Armúgha

The Armúgha is a devious water spirit in Sumric mythology, most well known in the story Anaráúf a h-Armúgha

Anaráúf a h-Armúgha
Anaráúf /anara:uf/ is a Terchne woman who lives in the small coastal village called Lefemú which lay by the banks of an estuary where the freshwater met the salt sea. Not far from Anaráúf's cottage was a small stream called loríäna with water that had a slight sweet taste to it, this was due to a species of tree called Än which grows alone by the stream, the tree has a very sweet resin which gives the entire tree a sweet taste from bark to fruit.This resin has a quality which is harmful to spirits, the fruit is eaten to temporarily fend of spirits or the resin is mixed in soil around a cottage to prevent spirits from entering. the water of this stream eroded some of the soil by roots which caused some of the tree's sweetness to be absorbed into the water itself. Anaráúf's father was a fisherman so she often found herself sitting outside the cottage mending his nets. One day while she fixing a tangled mess she saw man walk not far from her cottage, curiously he was soaking wet. He looked upon Anaráúf's beauty and called out "Rúe! (sweetheart), may I see a smile on your face?"

"For what?" She replied,

"For the joyous tune it may play for my heart to dance to"

She couldn't help but grin at the man's words. She gave a smile then he wandered of.

The next day she was again mending her father's nets, and again she saw the soaking wet man walk by, he called out to her "Rúe! may I see a smile on your face?"

"For what?" She replied,

"For beauty herself said that no smile is more graceful than her own, but a smile from you will prove her wrong"

Once again she grinned at the man's words, happy with the result he wandered off again.

The next day she was again mendin her father's nets, and once more the soaked man passed by, he called out to her "Rúe!, may I see a smile on your face?"

"For what?" She replied

"Walk over to me and I may tell you"

As she has been so far charmed by the man she put down the net and walked away from the sweet Än soil that surrounded her cottage. As she neared the man she noticed something odd, besides him being soaked to the bone, he appeared to have a tail hidden behind his legs. At first Anaráúf though she mis-saw something, but a second looked proved that there was indeed a tail on the man. Only when she was a few steps away from him did she realise that he was no man but rather an Armúgha or 'water wolf', a spirit which dwells in lakes or estuaries with the shape of a slender wolf, they often lure people to get close to them by pretending to be a friendly stray dog or by taking on other forms, once someone gets close they wrap their tail around the prey and run into the nearest body of water and drown the victim, after which they eat them all except the lungs, but no matter what it looks like it will always be dripping wet. Upon her realisation Anaráúf ran as fast as she could but the slender Armúgha was fast on her heels. She could never outrun the spirit for much longer so she ran for the loríäna stream and jamp in it. As the Armúgha was attempting to stop itself Anaráúf splashed a lot of the sweet water in the Armúgha's direction. The water caused the spirit to let out a great howl and retreat into the salty sea water. From then on the fruit of the Än tree was often on the menu in Anaráúf's cottage.

Notes

The name Anaráúf is thought to come from a corruption of än + arú + áfú roughly meaning  'än removes the wolf'.