Princess Mary and Grampus the Black

Many travelers pass through the waters of the Kyle, that slab of dark water that presses itself between the Isle of Skye and the mainland. Many travelers pass and most are welcome but there is one sea-going wanderer that is not. He does not pass often on this route but when he does he is not welcome. He is Grampus the black.

          Princess Mary first met Grampus as a child in her homeland of Norway. It was then, as a child of six that she saw his cunning and his malice towards man. Fishing with a friend, a boy of some twelve years, they had drifted a little farther from shore than might have been wise. Perhaps it was foolish for the boy to have been standing as he put the bait on his hook, but it was a calm day and the little boat sat like a reflection on the smooth fjord.

Mary had seen a black wave rise from the icy water, the boat had rocked and the boy had fallen in. He was only a few feet from the boat but Grampus the Black rose up out of the water between them, glistening like wet leather, blocking the boy’s escape. Slowly and ever so gently, the great black beast nudged the boy farther and farther from the boat. When they were some way away he disappeared and the boy began his journey back. It was cold and the boy was tiring. Then, with just a few feet for the gasping boy left to swim, Grampus appeared between them again. Once more he pushed and nudged the boy away from the boat, once more he disappeared. The game repeated itself two or three more times, each time creature thwarting the boy as he reached for out for the boat, each time pushing the boy away and then disappearing. Finally the boy became too weak to make the journey back. Drained by the cold he too disappeared.

Mary, though little, managed to row back to shore and tell of what she had seen. Out in the bay Grampus roamed back and forth for the rest of the day, triumphantly spraying from his blowhole and leaping from the water. In the morning the body of the boy was found, unmarked, and Grampus the Black had gone.

Many years had past since that day and many things had changed but the memory of the Grampus stayed with Mary. Sometimes as she rowed out to collect the toll from the passing ships she would start as a black shape moved in the water. Memories would stir and the image of the black beast would rise to the surface. But the shape was never more than a shoal of fish or a  smooth dark swell.