The bodach is a mythical creature in Scottish Gaelic and Irish folklore, invoked in recent times as a nursery bogeyImaginary being invoked by adults to scare children away from dangerous places or frighten them into good behaviour. to frighten children into good behaviour. But it was once considered much more formidable as the bodach glas, an omen of death, as in Walter Scott’s novel Waverley.[1]
Bodach is a Scottish Gaelic term for a “churlish old man”,[2] which in its guise as a nursery bogey, comes down the chimney to kidnap naughty children.[3]