[3] Other theories propose that the name derives from the Irish war goddess Neamhain,[4] or is connected to water-spirits such as the Nixie, Nokke or even Neptune.
In a "flyting" or exchange of comical insults in verse, Montgomerie described the birth of Patrick Hume (referred to as Polwart throughout the poem).
In his story, Polwart is the hideous offspring of an elf and an ape, conceived during the Halloween procession of the King and Queen of the Fairies.
In 1801, John Leyden wrote that Nicneven was one of the "popular appellations" of "the gyre-carlin, the Queen of Fairies, the great hag, Hecate, or mother-witch of the peasants.
"[8] Robert Cromek gave a more colorful description:"We will close our history of witchcraft with the only notice we could collect, of a celebrated personage, called the Gyre Carline; who is reckoned the mother of glamour, and near a-kin to Satan himself.
She is described as wearing a long gray mantle, and carrying a wand, which, like the miraculous rod of Moses, could convert water into rocks and sea into solid land.
"[9]Writers such as Sir Walter Scott conflated Nicneven not only with Hecate but with other queens of fairies and witches like Diana and Herodias.