(New page: A '''Bodach''' (plural ''Bodaich'') is a mythical spirit or creature, rather like the goblin. thumb|A bodach :"A bodach is a mythical beast of the British Isle...) |
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A '''Bodach''' (plural ''Bodaich'') is a mythical spirit or creature, rather like the [[goblin]]. | A '''Bodach''' (plural ''Bodaich'') is a mythical spirit or creature, rather like the [[goblin]]. | ||
[[Image:Bodach. | [[Image:Bodach.gif|thumb|A bodach]] | ||
:"A bodach is a mythical beast of the British Isles, a sly thing that comes down chimneys during the night to carry away naughty children." - Dean Koontz (Forever Odd) | :"A bodach is a mythical beast of the British Isles, a sly thing that comes down chimneys during the night to carry away naughty children." - Dean Koontz (Forever Odd) | ||
Latest revision as of 08:28, 11 July 2007
A Bodach (plural Bodaich) is a mythical spirit or creature, rather like the goblin.
- "A bodach is a mythical beast of the British Isles, a sly thing that comes down chimneys during the night to carry away naughty children." - Dean Koontz (Forever Odd)
The word is a Scottish Gaelic term for "old man" although historically it was used as a pejorative term to refer to peasants or farmers (bothach) by the warrior class amongst the Scots. In Irish, bodach also means churl, clown; ScG, old or churlish person, serf, peasan. Some children's stories use the terms curmudgeon or the name Nod as a translation.
Today, the bodach is mainly used only to torment naughty children. In earlier times the bodach was more formidable; the bodach glas foretells death in Walter Scott's Waverley (1814).
Popular culture
- Bodachs occasionally appear in Charles De Lint's books of mythic fiction.
- The name Bodach is used to describe shadow-like creatures - invisible to most people - that appear at locations before disasters in the books Odd Thomas, Forever Odd and Brother Odd by Dean Koontz.
- The name, if not other features, has been snatched to Dungeons and Dragons, by the name bodak.