The Many-Legged Strangers

Each community remembers them differently, and tellings disagree on whether they are an omen, a test, a reward, a swindler, or any other great or foul thing under the sun. One consistency remains: they always have an abnormal number of legs.

One version of the tale, popular with children, reports these legs to be in the form of a skirt of skeletons, either human or animal, that rattle as they walk: this version of the stranger is often portrayed as teaching outlandish dances, hiding piles of grain within socks, and occasionally stealing a limb from livestock whilst leaving it unharmed.

A less childish variant states that someone who refuses to give the stranger supplies or entrance to the community when asked may find their leg rattling about the stranger's waist the next time they awake.

Another, more absurd, version declares that the strangers' many legs are entirely flesh and blood functional legs, with numbers ranging from 4 to more than 10. This iteration of the stranger is only seen at night, lurking around the outskirts of a community; should someone approach and ask any question, it will give a true answer, though queries about their many legs are simply met with , “It lets me get places faster,” and nothing more. Come sunrise, the only remnants of their visit are the many footprints leading away. Those who choose to follow them meet fates ranging from finding large piles of grain or a rochaithe to disappearing forever, getting lost in the wilderness. The 'flesh' many-legged stranger is sometimes believed to be one of death's many faces for individuals doomed to die whilst travelling.

Endless debate has sprung from the tale of the many-legged stranger within communities, and even in modern times, they retain cultural relevance with several plays, books and interactive multimedia featuring them in some capacity.