A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

The extract headed Luridan places this familiar on Pomonia, the largest island of the Orcades. He replaces household servants by sweeping rooms, washing dishes and preparing fires before anyone rises. He also speaks about his identity, claiming to be the island’s astral genius. The attributed speech places him earlier at Jerusalem in the time of Solomon and David under the name Belelah, and later in Wales instructing bards in poetry and prophecy under the names Urthin, Wadd and Elgin. These are the familiar’s claims within the printed account, not a documented historical biography.

Luridan says his remaining time is short and that after seventy years he must yield his place to Balkin, described as lord of the northern mountains. Black and Thomas cite the Discourse upon Divils and Spirits in the 1665 edition of Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, rather than locating this passage in Scot’s original 1584 edition. A separate bracketed extract, attributed to an 1819–1820 Quarterly Review discussion of a Book of Vanagastus the Norwegian, presents Luridan as an air spirit sent on distant northern journeys by a magician and hostile to the fiery spirits of Mount Hecla. The domestic servant and fire-opposing traveller are distinct cited descriptions assembled by the later compilers.

Unseen household labourSpeaking familiarClaimed changing namesPredicted successionAerial traveller in separate extract
01

Origins & earliest records

Black and Thomas, County Folk-Lore III (London: David Nutt, 1903), pp. 46–47. Their source note identifies a 1665 Discourse and a separate Quarterly Review extract.

02

Records & interpretation

The visually inspected 1903 printed extract preserves its cited earlier witness. The earlier manuscript or publication has not been independently collated, and narrated actions are not externally verified events.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    County Folk-Lore III: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore concerning the Orkney & Shetland Islands

    Collected by George Fraser Black; edited by Northcote W. Thomas · 1903

    pp. 46–47, Luridan. Cites the 1665 Discourse upon Divils and Spirits, book II, chapter IV, through Nicholson’s edition p. 511; separate Quarterly Review 1819–1820, vol. XX, p. 367.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary printed compilationBlack and Thomas 1903, printed pp. 46–47Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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