Sea Mither

Each spring she battles with her arch-enemy Teran, another spirit of Orcadian legend capable of causing severe winter storms, to gain control of the seas and the weather.

Stories of the Sea Mither and Teran are among Orkney's oldest legends, perhaps invented to explain the vagaries of weather and other naturally occurring events.

[2] The name of her opponent, Teran, is local Orkney dialect meaning "furious anger",[3] and may be a derivative of tyrren, Norse for "angry".

[6] As autumn approaches, Teran takes advantage of Sea Mither's exhaustion to break free, and conflict between the two starts again.

"[4] Several ancient myths were based upon the natural elements of the turbulent and ever changing sea surrounding Orkney,[11] but the stories of the two spirits are among the oldest legends on the islands.

[4] People had to be able to explain the vagaries of weather and other natural life cycles without the benefit of science; Traill Dennison hypothesises that this is why "the imagination of some half savage" may have formed the foundations of the myth.