Trowes’ Tracks in the Highlands. They come out at night and slide down the hills on their bums, looking for treats left outside the cottage door. They love Porridge and Bangers, and big bowls of Cream!
What Are They?
TROWES:
Trow [trau] (also Trowe) is a malignant or friendly and simply mischievous fairy or spirit in Shetland folklore. They may be regarded as monstrous giants at times, or as short-natured fairies dressed in earthtone colors.
Trowes are night-time creatures, like the trolls of Scandinavian legends. They venture out of their “towie knowes” (earthen mound dwellings in the evenings. Trowes traditionally have a fondness for fiddle music.
One bit of folklore is that they like to come out at night and slide down the steep Shetland hills on their butts, leaving “Trowes’ Tracks” on the hillsides. –Partially from Wikipedia
More About Trowes: https://shetlandwithlaurie.com/the-blog/shetland-folklore-series-trows
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HENTILAGETS:
In the Shetland dialect, a tuft of wool fallen or torn from a sheep’s back which is gathered from the pasture of hillside:
“Dey wirna sae muckle ‘oo’ (wool) lost, or sae mony hentilaags i’ da hill when da sheep wis smear’d wi’ tar an’ oil.” — Shetland news, 31 March 1900.
Rhyming with Hentilagets
There once were two lambs, and their
flock it
was flung ‘cross the sea, for we saw it
must be they were kin
— they both had the same grin,
and the same black and white
hentilagets.
— The Rev. Jennifer Melnyk Deaton
Anna at Hidaway Farms in Hendersonville, NC – and Bragi at Silly Sheep Fiber Company in Walls, Shetland, Scotland 2024
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Trowes' Tracks and Hentilagets 