The Otter.

Following on from last week I thought I would add a little bit to the folklore and stories of the Irish Otter and the Dobhar Chu. Then follow up with a little bit of folklore and some superstitions and stories about other members of our Irish wildlife. So I hope you enjoy it. Here goes.

The Otter. Madra Uisce.

The otter lives along riverbanks and beside lakes all around Ireland and It’s very good at swimming and diving and if you’re lucky you may see them playing among the rocks undergrowth. The otter has a small-flattened head, a long thick neck and a thick tail that narrows to a point.  It can be 3 feet in length, which is about a metre and when they are fully grown up they can weigh about 20 lbs roughly 9 kilos. It has a long body covered with thick coat of grey or brown fur and it belongs to the same family as the stoat, pine marten and badger. The otter looks a little bit like a seal and like the seal it is a carnivore, which means that it usually eats meat and often eats shellfish. To get at the shellfish the otter  bangs it against a stone in order to break its shell and in this way he can get at the food inside.

The Dobhar-chu.

In Irish folklore, the Dobhar-chu is the king of all otters, the seventh cub of an ordinary otter. It is said to be much larger than a normal otter, and it never sleeps. The king of all otters is so magical that an inch of its fur will protect a man from being killed by gunshot, stop a boat from sinking or stop a horse from being injured.

The Dobhar-chu is also often said to be accompanied by a court of ordinary otters. When captured, these beasts would grant any wish in exchange for their freedom. Their skins were also prized for their ability to render a warrior invincible, and were thought to provide protection against drowning. Luckily, the Otter Kings were hard to kill, their only vulnerable point being a small point below their chin, (first you had to get past those sharp teeth).

There are also traditions of the "King Otter", who is dangerous, and will devour any animal or beast that comes in its way. This otter is sometimes described as white with black rimmed ears and a black cross on his back, and sometimes as pure black with a spot of white on his belly. He could only be killed by a silver bullet and the person who killed him would die within 24 hours. Its pelt was considered to have magical powers and protected its owner from all types of accident.

It was believed that if you were bitten by an otter then the only cure was to kill and eat another otter. However these days the otter is protected under Irish law and it is a criminal offense to kill one. So you’ll have to suffer in silence and get to hospital

The otter is a loyal mate and a good parent who will look after its cubs for longer than most other animals and for this reason it’s often used as a symbol of a strong family.

Irish harps used to be carried in bags made from otter skin as it protected them from getting wet.

A warrior’s shield would be covered in otter skin (lining the inside) and in this way they protected the warrior in battle.

It was believed that the magical power of the otter’s skin could be used for healing. It was used to cure fever, smallpox and as an aid in childbirth.

If a person licked the still warm liver of a dead otter they would receive the power to heal burns or scalds by licking them.

So there you have it, a little more on a beautiful animal.