The Proceedings of the Celtic-Nordic-Baltic Folklore Symposium held at University College Dublin in June 1996, this book contains twenty-seven articles which explore Celtic, Nordic and Baltic legends, tales, songs and beliefs concerning supernatural beings of sea, river and lake. By collating and investigating such materials on a comparative basis, scholars from Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland and Sweden show how folklore can provide insights into the workings of creative culture at its most enduring, and probably also at its most humanising level.