In Scottish folklore, the lavellan, làbh-allan, la-mhalan or la-bhallan is a rodent- or lizard-like creature with a venomous bite.[1][2] It reportedly lives in bodies of water.[3] It features in tales from both Sutherland and Caithness.[4]
The lavellan was described in Robert Sibbald's Scotia Illustrata as "an animal common in Caithness, it stays in water, it has a head similar to the weasel, and is a beast of the same colouring. The breath from these beasts does harm."[5] In the settlement of Ausdale, Thomas Pennant asked the local people about the lavellan: they believed that the lavellan was particularly harmful to cattle; they also believed that sick cattle could be cured by giving them water in which the skinned hide of a lavellan had been dipped in.[6] Pennant believed that the mythical lavellan was truly a water shrew (neomys fodiens). According to Dr Lee Raye, Pennant's view is now generally accepted as accurate.[5]
In literature, the lavellan was mentioned in a poem by Sutherland poet Rob Donn: "Let him not go away from the houses, to moss or wood, lest the Lavellan come and smite him."[7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ Shute, Joe (11 April 2024). Stowaway: The Disreputable Exploits of the Rat – A NEW SCIENTIST NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-3994-0254-5.
- ↑ Redfern, Nicholas (2016). Nessie : exploring the supernatural origins of the Loch Ness Monster. Internet Archive. Woodbury, Minnesota : Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 978-0-7387-4710-1.
- ↑ Richard Holland (17 April 2015). Legends & Folklore Scotland. Internet Archive. Bradwell Books. ISBN 978-1-909914-98-8.
- ↑ Crofton, Ian (5 November 2012). A Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable. Birlinn. ISBN 978-0-85790-637-3.
- 1 2 Raye, Lee (20 September 2018). "Robert Sibbald's Scotia Illustrata (1684): A faunal baseline for Britain". Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science. 72 (3): 383–405. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2017.0042. ISSN 0035-9149.
- ↑ Campbell, John Gregorson (1900). Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. J. MacLehose and sons.
- ↑ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, by John Gregorson Campbell". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 31 May 2026.
 | This article relating to a Celtic myth or legend is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
 | This Scotland-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |