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kelpie.jpg, originally uploaded by Boju.

As part of the Dapper Cadaver Blog’s ongoing Monster Monday project, today I bring you a Father’s Day Monster from The Isle of Man

The Glashtin is a Manx water-horse ( not to be confused with a sea-horse) with a fondness for lonely girls, and has been know to feed off their bodies and blood. He’s a shape shifter who can transform from a sort of Mer-Horse into a perfectly handsome looking human, with horse ears. He can also appear as a half-man half-horse, and a normal horse. In each form he’s incredibly muscular and looking for someone to ride him, a journey which always leads back to the still waters he calls home, where his rider discovers they can’t jump from his back, and they get pulled to their deaths.

Glashtins can be put to good use, as farm hands, if you can control them,. They’re basically a horse with the hands of a man, or a man with the strength of a horse. Just watch your daughter and keep a fire burning. They’re scared of fire and vulnerable to burns (aren’t we all?).

Glashtins will often seek out lonely young girls, like run aways, or farmers daughters living far from cities and other people. They can appear as handsome young men, or even as the girls own father, anything to get in the house. They’re easily tricked by men in drag, who they mistake for ladies. Many a Glashtin has been put down by a gun toting farmer in a skirt. Forget fire, Trannies are a Glashtins real weakness.

There’s a famous tale of a Glashtin in the form of a girl’s long lost father appearing in a rain storm. She unlocked the door and welcomed him in. As he sat by the fireplace to warm himself, he removed his hat and the girl noticed he had horses ears. She grabbed a burning coal from the fire and burned that Glashtin, and he fled.

Folklore always talks about a weakness to fire like it some magic thing. As though if I jabbed a burning coal into the face of a human that’d be cool. They say if you set a wall on fire a Glashtin won’t cross it. I’m pretty sure in that scenario the Glashtin is the smart one, cause now your trapped in side a burning, albeit Glashtin free, house.