Cù Sìth
Also called Cù Sith, Cu Sith, Cu Sidhe, Coo Shee.
In Scottish Highland folklore, the Cù Sìth is a huge, otherworldly fairy hound whose triple bark can be heard for miles and whose third and final bay is a death omen for whoever hears it.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Scottish folkloreBritish folklore
- Region
- Scottish Highlands (place of origin)
- Kind
- British black dog
- Trait family
- The Threshold-Keepers
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Color bears image-domain Colour denotes expression and differentiation, carrying feeling, rank and season, evolved for survival and taken by alchemy as the sign that transformation is under way.
why
It is closely related to the wider British Isles tradition of spectral black dogs, standing as a Highland cousin to figures such as the Barghest, the Gwyllgi, and Black Shuck, though the Cù Sìth is distinguished from most of that cluster by its fairy origin and its color, which is usually green rather than black.
- Dogs is Dog imagery denotes fidelity, vigilance, healing, guardianship, and passage to the dead, but sometimes impurity or demonic danger; heraldic sea-dogs are scaled aquatic hybrids.
why
It is closely related to the wider British Isles tradition of spectral black dogs, standing as a Highland cousin to figures such as the Barghest, the Gwyllgi, and Black Shuck, though the Cù Sìth is distinguished from most of that cluster by its fairy origin and its color, which is usually green rather than black.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Behaviour
- Shelter before omen completes
why
Folk protections against the Cù Sìth vary across tellings but recur around the idea of enclosed, human-made shelter: reaching a house, byre, or other solid structure before the third bark fades is commonly cited as the surest defense.
Sight and sound
- Roar audible for miles
why
whose triple bark can be heard for miles
- Silent flight
why
It is said to move silently despite its size, padding across the moors with a great, soundless stride that belies its bulk.
Omens
- Portent sound precedes death
why
Its most distinctive trait is its bark: the Cù Sìth is said to bay three times, and each bay carries progressively farther, audible for great distances across the hills.
Utility powers
- Stealth movement
why
It is said to move silently despite its size, padding across the moors with a great, soundless stride that belies its bulk.
Curses
- Death omen
why
the baying itself is widely described as an omen of death for whoever hears it.
- Child stealing
why
lest the Cù Sìth carry them off to a fairy mound (a sìthean) to supply milk for the children of the fairies (the daoine sìth).
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Hero meets
4 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Cu Sith."
- George M. Eberhart, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, s.v. "Cu Sith."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Cu Sith."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Cu Sith."