Cirein-cròin

Ceirean,^[1] Cirein-cròin^[1] or cionarain-crò^[2] was a large sea monster in Scottish Gaelic folklore. An old saying claims that it was so large that it fed on seven whales: Local folklores say this huge animal can disguise itself as a small silver fish when fishermen came in contact with it.^[3] Other accounts state the reason for the disguise was to attract its next meal; when the fisherman would catch it in its small silver fish form, once aboard it changed back to the monster and ate him.^[4]

A saying, as recorded by Alexander Robert Forbes, goes:^[2]

Gaelic	Translation	Notes
Seachd sgadain, sath bradain;	Seven herrings, a salmon's fill;
Seachd bradain, sath ròin;	Seven salmon, a seal's fill;
Seachd ròin, sath mial-mòr-mara	Seven seals, a large whale's fill	(Mial here is archaic; killer whales eat seals, but baleen whales do not.)
Seachd mial, sath Cirein-cròin	Seven whales, a cirein-cròin's fill

A second version of the saying maintains the first two lines, but changes the later parts and ranks the "Cionarain-cro" second to the "great sea animal".^[2][5] In Carmina Gadelica, Alexander Carmichael attested this version to a cottar named Kenneth Morrison, in Trithion, on the Isle of Skye, from whom it was recorded in 1860.^[5]

Gaelic	Translation (Carmichael)[5]	Notes
Seachd sgadain, sath bradain;	Seven herrings, feast of a salmon;
Seachd bradain, sath ròin;	Seven salmon, feast of a seal;
Seachd ròin, sath muice-mara bheag;	Seven seals, feast of a little sow of the ocean;	("Sow" and "sow of the sea" are common terms for a whale.)[5]
Seachd muice-mara bheag, sath muice-mara-mhor;	Seven little sows of the ocean, feast of a large sow of the ocean;
Seachd muice-mara-mhor, sath cionarain-cro;	Seven large sows of the ocean, feast of a "cionarain-cro";	(Carmichael tentatively identified the "cionarain-cro" with the "kracken".)[5]
Seachd cionarain-cro, sath mial-mor-a-chuain;	Seven cionarain-cro, feast of a great beast of the ocean.	(Carmichael tentatively translated "mial-mor-a-chuain" as "great sperm whale".)[5]

Forbes identifies the creature as a large sea serpent,^[2] but this is arguable^{[according to whom?]}. He also proposes it as a dinosaur:^[6]

It is not known what this monster animal was, though it may well have been one of these "Giant fish-destroyers," so ably, inler alia, described by Dr Carmichael M'Intosh, which waged war in sea and on land against all and sundry as well as against each other, viz., the gigantic Deinosaurs [sic], some of which, notably the Atlantosaurus, reached to one hundred feet in length with a height of thirty feet, and proportionately awful of aspect.

See also

• Jörmungandr - a large sea worm from Nordic mythology
• Stoor worm - a large sea worm from Orcadian folklore