Nature spirits, Brook Horses inhabit fresh waters such as rivers, lakes, marshes and streams. Beautiful and alluring, they have a bloodthirsty nature and will drag a person into the water to drown.
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The Brook Horse can manifest as a creature of incredible beauty. It may be all black or all white, stallion or mare, with flowing mane and tail and big soft eyes with long lashes. In a flash it can turn to a terrible monster.
Humans can get stuck to the Brook Horse if they touch its mane. Like the nixie or Nyx, another Germanic water spirit, Brook Horses are beautiful and irresistible. A person who touches the mane becomes entangled, to be pulled to a watery death.
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The Brook Horse's favorite tactic is to let a passerby come close, and coax the human onto its back with endearment in its big brown eyes. Once astride, the person is in the horse's power and can't leap off as the steed victoriously plunges into the water.
The Brook Horse is not a horse per se, but a malevolent water spirit in the form of a horse. It can change from graceful and enchanting to a hideous beast hungry for human flesh and blood. Brook Horses are also known to seek vengeance on those who have wronged them.
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These canny water spirits can be tricked and captured. Iron will negate their magic. They can serve as plow or carriage horses. However, if they come close to water they'll do their best to escape and drag the hapless owner into the murky depths forever.
If Brook Horses escape capture they seek lethal vengeance on the person who imprisoned them. The magical equines are wild spirits of the nether realms, who can never be tamed. Capture is degrading especially as they consider themselves far superior to humans.
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Brook Horses are most common in Europe and Scandinavia. In Scotland they're kelpies; the Welsh call them Ceffyl Dŵr. Other water spirits include Wihwin of South America. This malevolent sea creature is shaped like a horse with big teeth.
Wihwin lives in the mountain ridges in summer and prowls for human prey at night. The Bunyip, a related flesh-eating amphibious creature, appears in south Australian aboriginal lore. Lurking in swamps, billabongs, waterholes and creeks, it waits to snatch the unwary.
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In the Lora Ley Fantasy Fiction series, recurring character Skoldt is a vegan Norwegian Brook Horse. A sensitive guy who loves gardening, he can turn into a monster if threatened. He doesn't like human people and tends to avoid them.
The Lora Ley books are a series based on a young woman's discovery of her half-Nyx nature in 19th century Germany. She travels to fantastic realms inspired by myths of Germania, and grows from a rebellious girl to a true warrior woman.
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Brook Horses and Nyx are among the most beautiful and deadly of Germanic nature spirits. In folklore they're often used as Kinderschrecken, or 'child frights' to keep kids from wandering too close to unstable shorelines, swamps and wells.
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