Sea-Trow

"Every night, it is the same story - the damned trow comes ashore and gorges itself on our day's catch. Collum tried to stop it, and got eaten up for his trouble. We tried starving it - just not fishing for a day - and it ate two sheep and the Maclean's dog, and if it had broken through the door before dawn it would have had one of us as well. We can't go on like this - it has to be stopped!"

— Shamie, fisherman from the village of Aith on Zhetland.

TThe thousand children of Mòr Cuan Cailleach are known as the Sea-Trow, and they are a plague upon the inhabitants of the Norður Islands, the Arcaibh Islands, and the Kattalands. These hulking creatures would stand over nine feet tall if they rose upright. They have the heads and faces of sea lions, with bulging, goatlike eyes. Their bodies are covered in patchy fur, and their long arms end in massive, paddle-like hands tipped with sharp claws. Their lower bodies bear hind flippers like those of a sea lion, which they can rotate beneath themselves to support their weight when walking on all fours. Though they rarely move bipedally, they will rear up to slash with their claws and bite with their teeth. They also rear up to roar - a terrifying sound, half sea-lion bellow and half crashing wave.

Sea-Trows raid fishing villages and attack boats under cover of night, intent on devouring as many fish as they can seize. They ignore other creatures unless challenged or prevented from gorging themselves on the village's catch. When confronted, they erupt into mindless rage, lashing out with enormous strength and fury. If left alone, they take only the fish and depart - but they will return again and again, stealing the catch night after night. When they cannot find enough fish to sate their hunger, they turn to anything else within reach: pets, livestock, even people. They never attack by day, for they cannot bear the touch of the sun. Instead, they sleep in deep sea caves, hidden from the burning light.

According to legend, when a Sea-Trow is slain, its spirit flees back to Mòr Cuan Cailleach's womb, where it is reborn. Yet the newborn monster seldom returns seeking vengeance—or at least, not right away.

The Saga of Æimwulf

Among the Biegen it is said that there were once 1,001 Sea-Trow, until one was slain permanently by the tragic hero Æimwulf. He was a Heretoga of the Biegen, whose village was tormented by a relentless Sea-Trow. Night after night the monster came, laying waste to the villagers and their catch. On the third night Æimwulf swore to kill the beast, but instead had his arm torn from his body. He survived only because he was cast into the sea, where The Brimdohtors took pity on him. That night the monster slew four others, and the village was abandoned, its people fleeing the horror that had claimed so many lives. Weeks later, after Æimwulf had been nursed back to strength beneath the waves, he returned to find his home deserted and the Sea-Trow gone.

Thus began a quest that would last for decades. The goddesses had granted Æimwulf the power to track the Sea-Trow through the depths, and they revealed the secret of its final destruction: it must be slain by the same hand one hundred times, with the last blow struck upon Eilean nan Cailleach, the island-home of the Sea-Trow's mother, Mòr Cuan Cailleach.

For years Æimwulf pursued the beast. At first many companions sailed at his side, but so great was the toll of death that "To sail with Æimwulf" became a byword for a doomed voyage. Time and again he slew the monster, only for it to be reborn from the goddess's womb. At last, old and alone, Æimwulf made his way to the sacred isle. There, as the creature emerged from its mother, he struck it down for the hundredth and final time.

With vengeance at last fulfilled, Æimwulf fell - slain by the goddess herself.