unpoetic name, Hogg, which he was always better pleased to exchange for that of the 'Ettrick Shepherd,' is said to have been derived from a far-away ancestor-a pirate, or a sea-king-'one Haug of Norway'"

(Shanks, p. 29, quoting from Hall, S. C. A Book of Memories of Great Men and Women of the Age,from Personal Acquaintance. London: Virtue, 1877.)
 
http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/highlands/Highdata.php

Famh
na.gif

Location: Cairngorn Mountain Range - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This author isn't sure if this isn't a joke, but... the Famh is said to be some kind of dog / mole hybrid (or a dole!), which possesses a vicious set of teeth and a disproportionately sized mouth. It lurks in the mountain range, shying away from human contact. The area is also haunted by a piper, who is seen standing on the tallest peaks, and is heard playing at night.
 
I did some more rummaging around using the originally-specified spelling 'famh', and I found another clue ...

There's an entry for 'famh' in Joseph Wright's The English Dialect Dictionary - published in 6 volumes between 1898 and 1905:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_Dialect_Dictionary

This should have appeared in Volume 2 (D-G), published in 1900.

Famh-Def-2.jpg
At face value, it would appear the concept of the monster derived from a (possibly embellished) description of an actual animal.

Because this dictionary's publication was decades later than The Queen's Wake, it remains an open question whether the 'transfer' to denote a monster pre-dated Hogg versus being something attributable to Hogg himself.

The allusions to the creature's morning movements and laying down something that has toxic effect reflect some aspects of the monster's description.

SOURCE: https://books.google.com/books?id=U...v=onepage&q=famh scotland OR scottish&f=false
 
I found another peripheral set of clues in Carmina Gadelica (Watson & Matheson, 1900). This description seems to associate toxic capabilities to the water mole / shrew exclusively. It also mentions the use of terminological variants to denote a giant who lives below ground.

Famh-Watson-A.jpg


 
Another correlation between known mammals and the folkloric famh / fahm concerns the bit about poisoning grass. Both water shrews and moles have toxic saliva.
 
As suggested earlier, certain characteristics of the folkloric monster seem to trace back to a semi-aquatic animal.

And

Another correlation between known mammals and the folkloric famh / fahm concerns the bit about poisoning grass. Both water shrews and moles have toxic saliva.

This reminds me of a series of reports from near the little town of Rhayader on BBC Wales back in the 80's/90's. When something with a venomous bite was reportedly killing local sheep or cattle. There were as I recall on the spot reports and ran for a few nights as a sort of 'and finally' type item. This story has been discussed here a few times, but I can't find a link, in the version here it was supposedly linked to the local river. Although I don't recall that detail from the time.
 
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