“When the Tuatha Dé Danann lost their dominance, they grew smaller in popular imagination over the centuries, turning from a pagan pantheon of gods and goddesses into the aos sí – the fairy folk.” — W.B. Yeats
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Celtic Tales — Every Saturday In October on PEACH Radio — 7PM
The Áes Sídhe (eess – shee) — Supernatural Race in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic Tradition. The áes sídhe are considered to be the descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the ancient pagan gods of Ireland who retreated into a parallel, invisible universe after losing a war to the mortal Milesians.
They are not small, winged pixies; they are powerful, magical, and demand deep respect. They live in ancient burial mounds, portals, or “fairy hills” (sídhe). While they can be generous neighbors who grant blessings, they are fiercely territorial. Harming their sacred hawthorn trees or fairy rings can result in swift, severe retaliation.
The Nuckelavee — The Devil of the Sea
The nuckelavee are the most malicious and repulsive monster in Scotland’s Northern Isles. They emerge entirely from Orcadian folklore, intersecting with the Celtic sea-lore and Norse mythology. This creature has zero redeeming or helpful qualities.
On land, it manifests as a massive, skinless horse fused with a grotesque human torso on its back. Its raw, exposed muscles pulse with black blood inside yellow veins. Its huge human head gushes toxic, foul breath that destroys crops, sickens livestock, and spreads epidemics. It hates the smell of burning seaweed and is restrained to the sea during summer months by the benevolent Mither o’ the Sea. It cannot cross running fresh water.
A Broonie (brunaidh, brownie) —Helpful Household Spirit.
They are called “brownies” because of their tawny, wrinkled, brown complexion, scruffy appearance, and ragged brown clothing.
These benevolent hobgoblins, nocturnal fairies or household fairies, sleep during the day and sneak out at night while the family sleeps to do farm chores, churn butter, and clean.
Families leave a small bowl of milk, cream, or porridge by the hearth for them in appreciation, but never as payment. If you try to pay them, you will insult them, and they will become malevolent and leave, which means they could take all the good fortune of the house with them. If you gift them clothes, they will vanish forever.
The Banshee (bean sidhe) is a demon, a spirit, and a fairy. She is a supernatural being from the Gaelic Celts. Her name means “woman of the hills.” There are a number of threads that describe her real origins. Some folklore says she she dates back to the Tuatha Dé Danann, this story says she was one of the fairies defeated by the mortal Milesians. Others say she was the Goddess Bridgid (queen of fertility, hearth fires, and poetry). Bridget is said to have lost her son Ruadán in the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, also called Moyturain. This event caused her to go mad, and seek forever vengeance, an attachment to the members and descendants of Ireland’s oldest families of pure Milesian stock. The Banshee will never leave nor forget them, she will force them into poverty, and will haunt them until the last member has been gathered to his fathers in the churchyard. [See the history for the list of names]. Fear not! For the banshee will only haunt pure-blooded Irish people.
Elliott O’Donnell (1872–1965), a well-known writer on ghosts, the occult, and Irish folklore, scoffs at this idea. “In my opinion, to be haunted by the Banshee one must belong to an Irish family that is, at least, a thousand years old; were it not so, we should assuredly find the Banshee, haunting certain of the musical and poetical geniuses of every race all over the world… which certainly is not the case.”
Which brings us to the banshee and traveling. Yes, due to the Irish diaspora, they do travel, but they travel only with members of these old families. Therefore there are banshees all over the world.
It is said she warns of the impending death of someone nearby through her screams. This high-pitched sonance is known as keening. These eerie sounds embrace moments of silence and outbursts of weeping. Her song is hideous screams and cries, she howls as she hovers near the window.
To know if she has come to look in on you, especially those who worshiped her, will find her footprints in the ash near the hearth.
The banshee is not malevolent, and often acts as a messenger between the living and the dead. Being a shape-shifter, her appearance can vary from a beautiful maiden to a wretched hag. When she is seen as a beauty, she appears as a ghost-like youth who is reminiscent of a family member. She has also been described as a child whose cherubic chant once welcomed chieftains to the churchyard.
Finally, remember, the next time you’re lying in bed and hear the clatter of an errant shutter followed by a faint, sorrowful cry, don’t be too quick to blame the wind…
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NOTE: Modern historians believe that the medieval Christian invented this story, blending local folklore with biblical and classical origins.
The Doullahan — The headless horseman in Irish folklore is The Doullahan. He rides a fearsome black horse carrying his head and a whip made from the spine of his last victim.
He hunts only the soul of a marked man and calls out only one word, the name of his victim. He rides endlessly searching for only one soul to collect.
Locks, gates, bars, and closed doors cannot block or keep him away. There is no way to stop him save one, gold. Throw gold at him, and this precious metal is the only way to ward him off. Make sure you always wear something made of gold, no matter how small, so that you can fling it at him. It’s the only way to save your soul, at least until the next day.
The Doullahan will never stop. As long as he has the name of a soul on his lips, he will track them down. You can not change your name to hide, your fate is sealed, you can not stop a Dullahan!
In the US, if he comes around, we throw candy corn at him.
The Kelpies are shape-shifting water spirits from Scotland. They appear as a sleek black or white horse near lochs and rivers, or as a human with water weeds in its hair. They lure travelers and children onto its back, which has a sticky, glue-like skin that traps them before dragging them underwater. Folklore is too often used as a way to warn children against playing near dangerous, deep bodies of water.
The Milesians — the last race of invaders to settle in Ireland before the Christians were The Milesians. They are thought to be modern humans. They conquered the Tuatha Dé Danann, sending them underground. They buried the goddess Bridged and her divine kin.
The Origin: The Christian text Lebor Gabála Érenn — The Book of the Taking of Ireland.
The Milesians were Gaels who sailed to Ireland from Iberia. They were named after Míl Espáine, Latin for “Soldier of Hispania”. When they arrived, they fought and defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann. The two groups agreed to split the land: the Milesians claimed the surface world, thus becoming the ancestors of the Irish / Celtic people, while the Tuatha Dé Danann moved underground into burial mounds (síodh or sidhe).
It is further believed that the Milesians originally came from Ancient Greece — Ionia. Moreover, they were part of the Miletus Philosophy — Pre-Socratic Philosophers who developed the school of natural philosophy during the 6th century BC, founded by Thales and his exceptional students Anaximander & Anaximenes. However, more and more people today find the Milesians more of a myth than the Tuatha Dé.
Sìdh, sídh, sìth, shee — a Gaelic term meaning fairy mound or hollow hill and the supernatural race of fairies or ancestral spirits, Aos Sí, that dwell inside them.
This is a very large hollow earthen mound it inclines deep underground and serves as a megalithic tomb and portal to the Celtic Otherworlds. Over time, its meaning has gone from a place describing supernatural beings to the people who now live there known as the Aos Sí, “the People of Peace.” The idea comes from the Old Irish síd, and is traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *sed- meaning “to sit” (sharing a root with words like sit or sedentary).
According to Gaelic Folklore, The Tuatha Dé Danann retreated to this underground sídh after the coming of mortals.
Scary Celtic Mythological Stories — the eerie side of Celtic folklore
- The Abhartach (The Irish Vampire) — A cruel, dwarf-like wizard chieftain who refused to stay dead. Every time his subjects slew him and buried him upright, he rose from his grave to demand a bowl of blood from his people’s veins. He was only stopped when buried upside down surrounded by thorns.
- The Sluagh (The Host of Unforgiven Dead) — Flying, flock-like spirits of the unrepentant dead who hunt the night sky for lonely souls. They fly from the west, swooping down to abduct mortals or force living men to shoot deadly arrows at cattle and humans.
- The Dullahan (The Headless Horseman) — A terrifying, unearthly herald of death who rides a black steed, carrying his rotting head tucked beneath his arm. Wherever he stops riding and calls out a mortal name, that person instantly drops dead.
- The Púca (The Shapeshifter) — A malicious spirit that takes the form of a sleek black horse with glowing golden eyes. It coaxes weary travelers onto its back, taking them on a terrifying, bone-breaking ride through bogs and briars before throwing them off at dawn.
- The Cailleach (Goddess of Winter) — Celtic Crone, Goddess of Winter. The Cailleach is a divine hag, a creator deity. She is the Gaelic goddess of winter, storms, and the landscape in Irish, Scottish, and Manx.
- Áine Chlair (Áine Cliar) is the Irish goddess of summer, light, wealth, and Sovereignty. She is known as a Queen of the Fairies.
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~Celtic Tales — Every Saturday In October On PEACH Radio — 7PM
