“Nessie”: An uncannily apt name for a serpentine water-monster
Lloyd D. Graham
The fabled water-monster of Loch Ness has been designated a member of the putative genus
Nessiteras and is referred to affectionately in media reports by the feminine diminutive
“Nessie.” This paper points out that, by pure serendipity, such Nessi- appellations recall the
name of the Slavic nežit of eastern and central Europe and the Latin nessia of western Europe
– the archaic (and predominantly female) parasitic bone-worm which, in Celtic mythology, had
a nasty habit of escaping from its human host, growing to enormous size, and taking up
residence in a local lake or river, from which it would thereafter terrorise the local population
in the manner of an aquatic dragon.
The cryptozoological inhabitant that modern folklore assigns to Scotland’s Loch Ness has
been known since 1933 as the Loch Ness Monster;1 however, since the 1940s, both locals and
journalists have affectionately been abbreviating this rather cumbersome name to “Nessie.”2
The catchy abbreviation has even penetrated the scientific literature,3 sometimes as “the
Nessie.”4 The Gaelic equivalent, an Niseag, is a feminine diminutive,5 and “Nessie” is
similarly taken by most English speakers to be a female nickname.6 The Loch Ness Monster
is often imagined to be serpentine in form, with a long slender neck and one or more humps
protruding above the water;7 a snake-like body would be consistent with recent proposals
(informed by environmental DNA studies) that the monster might be a giant eel.8 In 1975, it
was proposed that the creature – if genuinely unknown to science – be given the scientific
name Nessiteras rhombopteryx,9 “the Ness monster with the diamond fin,”10 in which the
first five letters of the genus name (Nessi-) are identical to those of the popular nickname.
In mythology, there is substantial conceptual overlap between the categories of worm, serpent
and dragon, which in earlier times were often denoted using the same word.11 By astonishing
coincidence, appellations such as “Nessie” and “Nessit-” closely recapitulate the name of a
malevolent worm whose existence enjoyed widespread belief in the ancient and medieval
world: in western Europe, its name was nessia (and cognates thereof), while in central and
eastern Europe, it was nežit (and cognates thereof). Although originally a tiny parasite, Celtic
legend repeatedly envisaged that such a worm might escape from its host and take up
1
Dent (2013).
Editorial (1945).
3
Bauer (2020; 2021).
4
“The Nessie” was proposed as the creature’s common short-form name by Scott & Rines (1975: 466).
5
Campbell & Solomon (1972: 28).
6
Bauer (2020); Fact Monster (2000-17); Visit Scotland (2024). As a human name, “Nessie” is recognised as a
diminutive form of the female name Agnes; Abner (2023).
7
Visit Inverness Loch Ness (n.d.).
8
BBC (2019).
9
Scott & Rines (1975: 466); Wills (2018).
10
Scott & Rines (1975: 466).
11
Cohen (1990: 228-231).
2
1
residence in a nearby lake, where it would grow to enormous size and terrorise the
surrounding district in the same manner as a dragon.
The Mesopotamian head-worm and its European progeny: nessia/nesso and nežit/năjit
In the ancient world, toothache and related afflictions of the head were almost universally
ascribed to infestation by a demonic worm.12 The genesis of the concept probably lies in the
Ancient Near East of the 2nd millennium BCE.13 Since the Akkadian word for worm/maggot
is grammatically feminine,14 English translators have often rendered the worm as a female
entity – a demoness.15 The mythical worm was believed to gnaw holes in teeth and to make
its abode in dental cavities and within the jawbone;16 by extension, it was thought able to
infest bones in general and the head in particular.
Belief in the malevolent worm of antiquity persisted in medieval and early modern Europe,17
where the entity is mentioned in texts from both the Germanic and Slavic regions. The
medieval Latin name for the apocryphal agent (nessia) underpins the main Germanic term
(nesso), while the Old Church Slavonic term (nežit) underpins the entity’s name in Southern
Slavic languages (nežit/nežid). The Slavonic term also underpins the almost identical
Romanian one (năjit), despite Romanian being a Romance language. The etymologies of the
worm’s appellations in the various languages are obscure and contested, and the LatinoGermanic and Slavic terms have only occasionally been compared or considered collectively.
Some scholars presume the terms are linguistic cognates, related either through derivation
from a common root or through lateral exchange as loanwords;18 other scholars disagree, and
consider the words to have independent origins.19
The Western European bone-worm tradition (nessia/nesso)
Given this article’s focus on the folkloric denizen of a Scottish loch, it will be most
instructive for us to focus on the western European nessia tradition; its eastern European
counterpart and Ancient Near Eastern precursor have, in any case, been considered in detail
elsewhere.20 The -a ending of nessia suggests that the gender of the Babylonian worm
remained feminine in the western European tradition.21 As a malady, nessia is almost
certainly identical to the disease that the 5th-century CE physician Marcellus called nescia, an
illness with indeterminate symptoms which seemingly was known to Pliny the Elder (1st
century CE);22 the origins of the Latin word may lie in the Greek ischias-, a term for sciatica,
12
Gerabek (1999).
British Museum (n.d.); Townend (1944: 38); Paulissian (1993: 105-106); Kinnier Wilson (1996: 138); Collins
(1999: 266-267); Boiy (2004: 26 & 38); Reiner (2006: 466, s.v. tūltu, sense 1b); ETANA (2007); Speiser
(2011: 72); Lambert (2013: 400); Foidl (2017); Stol (2018: 754-755); Graham (2020).
14
Graham (2020: 7).
15
E.g., Wilson (1996: 138); Stol (2018: 755). Thus, the prototype disease-worm was both diminutive and
feminine, just like the grammatical form of the names “Nessie” and an Niseag.
16
Gerabek (1999).
17
In some parts of the world, such as Southern Iraq, it remained a popular folk-belief even into the mid-20th
century; Al Hamdani & Wenzel (1966: 60-61); Gerabek (1999: 2).
18
Mansikka (1909: 52-53); Grafenauer (1937: 292); and especially Tsonkova (2015: 93-94), where the
equivalence of Byzantine, Slavic and Western European forms is accepted.
19
Ohrt (1930/1987: col. 437); Timotin (2013: 252, fn. 40); Topčić (2016: 148-149);
20
Graham (2020).
21
Jeselsohn (2018); “Nick” (n.d.).
22
Mansikka (1909: 52-53).
13
2
rheumatism, and bone pain.23 Viljo Mansikka has pointed out that both Grimm and Bartsch
have published oral charms against this illness.24 As it is helpful to examine some medieval
Latino-Germanic charms against nessia, this will be done in the remainder of this section.25
A Tegernsee manuscript contains a 10th-century Latin worm invocation known as the “Three
Angels Charm,”26 in which three angels wander on Mount Sinai, where they meet a harmful
demon called nessia. The angels ask it where it is going; nessia announces its intention of
breaking a person’s bones and sucking out their bone marrow, whereupon the three angels
adjure and constrain it. The term nesia is also found in a 12th-century version of the same
charm in a manuscript from St. Urban’s Abbey, Lucerne.27 The spell is again in Latin, but the
single demon has now multiplied into seven. As before, their intention is “to enter the servant
of God N. in order to trouble his bones, to empty the marrow.”28 The names of the demons are
Nesia, Nagedo, Stechedo, Tropho, [G]iht, Paralisis (paralysis), Caducus morbus (epilepsy).29
Nesia is clearly just a minor variant of nessia. Very similar sets of names are present in
versions of the spell found in other manuscripts from Germanic lands; another 12th-century
example names Nessia, Nagedo, Stechedo, Troppho, Crampho, Gigihte and Paralisis,30 and
two 13th-century manuscripts do likewise.31 The name of each demon has been linked with a
particular ailment, in some cases because it is the name of a disease in Old High German.32
Edina Bozóky correlates them as Nessia: sciatica or arthritis; Nagedo: corrosion; Stechedo:
distressing pain; Troppho: gout (German Tropf); Crampho: cramp; Gigihte: gout; Paralisis:
paralysis.33
Hildegard of Bingen, an 11-12th century German Benedictine abbess, made multiple
references in her medical writings to nessedo (Latin; represented in various grammatical
cases). By this, she apparently meant hip pain or sciatica.34
Reverting to the 9th/10th-century, one finds vernacular spells in Germanic languages which
protect against the nessia-worm without invoking angels. These are known in Southern
German as pro nessia (for nessia) and in Low German as contra vermes (against worms). For
example, a manuscript in Munich35 contains a charm labelled pro nessia whose incantation is
written in Old High German:36
23
Reiner (2014: 253); Topčić (2016: 148).
Mansikka (1909: 52-53).
25
In addition to the types that will be discussed, other categories of Latino-Germanic spells to remedy the
disease-causing worm use different paradigms, such as a reference to Job or reliance upon a historiola in
which the sufferer is a holy person (usually St. Peter); Schulz (2012: Sections 2 & 3); Foidl (2017: Sections
2 & 3). These types have been omitted from consideration because they do not seem to contain nessiarelated terms.
26
Munich, Clm 27152, 53r.
27
Luzern, Zentral und Hochschulbibliothek, P 34 4o, fol. 112v.
28
For the Latin, see online at https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/description/zhl/P0034-4/Bretscher, Contents:
112v.
29
See online at https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/description/zhl/P0034-4/Bretscher, Contents: 112v.
30
Engelberg, Stiftsbibl., cod. 33 [olim 3/2] endpaper.
31
Basel, UB, cod. B V 21, 120v; Zurich, Zentralbibl., Ms. Rh. 67, p. 46 bottom margin. Schulz (2012: Section
1).
32
Kerkhof (2018).
33
Bozóky (2013: 102, fn. 2).
34
Reiner (2014: 253).
35
Munich, BSB, Clm 18524 b, 203v; Foidl (2017b).
36
Braune & Helm (1958: 89); Watkins (1995: 522-523); Kerkhof (2018).
24
3
gang uz, nesso, mit niun nessinchilinon,
uz fonna marge in deo adra, vonna den adrun
in daz fleisk, fonna demu fleiske in daz fel,
fonna demo velle in diz tulli
(Go out, worm, with nine little worms,
from the marrow to the veins, from the veins
to the flesh, from the flesh to the skin,
from the skin to this arrow)
The first line of the same spell in Old Saxon, taken from a 9th/10th-century manuscript in
Vienna,37 reads:38
gang ut, nesso, mil nigon nessiklinon, ut fana
Thus, in both Germanic texts, the worm is addressed as nesso,39 with a diminutive form that
commences with nessi-. The latter, of course, provides a curious parallel to the modern
English diminutive “Nessie.” Some scholars have contended that the German word (nesso) is
derived from the Latin nescius, “unknown,”40 just as its Slavic counterpart (nežit) has been
translated as meaning “what it is, is unknown.”41 Of course, both such interpretations
resonate perfectly with the present-day use of the English term “Nessie” to denote a creature
that is hidden, mysterious and unknown to science.
The term Nessia remains in use by present-day herpetologists as the name of a genus that
encompasses at least nine species of snake skink, a type of snake-like lizard endemic to Sri
Lanka.42 Of all Scincidae, this genus is the most unique and geographically relict to the
island.43 Representative snout-vent lengths (SVL values) in this genus range 5-9 cm,44 so – in
terms of size – these creatures are neither microscopic nor monstrous.
Celtic upsizing: Cian’s head-worm grows to giant proportions
The disconnect in scale between the diminutive head-worm and mythical megafauna is
bridged by the story of Cian (= Cían), son of Oilioll Oluim (= Oilill Ólom = Ailill Aulom),
which features in a manuscript (from 1651) of the medieval Irish tale known as Tóruigheacht
Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne, “The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Gráinne.” In this sub-sub-story,
Oisín tells us:45
… of a time that Oilioll Oluim went forth out of Dun Eocharmhuighe, with Sadhbh the daughter
of Conn of the hundred battles, his wife and his mate, along with him, and they both in one
chariot, Sadhbh was then heavy and pregnant, and she saw a blackthorn branch over her head
covered with sloes. A desire for those sloes came upon Sadhbh, and Oilioll shook the branch
over the upper board of the chariot, so that Sadhbh ate her fill of them. They returned home
again, and Sadhbh bore a smooth fair lusty son of that heavy pregnancy, that is, Cian the son of
Oilioll Oluim ; and the king of Ciarruidhe Luachra [i.e. Co. Kerry] took him with him to rear
37
ÖNB, Cod. 751, 188v; Foidl (2017b).
Braune & Helm (1958: 89); Watkins (1995: 522-523).
39
Lühr (2017: 908-909); Kerkhof (2018).
40
Kerkhof (2018).
41
Translated as quid sit, ignoratur (what it is, is unknown); Miklosich (1862-65: 426).
42
Uetz et al. (2023).
43
Somaweera, Ruchira (2004-14).
44
Batuwita & Edirisinghe (2017: 378-379).
45
O’Grady (1857: 124-129).
38
4
him. Now that boy was so with a caul [i.e. membranous sac, fleshy mass, protuberance, bump;46
Irish druim-iall, lit. “back-strap”47] across his head, and according as the boy increased so also
the caul increased.
Cian grew and enlarged until he had completed twenty years, and Oilioll had two other sons,
and those three were then of full strength. […]
Now Cian was so that no man ever shaved him but he [i.e. Cian] would take his [i.e. the barber’s] head from him, and Cian went his ways until he came to the Dun [Irish dún, fortress] of
Sgathan the son of Scannlan. Sgathan chanced to be on the plain before him, and Cian asked
him to shave him. “I will do so,” said Scannlan, “for that is my trade, to shave ; and yonder is
the house where I do it, do thou go on before me to it ;” and Cian went to the house. Scathan
went to his sleeping house, and put on himself his arms and his armour, and then he brought a
knife and water in his hand, and went where Cian was. “Wherefore hast thou brought those
weapons with thee?” said Cian. “I hear,” quoth Scannlan, “that thou art wont to slay every one
that shaves thee, and (nevertheless) I will shave thee for the future.”
Thereafter Sgathan loosed the binding which was upon the head of Cian, and found a large caul
from ear to ear upon him. “Is this the reason that thou killest every one that shaves thee?” asked
Sgathan. “It surely is,” said Cian, “and thou needest not fear me.” “I pledge my word,” said
Scannlan, that I will now do what would cause thee to slay me, that I may know what reason
thou hast here.” Upon that he gave a rip of the knife across the caul, so that a worm sprang out
of it, and rose with a swift very light bound until it reached the very top of the dwelling ; and
as it descended from above it met the spear of Cian, and twisted itself in hard firm indissoluble
knots about the head of the spear. After Cian’s head was shaved Sgathan would fain have killed
the worm, but Cian said not to kill it until he himself should have taken it to [his mother]
Sadhbh, the daughter of Conn of the hundred battles, “for in her womb that worm was
generated.”
It is perhaps worth interrupting the narrative at this point to remark that birth (or re-birth)
from the head is a trope common to “male-only” conception/birth paradigms from sources as
disparate as Greek myth (where it is clearly exemplified by the birth of Athena from the
head of Zeus) and indigenous Australian belief.48
The story continues thus:49
After that, Sgathan applied balsams and healing herbs to the wounds of Cian, and Cian went
his ways to Dun Eocharmhuighe bearing his spear before him, and the worm knotted to it.
Oilioll Oluim and Sadhbh chanced to be before him upon the plain, and Cian told them the story
of the worm from first to last. Oilioll said to kill the worm, but Sadhbh said that it should not
be killed, “for we know not,” quoth she, “but that it and Cian may be fated to have the same
span of life ;” and the counsel upon which Oilioll and Sadhbh determined was this, to put a
strong defence of wood around it, and to send it every day nourishment and a plentiful portion
of meat and drink.
That worm grew and increased so that it was needful to open the enclosure round it, and to build
for it a very fast [i.e. strong] (and larger) house. Thence it grew and increased (yet) to the end
of a year, so that there were a hundred heads upon it, and that it mattered not into which head
came the food that was sent to it, and it would swallow a hero or a warrior with his arms and
his armour in each of its greedy ravening heads.
Now at that very time and season the king of Ciarruidhe Luachra came to see his foster-son,
that is, Cian the son of Oilioll; and when he had heard the account of that worm he went to gaze
46
Nagy (2015: 4-5) uses “protuberance” and “bump.” In English, “caul” traditionally refers to the inner fetal
membrane when it covers the head at birth; Merriam-Webster (2014a).
47
See eDIL (n.d.a) (s.v. 1 íall) for druim-iall = a caul. In English, “backstrap” refers to a cut of meat from the
back loin of the animal along the spine; Meatsmith (2023).
48
Graham (2023: 39, incl. fn. 56).
49
O’Grady (1857: 129-133).
5
and marvel at it, and rose and stood upon the top of the wall. When the worm got sight of him
it gave an eager, deadly, hostile spring upon him, so that it lopped off his leg from the thigh
down ; and when the women and the small people [i.e. children] of the place saw that deed,
they all fled and left the Dun desert[ed] and empty after them. When Oilioll heard that, he said
that the worm should be slain lest it might do some greater horror than (even) that, and Sadhbh
consented that it should be slain. When the household had gotten that leave, they kindled the
Dun into a dusky-red crimson-flaming blaze of fire around it (i.e. the worm). Then when the
worm perceived the heat of the fire touching it and the house falling upon it; it rose upwards
with an airy exceeding light spring through the roof of the house, and went its ways westward
with the household after it, until it reached the dark cave of Fearna in the cantred of Corca Ui
Dhuibhne [i.e. the sub-county of the Dingle Peninsula]. It entered into the cave and made a
wilderness of that cantred round about it, so that Fionn and the Fenians of Ireland dare not either
chase or hunt there during the life of that worm …
All of the information in the foregoing blockquotes serves as background to the episode in
the Tóruigheacht in which Fionn mac Cumhaill demands from Conán mac Liath Luachra one
of the worm’s heads as the price for ending an intergenerational blood-feud with him.
Accordingly, the narrative continues:
“… and its [i.e. the worm’s] head it is that Fionn asks of thee, O Conan,” said Oisin. “Howbeit,”
said Conan, “I had rather meet my death in seeking that eric [i.e. blood-price]50 than go back
again where I was reared.”
“Thereat he took leave and farewell of Oisin and of the chiefs of the Fenians, and went his ways
to the place where the worm was. When Conan beheld it he put his finger into the silken loop
of the Ga dearg [i.e. Red Spear],51 and it was I myself that had lent him the Ga dearg,” said
Diarmuid, “for I had conceived an attachment and affection for him ; for I knew that nothing in
the world could slay it unless the Ga dearg did. And he made a careful cast of it, so that he put
it through the navel of the worm, and killed it by virtue of that cast, and took one of its heads
into the presence of Fionn …
Given the story’s opening scene, one might suppose that the problematic worm originated in
one of the many sloes consumed by the pregnant Sadhbh,52 but this supposition is never
confirmed and indeed is opposed by Cian’s statement that “in her womb that worm was
generated.”53 Equally, there is no indication in the Tóruigheacht as to whether the death of
the worm did in fact result in the death of Cian; this matter too is left unresolved.54 However,
there is a postscript of sorts in the 13th-century Acallam na Senórach (Colloquy of the
Ancients), which tells us that Conán, the slayer of Cian’s worm, later “died in bed (in his
fortress), on account of a poisonous worm that somehow penetrated his head and killed him
50
Merriam-Webster (2014b).
Use of the “Red Spear” here appears to prefigure the setting of the “Red Lake” of Lough Derg, which we will
encounter shortly.
52
No doubt encouraged by the fact that the worm’s Persian cognate was discovered in an apple (as explained
later in the main text), this is the understanding advanced by Nagy (2017: 327 & 335). If the Irish worm did
in fact graduate from a diet of fruit (sloe) to consuming blood and meat (starting with the flesh and blood
within Cian’s head, later being fed meat and finally eating whole humans) then it would be recapitulating the
textual progression in the Babylonian incantation against the tooth-worm: “After […] the marsh had created
the worm – the worm went, weeping, before Shamash, its tears flowing before Ea: “What will you give for
my food? What will you give for my sucking?” “I shall give you ripe fig and the apricot.” “Of what use are
they to me, the ripe fig and the apricot? Lift me up and among the teeth and the gums cause me to dwell! The
blood of the tooth I will suck, and of the gum I will gnaw its roots!” Speiser (2011); Graham (2020: Table 1,
col. 3). Since the Akkadian noun for the worm is actually feminine, I have here amended Speiser’s and
ETANA’s single use of “his” (as the possessive pronoun used for the worm) to the ungendered “its.”
53
Irish “is ina bruinn do geineadh an chnumh sin;” O’Grady (1857: 128).
54
Nagy (2017: 336).
51
6
within a day (cruimh neime do ghabh ’na chin agus fuair bás ón trath co araili). Thus
perhaps the worm, or a second-generation worm on behalf of its kind, has its revenge after
all.”55
Cian’s worm is not explicitly named as a nessia; in the Tóruigheacht, the Irish word cnumh
(= cnuimh = cruimh) is used instead.56 Perhaps cnumh was preferred to the more common
cruimh because it is phonetically close to cnámh, “bone.”57 Like the Akkadian term for the
head-worm of antiquity, the Irish noun is grammatically feminine,58 so feminine pronouns are
used of the worm in the Irish text.59
In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, a princess named Nessa60 or Ness is associated with
human-infesting supernatural worms, hinting at knowledge in Ireland of the Latin term
nessia. The Compert Conchobuir relates how, one night, Nessa’s husband Cathbad was
thirsty, so she brought him a drink of water from the river Conchobar; however, when he
spotted two worms floating in the liquid he made Nessa drink it.61 Nessa became pregnant;
eventually, having gone into labour on the bank of the same river, Nessa “gave birth to the
hero Conchobar [mac Nessa], who came out of the womb with a worm (another word for a
dragon) clutched in each fist.”62 In Irish, ness has several unrelated meanings, one of which is
“a lump or swelling on the body”63 – a sense which calls to mind Cian’s deformity.
A Christian overlay for Cian?
It seems likely that we have in Cian an indigenous story which has been harmonised to some
extent with Genesis 4:10-16. The genitive and dative case of Cian – Irish cian, meaning “long
ago” or “remote in time” – is Céin,64 a word which features frequently in the Irish text and
which is homophonous with the name of the biblical Cain, son of Adam, who murdered his
brother Abel. Cian is also a minimal anagram of Cain. As punishment for Cain’s crime, God
condemned him to be a fugitive and a wanderer upon the earth (Gen 4:12); moreover, “the
Lord put a mark upon Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him” (Gen 4:15).65
The 11th-century Irish Lebor Gebála Érenn elaborates that the principal mark of Cain
consisted of “a lump upon his forehead,”66 a trope seemingly imported into Christian tradition
55
Nagy (2015: 11). Overall, we continue to be fascinated/horrified by the idea of a parasite with a serpentine
larval stage that incubates within an adult human and then escapes to mature into a ravening monster that
terrorises the local community, and which potentially manages to breed. This trope finds a modern retelling
in the movies that constitute the Alien franchise, which commenced with Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979); IMDb
(2990-2024).
56
E.g. O’Grady (1857: 130 & 132); see Nagy (2015: 4). Cf. Crom as the name of St. Mac Creiche’s lakemonster and Crom Dubh (Black Crom) as the enduring foe of St. Patrick (Ó hÓgáin 1983: 117), the latter
antagonist being a pagan object of worship for the people of Connacht and Munster (Ellis 1991: 70).
57
Similarly, crumhóg (“maggot”) has a variant cnamhóg which is flanked in the dictionary by cnámh- words
relating to bone; Ó Dónaill (1977: 256 & 331).
58
Ó Dónaill (1977: 330)
59
For the relevant part of an edition of the Irish text in a modern non-Gaelic font, see RIA (n.d.: L.56-66).
60
Ellis (1991: 181).
61
Pagé (2019: 1-2). The worm-word here is duirb, more usually a “water-beetle” (Ó Dónaill 1977: 431), but
seemingly here in the larval stage.
62
Huxley (1979: 12); quotation from Blust (2023: 109), with the dragon clarification present in the original.
63
See eDIL (n.d.b), s.v. 3 nes(s).
64
Ó Dónaill (1977: 224-225).
65
Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.
66
Macalister (1938/1993), Section I, Third Redaction, §39 (p.87). This primary lump is supplemented in a gloss
by six others on Cain’s cheeks, hands and feet under the influence of Poem V, verses 23-24, in that section
(Part I, p.183), but verse 24 makes it clear that the one on his forehead was the primary mark.
7
via a lost Book of Lamech in which Cain was described as “a wild man covered with hair, and
with a horn growing out of his forehead.67 Similar descriptions of Cain are well known from
other Jewish apocryphal works,68 and Genesis Rabbah 22:12 attributes to Abba Jose ben
Hanan, one of the Tanaim, the statement: “He [i.e. the Lord] made a horn grow out of him
[i.e. Cain].”69
The similarity between Cain’s horn and the lump on Cian’s forehead, augmented by the
similarity of the two names, is perhaps too great to be coincidental, although – to the best of
my knowledge – the connection has not hitherto been remarked. Like its biblical antecedent,
the impetus for Cian’s story is the need to pay a penalty for murder; Conán’s father was
complicit in the killing of Fionn’s father, and Fionn had demanded a head of the giant worm
from Conán as settlement for that grievance.70 From the perspective of the biblical Cain, the
protuberance on his forehead was beneficial and protective because it prevented him from
being killed; perhaps this is why Cian’s lump is described in the Tóruigheacht as a caul, since
– in the British Isles, at least – babies born with a caul have long been considered lucky, and
cauls used to be kept or sold as talismans that protected their owners against death by
drowning.71 In this last detail, we glimpse a latent connection between Cian’s worm and
water that will be brought to fruition later in this paper.
In the Irish story, it seems that the prohibition against killing Cain that the lump embodies has
expanded into a prohibition against killing the lump as well, which is why Sadhbh believes
that the worm must be allowed to live if her son Cian is to stay alive. That Cain and the lump
on his forehead came to form just such a doublet in the extra-canonical religious literature is
evident from the apocryphal tradition around Lamech – again, included in the Lebor Gebála
Érenn – which asserts that Cain was killed by a projectile that penetrated his lump.72
Evidently, to kill one was to kill the other.
Counterparts to Cian’s worm in other Indo-European cultures
The story of Cian has a counterpart in the 10th-century Persian Shāhnāmeh or Book of Kings,
although in this case the worm was discovered in an apple by the daughter of a poor man
named Haftvād.73 The worm was fed with apple until it had grown into a mighty creature,
which was black with golden spots.74 This mascot acted as a good-luck charm and enabled
the girl to spin prodigious amounts of cotton. Subsequently, nourished on milk and rice, the
worm grew to gigantic size and was adorned “with horns and mane.” 75 Haftvād named the
city of Kermān after the worm76 (Persian kerm, cognate with the Irish cruimh and English
“worm”).77 Haftvād’s family grew rich and powerful on account of the worm’s bakht
67
Macalister (1938/1993), Section I, note on §39 (p.237).
Macalister (1938/1993), Section I, note on §139 (p.264-265).
69
Byron (2011: 121).
70
O’Grady (1857: 125).
71
Dickens (ca. 1855: 1-2).
72
Macalister (1938/1993), Section I, Poem V, verses 24-25 (p.183); Section I, note on §139 (p.264-265).
73
Nagy (2015: 6).
74
Shapur (2002-12). Given these markings, the entity appears to be a giant caterpillar, i.e. an oversized version
of the larval stage of a butterfly or moth. It seems reasonable to suggest that the connection of the worm with
yarn-spinning and its development of a “mane” in the next phase of its growth (see main text) reflect the
harvesting of silk from silkworm cocoons.
75
Shapur (2002-12). See the previous note for an interpretation of the “mane.”
76
Shapur (2002-12).
77
Nagy (2015: 6).
68
8
(fortunate influence) and this wealth enabled Haftvād to contend militarily for control of the
country.78 Facing an existential threat, the king – Ardeshir – disguised himself and some of
his men as merchants, and by this ruse entered Haftvād’s mountain-top castle where the
worm was housed. There they killed the worm by feeding it molten lead.79
Unlike Cian’s cruimh, which is carnivorous and hostile, Haftvād’s kerm is vegetarian and
benign. However, this was not always so: an older version of the Persian worm story, found
in the Kār-nāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pābagān, describes the monster as being fed daily on the blood
of bulls and sheep.80 Its original diet therefore resembles that of the Babylonian tooth-worm;
in light of this, it is interesting that Alexander Krappe considered the Persian/Irish worm story
to have first taken shape in the Near East.81 Haematophagy is also a key feature of the
eastern/central European nežit/năjit,82 whose propensity for blood-sucking may ultimately
have become grafted onto to the folkloric vampire of the same region.83 If both cruimh and
kerm are in fact bloodthirsty carnivores, then the Cian and Haftvād narratives are much more
closely aligned than they seemed to be at first. In addition, both the Irish and Persian stories
are underpinned structurally by a shared pair of motifs. In both cases, the host’s welfare is
directly linked to that of the worm; moreover, in both cases, the worm develops into a grave
threat to the established social order, and accordingly must be killed.84
Situated closer to Ireland – and even closer to Scotland – is a story told in the 12th-century
Gesta Danorum in which Herrauðr, a Viking-era king of Sweden, gave his daughter Thora
two adders to rear; these ultimately grew so large that they menaced the local community.85
Ragnar Loðbrók, a Danish royal, killed the snakes and, as a reward, was given Thora’s hand
in marriage. In a variant narrative in the Tale of Ragnar’s Sons, Thora was gifted a young
snake or baby lindworm (Old Norse yrmling) – a lindworm being a serpent-monster or
dragon – by her father;86 Bósi and Herrauðr’s Saga explains that the lindworm, which was
golden in colour, had hatched from a vulture’s egg bearing golden letters on its shell.87 Thora
kept the creature in a box, with some gold underneath it.88 In an echo of the prosperity
afforded by the Persian kerm, “The snake grew until it encircled the whole room, and the gold
grew with his growth.”89 Ultimately, it needed to be fed every day with an ox.90 Ragnar found
a way to make his clothing impervious to the poison that the monster spat at anyone who
threatened it, and thereby succeeded in approaching and killing it.91
78
Nagy (2015: 7).
Nagy (2015: 7).
80
Shapur (2002-12). Among more recent refractions of the “bloodthirsty but prosperity-endowing worm” trope
in Western popular culture, I would include an episode of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(S2.E5: “Reptile Boy;” IMDb (1990-2024b). In this episode, Buffy and Cordelia attend a frat party where
(along with a third girl) they are offered as human sacrifices to a chthonic snake-like creature named
Machida, which for generations has rewarded its servitors with unnatural levels of financial success and
material wealth. Immediately before killing the creature, Buffy addresses it disparagingly as “Wormy.”
81
Krappe (1941: 334 & 337); Nagy (2017: 324 & 329).
82
Timotin (2013: 245-246); Graham (2020: Table 1, col. 2 & Table 2, col. 2).
83
McClelland (2000).
84
Nagy (2015: 9-10).
85
Shapur (2002-12).
86
Tunstall (2005: Chap. 1).
87
Hardman (2011: Chap. 6, 8 & 16).
88
Hardman (2011: Chap. 16); Nagy (2015: 12).
89
Welsford (1955: 419-420); Nagy (2015: 12).
90
Tunstall (2005: Chap. 1); Hardman (2011: Chap. 16).
91
Tunstall (2005: Chap. 1).
79
9
From head-worm to lake-monster: the Caoránach / Caol
Although Cian’s head-worm, along with its Scandinavian and Persian refractions, do not
appear to have much connection with bodies of water, the worm’s remote antecedent in the
Ancient Near East did emerge from a watery milieu; in the words of a Babylonian incantation
against the tooth-worm (1st millennium BCE),92 “the earth had created the rivers, the rivers
had created the marsh, and the marsh had created the worm.”93 These aquatic origins are
remembered much later in central and eastern European charms against the nežit. Thus, in
Bulgarian charms from the 10-12th centuries CE, “the nezhit comes from the Red Sea,”94
while a Romanian charm recorded in the 18th century CE95 introduces the năjit as having
“come out of the dried sea.”96 A Greek amulet of the 1st-2nd century CE against the closelyrelated migraine demoness opens with the declaration that “Antaura came out of the sea;”97
her watery origin is preserved in a 16th-century CE Greek prayer against headache, which
opens with “Migraine came out from the sea.”98
Moreover, the multi-headed nature of Cian’s worm is very reminiscent of the Lernaean
Hydra,99 a serpentine water-monster with many heads from Greek mythology; the number of
its heads – which varied between authors – was usually between six and fifty, and often
nine.100 To read Ludwig Preller’s explanation that “the generally accepted interpretation of
the legend is that ‘the hydra denotes the damp, swampy ground of Lerna with its numerous
springs (κεφαλαί, heads)’”101 is immediately to be reminded of the intimate association
(specified by quotation in the previous paragraph) between marshland and the Babylonian
tooth-worm. The Hydra, like the Babylonian worm, was female.102 The name Hydra derives
from the Ancient Greek word ὕδρα (húdra), which in turn is derived from the Proto-IndoEuropean *údreh2, meaning “aquatic.”103
It is therefore of particular interest to note Celtic legends in which the super-sized head- or
bone-worm is associated explicitly with bodies of water; these, in turn, constitute examples of
the widely diffused mythological association between snakes and water (of which a prime
example is the Rainbow Serpent)104 and the mythic fungibility of snakes and fish.105 One
such legend, which relates to Lough Derg – a lake in the northwestern part of Ireland – runs
as follows. There used to live in Ireland an evil old witch, whose son was a giant, but Fionn
mac Cumhaill and the Fianna succeeded in killing the hag in Munster with a silver arrow.
After carrying his dead mother northward through the length of Ireland, her son deposited
92
British Museum BM 55547; CT 17,50.
Speiser (2011); Graham (2020: Table 1, col. 3).
94
Tsonkova (2015: 95 & 197-198); Graham (2020: 13, fn. 58).
95
Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest, MS 1507, fols. 65v-6r.
96
Timotin (2013: 245-246); Graham (2020: Table 1, col. 2).
97
Eisenstadt Burgenländisches Landesmuseum, SW 4739b; Kotansky (1994: 60); Graham (2020: Table 2, col.
3).
98
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, Cod. Marc. gr. app. II 163; Pradel (1907: 253) for codex
identification and date; Pradel (1907: 267) for Greek text; Kotansky (1994: 61); Graham (2020: Table 2, col.
2).
99
O’Grady (1857: 130, fn. 1).
100
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911).
101
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911).
102
Atsma (2000-17).
103
Wiktionary (2005-24).
104
Blust (2023).
105
Chausidis (2012); Graham (2013).
93
10
what remained of her body – her legs, backbone, and two arms – in Donegal. It is in the
narrative’s subsequent unfolding that our true interest lies:106
Some years after this event a party of the Fianna were engaged in their favourite pursuit of
hunting, and came upon the bones. As they stood looking at them a dwarf appeared, and warned
them not to break the thigh-bone, for in it lay concealed a venomous worm which, if it got out,
and could find water to drink, might destroy the whole world. Despite this sage advice the bone
was broken by Conan Maol, the Thersites of the Fianna-legends, upon which there crawled out
of it a long hairy worm. Taking it on the point of his spear Conan threw it into the lake, adding,
with a sneer, “There is water enough for you.” Immediately a terrible beast rushed out of the
lake, before which the party fled in terror, while the monster over-ran the country unhindered,
devouring people by the hundred. Finn MacCumhaill learnt that the beast was vulnerable in one
spot only, a mole on its left side. Armed with this knowledge he attacked it with his sword, and
succeeded in disabling it. The monster lay struggling and writhing on the shore of the lake,
while its blood poured out in torrents and tinged the waters with a crimson hue — hence the
“red” lake [Irish Derg = Red]. In process of time St. Patrick came that way, and compelled it
by his power to go to the bottom of the water, as he had done to many monsters elsewhere in
Ireland.
The lake-monster is clearly an instance of the Irish oilliphéist (Scottish uilepheist),107 a seaserpent or water-dragon found repeatedly in Celtic mythology and folklore.108 Despite its
apparent indigeneity, some scholars suspect that the beast has a Latinate origin.109 There is
also an awareness that Lough Derg, the “Red Lake,” was understood to be a reflex of the
biblical Red Sea110 – a water-body which, coincidentally, as we have seen, was a recognised
source of the nežit in eastern Europe.111 Like the Babylonian tooth-worm, nessia, Antaura and
the cruimh, the oilliphéist is female, or at least grammatically feminine.112
The fact that the newly-escaped bone-worm was immediately taken on the point of Conan’s
spear connects it directly with its counterpart in the Tóruigheacht, where the newly-liberated
head-worm “twisted itself in hard firm indissoluble knots about the head of the spear” held by
Cian.113 Both worms were in fact transferred to their next abodes (in one case a box, in the
other a lake) on their respective spear-points. Clearly, both worms are members of the same
mythological species. Its Scandinavian equivalent, encountered above in connection with
106
Seymour (1908: 9).
MacKillop (2014).
108
Ellis (1991: 189); Ó hÓgáin (1983).
109
E.g. Ó hÓgáin (1983: 93 & 106). From the first citation: “... is furasta a thuiscint go mbeadh bonn Laidine
faoina thuilleadh den scéal – móitíf na péiste, mar shampla” (... it is easy to understand that there might be a
Latin foundation to the rest of the story – the motif of the worm/monster, for example.) As we have already
seen, nessia is a Latin term.
110
Ó hÓgáin (1983: 93 & 122): From the first citation: “Fágann seo leabhar Exodus mar bhunchloch ghléineach
faoi dheargú an uisce i lochanna mat Loch Rudraige agus Loch Dearg. Lucht dinnsheanchais a dhein an
ceangal, gan amhras. Agus míníonn seo, chomh maith, an chúis gur go dtí an Muir Rua a dhíbrítear
ainsprideanna sa bhéaloideas” (This leaves the book of Exodus as the obvious foundation for the reddening
of the water in lakes such as Lough Rudraige and Lough Derg. The connection was undoubtedly made by
the storytellers. And this explains, as well, the reason why, in folklore, evil spirits are banished to the Red
Sea). On this last point, see the remainder of the sentence in the main text for a demonological connection
relevant to our main topic.
111
Tsonkova (2015: 95 & 197-198).
112
“... agus i Loch Dearg a bhí sí. Nuair a chuaigh an Fhéin chun comhraic léi ...” (... and it was in Lough Derg
that she was. When the Fenian [i.e. Fionn] went to fight with her ... ); Ó hÓgáin (1983: 83).
113
Both stories involve spear-wielders named Conán (= Conan), but they are not the same person. The Conan at
Lough Derg – Conan Maol (Conan the Bald) – is Conan mac Morna, a different individual to the Conan in
the story of Cian, who is Conan mac Lia (Conan mac Liath Luachra); Ellis (1991: 65, s.v. Conan 3 & 2,
respectively).
107
11
Thora and Ragnar, has an Icelandic embodiment which (since the 14th century)114 has been
said to live in Lagarfljót, a glacial-fed freshwater lake near the island’s east coast.115 Another
candidate embodiment is “Selma,” a legendary lindworm or sea-serpent which (since 1750) is
reputed to live in Lake Seljord in Norway.116
In a version of the Lough Derg legend published in 1727, the lake-monster was known to
locals as the Caoránach.117 Interestingly, in this account, the malevolent worm begins its life
not in a thigh-bone but in a jaw-bone, which is precisely the canonical abode of the demonic
worm of the Ancient Near East and of its central/eastern European successor, the nežit or
năjit.118 The 1727 narrative begins:119
Bolar Beman, a Gyant, and an Irish King (as some-say) in the Days of yore, having neglected
to perform some mighty Feat, which he had engaged to do in his Life-time ; Conan, another
Gyant, (the Son of Fin Mc Cuil the great Champion of Ireland) finding a little Worm in one of
his Jaw bones, threw it into Finlough [the name by which Lough Derg was originally known],
where it grew so big within 24 Hours, that the whole Lake could hardly contain it. This Monster,
called by the natives Caoranach, would suck Men and Cattle into its Mouth at a Miles Distance,
and becoming by this attractive Quality so very pernicious to the Country, that no one durst
come near the Lake ; at last they came to a Composition, and obliged themselves to send a
certain Number of Cattel, to be devoured by it every Day.
From the foregoing accounts, it is clear that the embryonic Celtic water-monster is nothing
other than the dreaded bone-worm, head-worm or tooth-worm of the ancient and medieval
world.
In the Christianised version of the Lough Derg legend (anticipated at the end of this section’s
first blockquote), in which the beast is vanquished by St. Patrick, the monster “is a serpent
called Caol.”120 This hagiographic miracle-story is in many ways reminiscent of the account
of St. Columba’s confronting and subduing, in the 6th century CE, of a “water beast” in the
River Ness, the short river which flows from Loch Ness to the east coast of Scotland.
Adomnán of Iona’s 7th-century Vita Columbae recounts the latter confrontation thus:121
Once, on another occasion, when the blessed man [i.e. St. Columba] stayed for some days in
the land of the Picts, he had to cross the River Ness. When he reached its bank, he saw some of
the local people burying a poor fellow. They said they had seen a water beast snatch him and
maul him savagely as he was swimming not long before. Although some men had put out in a
little boat to rescue him, they were too late, but, reaching out with hooks, they had hauled in his
wretched corpse. The blessed man, having been told all this, astonished them by sending one
of his companions to swim across the river and sail back to him in a dinghy that was on the
further bank. At the command of the holy and praiseworthy man, Luigne moccu Min obeyed
without hesitation. He took off his clothes except for a tunic and dived into the water. But the
beast was lying low on the riverbed, its appetite not so much sated as whetted for prey. It could
sense that the water above was stirred by the swimmer, and suddenly swam up to the surface,
rushing openmouthed with a great roar towards the man as he was swimming midstream. All
the bystanders, both the heathen and the brethren, froze in terror, but the blessed man looking
114
Sveinsson (2003: 158).
Editorial (n.d.); Simpson (1972: 102-104); Krappe (1941: 327-328).
116
Dee (2016); Botsford (1999).
117
Seymour (1908: 9); Ellis (1991: 55).
118
Gerabek (1999).
119
Richardson (1727: 2).
120
Seymour (1908: 9-10); Ó hÓgáin (1983: 91). The Irish word caol means thin or slender, which is consistent
with the monster’s elongated serpentine nature.
121
Adomnán of Iona (1995: Bk II, Chap. 27).
115
12
on raised his holy hand and made the sign of the cross in the air, and invoking the name of God,
he commanded the fierce beast, saying: “Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.”
At the sound of the saint’s voice, the beast fled in terror so fast one might have thought it was
pulled back with ropes. But it had got so close to Luigne swimming that there was no more than
the length of a pole between man and beast. The brethren were amazed to see that the beast had
gone and that their fellow-soldier Luigne returned to them untouched and safe in the dinghy,
and they glorified God in the blessed man. Even the heathen natives who were present at the
time were so moved by the greatness of the miracle they had witnessed that they too magnified
the God of the Christians.
It is, of course, important to recognise that St. Columba was an Irish abbot and missionary
who played a central role in the conversion of Scotland to Christianity; no doubt he and his
disciples took with them the Irish mythic tropes of their time. Their water-monster motifs
would have had local – and sometimes older – counterparts in Wales and Brittany,122 since
many Celtic place-legends of this type appear to have been native adaptations of dragontaming or dragon-slaying episodes in the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic and apocryphal
traditions of the 1st-5th centuries CE.123 It is interesting to note that Irish saints often do not
kill the lake-monsters that they subdue but instead constrain the creatures’ appearances and
activities in a manner that seems to anticipate the elusiveness of the modern Nessie
phenomenon. For example, when St. Abbán (= Abban) was asked to pacify “a lake […] with
venomous monsters on it, which ravage the country,” the creatures voluntarily approached
and fawned upon the saint, who then commanded them “‘in the name of the Trinity, to go into
a small corner of yonder lake, and to live on its fish, and to remain there (continually) without
injuring anyone at all.’ And they did so; and there they are still seen in that corner at the end
of every seventh year.”124
In addition to biblical and apocryphal influences, as Dáithí Ó hÓgáin acknowledges in his
detailed Irish-language study of ollphiasta, “bhí seantuairimí ann a shín siar roimh ré na
Críostaíochta féin a dhein ionannú idir tinneas agus sealbhú spride i gcorp” (there were old
opinions that stretched back before the era of Christianity itself that equated illness with the
possession of a spirit in the body).125 A subsidiary – or, at least, closely related – notion, of
course, was that of the demonic bone-worm as a primary agent of pain and suffering.
In his concluding statements, Ó hÓgáin points to a poem attributed to St. Columba, titled
Altus Prosator, which makes reference to draco magnus deterrimus terribilis et antiquus (the
great, repulsive, terrible and ancient dragon) from the Book of Revelation.126 In respect of St.
Columba’s fondness for such imagery, he comments:127
D’fhéadfaí buile faoi thuairim a thabhairt gur mar thoradh ar chaint den saghas seo ceanglaíodh
an traidisiún apacrafach faoi shárú an dragain lena ainm, agus gur mar sin a d’fhás an seanchas
faoi féin agus ollphiast Loch Nis.
122
Ó hÓgáin (1983: 106).
Ó hÓgáin (1983: 108-109 & 123). The Celtic water-monster legends therefore rest on a foundation of
international mythic and folkloric motifs from continental Europe, the Mediterranean and the Near East (or
at least the Levant).
124
Plummer (1922: 5). Similarly, at the end of the first blockquote in this section, St. Patrick did not kill the
Lough Derg monster but rather “compelled it by his power to go to the bottom of the water, as he had done
to many monsters elsewhere in Ireland.”
125
Ó hÓgáin (1983: 119).
126
Ó hÓgáin (1983: 120 & 125).
127
Ó hÓgáin (1983: 120).
123
13
(One could speculate that as a result of language of this kind, the apocryphal tradition about the
defeat of the dragon came to be associated with his [i.e. St. Columba’s] name, and that it was
in this way that the legend about himself and the Loch Ness monster came to be.)
More recently, Christopher Cairney has considered the possibility that Irish oilliphéist
legends in general, such as that of the Caoránach, might have inspired or influenced the
legend of the Loch Ness monster.128 However, neither Ó hÓgáin nor Cairney – nor, for that
matter, any other scholar – have previously connected these stories with the nessia and nežit
traditions that form such a central part of the current paper.
Conclusion
This paper has traced the path of the malevolent tooth-, head- or bone-worm of antiquity from
its watery origins in the Ancient Near East to the nežit of Slavic and adjacent lands and to the
Latin nessia of western Europe. Although originally tiny – small enough to reside within a
human tooth – Celtic legend envisaged that this type of parasite could escape the confines of
its host and grow to enormous size. Like dragons, which are often associated with gold and
treasure hoards,129 these serpentine monsters could reward their enablers with unnatural
prosperity and wealth, and for this reason they were often protected and nurtured by human
servitors. Unfortunately, the super-sized nessia also had dragon-like appetites which typically
required large quantities of blood and/or meat each day, and they cared little as to whether
their meals consisted of animals or humans. Ultimately, these medieval monsters returned to
the watery milieu of their ancient origin, taking up residence in the lakes and rivers of
Ireland, Scotland and the Nordic lands – one of the known Scottish habitats being the River
Ness, which connects Loch Ness to the North Sea.
In the context of names such as Loch Ness, River Ness and Inverness, the ness element
denotes a headland or promontory.130 It is this toponymic element that has resulted in the
fabled water-monster of Loch Ness being designated a putative member of the genus
Nessiteras and to it being referred to affectionately in media reports by the feminine
diminutive “Nessie.” Until now, though, nobody has pointed out that such Nessi- appellations
recall the name of the Slavic nežit of eastern and central Europe and the Latin nessia of
western Europe – the Indo-European successors to the malevolent Mesopotamian boneworm, an agent which was originally female and which (judging from the gender of nessia
and cruimh) remained so in the western European tradition. In Celtic mythology, this parasite
had a nasty habit of escaping from its human host, growing to enormous size and taking
refuge in a local lake or river – an aquatic hideout from which it could then terrorise the local
population.
One final similarity should not be overlooked. Just as the giant nessia worm would reward its
human protectors and enablers with exceptional prosperity and wealth, so too does the
modern-day Nessie; a survey conducted in 2018 revealed that the Loch Ness Monster was
adding nearly £41 million (US$54 million) of value per annum year to the Scottish tourism
industry.131
128
Cairney (2018).
E.g. Beowulf, lines 2724-27878; Heaney (1999: 86-87).
130
Merriam-Webster (2024c).
131
Nadelle (2022).
129
14
© Lloyd D. Graham, v.02_05.03.24
Cite as: Lloyd D. Graham (2024) “‘Nessie’: An uncannily apt name for a serpentine water-monster,” Academia,
https://www.academia.edu/114915642/_Nessie_An_uncannily_apt_name_for_a_serpentine_water_monster.
Keywords: Celtic legend, Celtic mythology, Scandinavian legend, Irish folklore, Scottish folklore, Nordic
folklore, cryptozoology, philology, cross-cultural study, cultural anthropology, comparative mythology, ancient
medicine, lake-monster, dragon, Loch Ness monster, Nessie, nessia, nežit, nezhit, năjit, Nessiteras, Cian, Cían,
mark of Cain, Cain’s horn, tooth-worm, bone-worm, Antaura, cruimh, Haftvad, Ragnar Lodbrok, Hydra, Lough
Derg, oilliphéist, Caoránach, Caol, St. Columba, Colmcille.
References
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