This is just a post with some notes on Irish fairies. I am posting this to see if I can get a bit of feedback on spelling from interested Irish speakers over on Reddit. because I transliterated a lot of the spellings from the Irish alphabet, I’m suspicious that I might have mis-transcribed some letters:
These are notes only at this stage. Some notes (like Púca) will be integrated with the already existing Púca material in the dictionary. Some will remain stand-alone if there is nothing already existing to integrate with.
Aereog (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘an aerial being, a fairy’. Variants include Aereoige and Aereoga.
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Aereoga (Ireland) See Aereog.
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Aereoige (Ireland) See Aereog.
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Aillse (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘a fairy, any diminutive creature, a chafer, worm’.
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Amaid(e) (Ireland) And in the forms Amaidhe and aimid. Dinnenn (1904) defined this as a ghost or apparition, but also a fool or a foolish woman. It is unclear if the connotation of foolishness comes from ghostly pranks, or from some fairy connection. Fairies and the Dead were often confused in folk tradition across Britain and Ireland. Amaideach (-dighe) was to be mad, frantic or idiotic. Amaideacht (-a) was foolishness or derangement. These adjacent words hint at notions around a person being ‘fairy touched’ or perhaps a changeling.
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Aras (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘fairy-thorn (Don)’. Fairy-thorn is an alternative name for blackthorn, a tree that is closely associated with fairies in Ireland.
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Arracht (Ireland) Also in the form Arrachta and Arrachtaidhe. Dinnenn (1904) defined this as ‘a monster, a spectre’. See Arrachtach.
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Arrachtach (Ireland) Also in the form Arrachtaighe. Dinnenn (1904) defined this as ‘a monster, a spectre’ (see also Arracht), and Arrachtach sean as a ‘spectre-like old man’. Arrachtach was also used to mean mighty, tall, spectral, powerful or monstrous. Curiously, arrachta(i)r meant dignity, greatness or power, which seem more like traits of ancient heroes or godlike beings, rather than monsters. Árrachtuidhe was used in west Kerry to mean a ‘half-naked person’ or a ‘homeless wanderer’. This last usage is possibly liked to the common crossover between tramps or vagrants and goblin names. However, there is also a vague sense of monstrous insanity and powerfulness woven through the definitions. It could be that the word was connected to the idea that great heroes might turn ‘monstrous’ or frenzied in a fight.
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Badb (Ireland) In Irish myth, malignant female spirits that attended battles in the form of hooded crows or hideous hags. Badb spirits appear to have been viewed as distinct from, but similar to, Mórrigan. A diversity of war-associated spirits occur in Irish myth, some of which might have been Badb or Mórrigan, or perhaps their own unique class of spectre. From Joyce (1906):
The Badbs were not the only war-goblins. There was a class of phantoms that sometimes appeared before battles, bent on mischief. Before the Battle of Moylena (second century), three repulsive-looking witch-hags with blue beards appeared before the armies, hoarsely shrieking victory for Conn the Hundred Fighter, and defeat and death for the rival King Eoghan. Before the Banquet of Dun-nan-ged, two horrible black spectral beings, a man and a woman, came to the assembly, and having devoured an enormous quantity of food, cursed the banquet, after which they rushed out and vanished. But they left their baleful trail : for at that feast there arose a deadly quarrel which led to the Battle of Moyrath (a.d. 637). – P.W. Joyce (1906) A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland
Authors have drawn parallels to valkyries in Norse myth, who also flew over battlefields, often riding huge black-winged carrion birds. However, it is unclear whether the roles of the Babd and Mórrigan was to collect souls, as did valkyries, or rather to simply delight in the battle and act as omens of victory or defeat. From Joyce (1906):
There were war-goddesses or battle-furies, who were usually called by the names Mórrigan [morereean] and Badb [Baub or Bauv] : all malignant beings, delighting in battle and slaughter. The Badb often showed herself in battle in the form of a fennóg, i.e. a scallcrow, or royston crow, or carrion crow, fluttering over the heads of the combatants.
The Badb or Mórrigan, sometimes as a bird, and sometimes as a loathsome-looking hag, figures in all the ancient battles, down even to the Battle of Clontarf (AD. 1014). In the midst of the din and horror she was often seen busily flitting about through the battle-cloud overhead : and sometimes she appeared before battle in anticipation of slaughter. Just before the Battle of Moyrath (a.d. 637), the grey-haired Mórrigan, in the form of a lean, nimble hag, was seen hovering and hopping about on the points of the spears and shields of the royal army who were victorious in the great battle that followed. Before the Destruction of Bruden Da Choca, the Badb showed herself as ” a big-mouthed, swarthy, swift, sooty woman, lame, and squinting with her left eye.” – P.W. Joyce (1906) A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland
Badhbh (Ireland) Variants are Baidhbhe and Badhbha. Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as:
…a royston-crow; a vulture, or other ravenous bird; a scold, a swearer; a female fairy or phantom said to be attached to certain families, and to appear sometimes in the form of scald-crows or royston-crows…
Both Royston Crow and Scald Crow are alternative names for the Hooded Crow. See Badb.
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Bánánach (Ireland) In Irish mythology, Bánánach were female goat-headed spirits that attended battlefields. The belief appears to have been that their were either created or summoned by the clash of weapons, especially when two great heroes engaged in a duel. The most well known appearance in is Táin Bó Cuailgne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), where they are brought into being by the clashing of spears when Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad duel. In appearance, Bánánach were described as flying or floating spectres that had a human torso and a goat’s head. Specific references to horns exist, but the spectres do not appear to have had legs, so that they might have been imagined to look like an apparition or ghost. They do not appear to have had wings, though some modern illustrations add these, presumably because Bánánach were described as flying. The phantoms also described as swooping and shrieking. It is possible the shrieking was connected to keening for the dead, but there are descriptions of the more rare male counterpart (Bocánaigh) screaming gleefully when blows are struck. Bánánach were thought to haunt battle fields long after the battle was done and were feared and avoided, although textual accounts of a person being attacked, waylaid or otherwise harmed by Bánánach are scant.
The bán- is often explained as ‘woman’ (similar to Banshee), but ‘pale’ or ‘white’ have been argued to be more likely roots for the element. White is a colour of death throughout much of Britain and Ireland, so that a link between a pale colour and death seems likely (See White, as the colour of death).
Similar traits are seen in Geniti glinni and Demna aeoír, which seem likely to represent coined Latinisms to represent the same or similar folkloric entities.
In many remote, lonely glens there dwelt certain fierce apparitions–females–called Geniti-glinni, ‘genii or sprites of the valley,’ and others called Bocanachs (male goblins), and Bananachs (females): often in company with Demna aeir or ‘demons of the air.’ At any terrible battle-crisis, many or all of these, with the other war-furies described above, were heard shrieking and howling with delight, some in the midst of the carnage, some far off in their lonely haunts. – P.W. Joyce (1906) A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland
Bannanaig (Ireland) Described as ‘satyrs’ attending a battle between the Irish and Norse by Thomas Johnson Westropp (1910), translated from a recounting of a battle in 1014. This is probably an alternative spelling of either Bánánach or Bocánaigh. These battlefield-haunting spectres had goat heads, so that where Westropp uses the word ‘satyr’, he presumably was trying to capture the idea of a human-goat hybrid. The ban- element is probably the same as Bánánach, although the double ‘nn’ implies that there might have been a local or dialectic corruption to banna- and perhaps carrying an implication of ‘band’ or ‘company’. Potentially, there might be a loose link to words like bannradán, bannradám, bannradánach, bannradághe (a grumbling or murmuring noise). However, these are just guesses. The passage describing Bannanaig is as follows:
The first ancient writer, describing the terrors of the deadly combat of the Irish and the Norse in 1014, tells us that there was ‘a bird of valour and championship fluttering over Murchad’s head and flying on his breath.’ He also tells how there flew a dark, merciless, (and many more adjective-endowed) bodbh, screaming and fluttering over the combatants, while ‘the satyrs (bannanaig), the idiots, the maniacs of the glens, the witches, the goblins, the ancient birds, the destroying demons of the air and sky, and the feeble demonic phantom host’ arose to accompany the warriors in the combat. – Thomas Johnson Westropp (1910) A Folklore Survey of County Claire, Chapter 3, Fairies and Fairy Forts and Mounds. Folklore, 1910 (published across more than one volume).
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Bé (Ireland) A poetical name for a fairy. Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘a woman, a maiden, a goddess, a fairy (poet.). The genitive is Béithe.
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Bruidhean (Ireland) A fortress or castle, but often used in place-names to mean ‘fairy palace’ (usually implying a hill or barrow where fairies where thought to live).
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Boccanaig (Ireland) An alternative spelling of Bocánaigh.
Bocánaigh (Ireland) A male counterpart to the Bánánach. Bocánaigh appear to serve the same folkloric function and share a similar overall appearance, but are less common in texts than Bánánach. They also appear to be more prone to gleeful shrieking in response to violence on the battlefield, although given that descriptions of Bocánaigh are much more scant than Bánánach, this could simply be a matter of the idiosyncratic nuances of the texts in which Bocánaigh do appear.
Bobdh (Ireland) Described as winged phantoms attending a battle between the Irish and Norse by Thomas Johnson Westropp (1910), translated from a recounting of a battle in 1014. The similarity to Badhbh suggests these were the same spirits in the shape of crows or hooded crows.
The first ancient writer, describing the terrors of the deadly combat of the Irish and the Norse in 1014, tells us that there was ‘a bird of valour and championship fluttering over Murchad’s head and flying on his breath.’ He also tells how there flew a dark, merciless, (and many more adjective-endowed) bodbh, screaming and fluttering over the combatants, while ‘the satyrs (bannanaig), the idiots, the maniacs of the glens, the witches, the goblins, the ancient birds, the destroying demons of the air and sky, and the feeble demonic phantom host’ arose to accompany the warriors in the combat. – Thomas Johnson Westropp (1910) A Folklore Survey of County Claire, Chapter 3, Fairies and Fairy Forts and Mounds. Folklore, 1910 (published across more than one volume)
Clíodhna (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘a person wasted from sickness (M.); a famous M. fairy.’ These definition imply that the name had come to mean a person afflicted by fairies, or possibly a changeling, by the time the dictionary was written. Dinneen provides a plural form (clídhe), which seems to support an interpretation that the name might have been used as a more general term for fairies rather than specifically for the Fairy Queen Clíodhna.
In Irish mythology, Clíodhna was a Queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Clíodna of Carrigcleena ruled over the Sióga in South Munster, or Desmond. Stories about Clíodhna are preserved in several of the older Irish texts. She is associated with stories of an ancient heroic age of the Tuatha Dé Danann, but also with the idea that the Tuatha Dé Danann later took up residence in enchanted, otherworldly islands off the coast after their time had passed. In one story she greets lost sailors and gives them gifts to see them home. In another, she rides a grey horse with a golden bridle over the seas to save a man from mountainous waves. Usually, she is depicted as pleasant, fair and golden, though often, she is seems to be more pleasant and helpful to men than women. In at least two stories, she is jealous of another woman (such as he sister, Aoivil) who has the love of a man that Clíodhna wanted. She then resorts to magic and abduction to either remove the offending lady, or secret away the desired man. Variants include: Clídna, Clionadh, Clíodna, Clíona. Sometimes transliterated into Anglo-Irish or English as Cleena.
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Comhla Bhreac (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘the magic door in fairy dwellings among rocks’. Carrigcleena, an outcropping of rock south of Mallow that was sacred to Clíodhna was supposed to have had a massive square rock in the southeast corner that looked like a door. The bulk of the outcropping unfortunately has been quarried away, along with the fairy door.
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Dearg Due (Ireland) Also in the form Dearg Dur. Literally ‘red bloodsucker’, the Dearg Due is a sort of fairy ghost known for sucking blood from victims. In Waterford folklore, there was once a beautiful young woman who fell in love with a lowly farm labourer. They planned to marry, but the girl was so beautiful that her father wanted to ensure a marriage to his best advantage and forced her to marry a rich and powerful man (sometimes a ‘chieftain’) instead. After the wedding, she found her husband to be abusive and killed herself. She was buried at a place in Waterford called Strongbow’s Tree, only to return from the grave as Dearg Due. She first took the life from her father by taking the breath from his lips while he was sleeping. She then visited her husband and took not just his breath but all of his blood. Afterwards, she haunted the area, luring young men to the same fate. Strongbow, incidentally, was a semi-legendary post-conquest Anglo-Norman war leader who was known for having raided Ireland (among other things). Whether there is some importance in the connection of one folkloric figure to another is unclear. It might have been simply that Strongbow’s Tree was a place thought suitable for burying suicides, perhaps due to being at a crossroads or similar. As the site is now engulfed within Waterford, it is difficult to say what it’s earlier geography might have looked like.
Curiously, finding any reference to Dearg-Due prior to 1993 is difficult, either in the form of a printed book or in journal articles, such as in the Celtic Review, or similar. The first published reference is by Clive Leatherdale in Dracula: The Novel & Legend: a Study of Bram Stoker’s Gothic Masterpiece. This is the passage:
The Dearg-Due (the red bloodsucker) of ancient Ireland was reputed to use her beauty to tempt passing men and the suck their blood. Similarly, the Leanhaun Shee (the fairy mistress) was supposedly an eye-catching fairy whose charms were irresistible to me. Energy would be drawn from the ensnared male until he eventually wasted awa, or else procured an alternative victim to take his place. – Leatherdale, Dracula: The Novel & Legend: a Study of Bram Stoker’s Gothic Masterpiece
It is possible that Dearg Due was traditionally a variant on the Leannán Sídhe, but more recent folk-explanations for tourists might have back-filled a story that wasn’t original to the motif. Without a first-hand investigation by a folklorist in Waterford, it is difficult to determine what the traditional background to Dearg Due might have been. Plausibly, there are some oral traditions around Dearg Due that might still be unrecorded, or printed or handwritten texts that have not been digitised.
EDIT: Crimthann_fathach on Reddit has kindly helped with Dearg-Due. The Dearg-Due is almost certainly a modern invention, very likely for the local tourist trade. This perhaps helps explain why the unnamed lady was buried at Strongbow’s tree. I imagine that if a person were running a walking tour of Waterford, it would make the tour easier to discuss two things at the same location (the tree).
Dedannan (Ireland) A abbreviated variant of Tuatha Dé Danann.From Joyce (1906):
When the Milesians landed in Ireland, they were encountered by mysterious sights and sounds wherever they went, through the subtle spells of the Dedannans. – P.W. Joyce (1906) A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland
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Demna aeoír (Ireland) This appears to be a mixed Irish-Latin term for a demon of the air. Textual evidence suggests this may have been a Latinised name for Bannanaig, or similar. Alternatively, the folkloric motif of destructive demons of the air is widespread throughout Britain and Ireland, and it could be that the term was meant only to encompass the invisible ‘demons of the air’ that occur some commonly in British and Irish folklore.
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Diúch (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: an elf, a fairy (W. Ker.). Variants include Diúcha and Diúchanna.
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Diúcha (Ireland) See Diúch.
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Diúchanna (Ireland) See Diúch.
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Donn (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: ‘a celebrated fairy inhabiting sandbanks off the coast of Clare.)’. Note that Irish donn is cognate to dun and in Irish can be used to mean, brown, having brown hair, brindled or having brown spots. Brown as a fairy colour may trace back to Celtic beliefs predating the Anglo-Saxons. Brownies, The Brown Man of the Muirs and Yallery Brown all seem to be linked to a notion that brown was a fairy colour (although Yallery Brown is deep in an Anglo-Saxon area, there is some evidence for survival of isolated Brythonic speakers in and around the fen country surprisingly late). The following except describes Donn, and links him to the Tuatha Dé Danann goddess Áine:
The greatest fairy monarch in Clare was ‘Donn of the Sandhills’ (now the golf links), near the old castle of Doogh, (i.e. Dumhach or Sand Dune), near Lehinch. He, or one of the other fairy princes named Donn, appears in a list of the divine race of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and is therefore of the family of the Dagda, and, it may be presumed, a lineal descendant of the ancient Ana, Mother of the Gods. A well-known Irish scholar and antiquary, Andrew MacCurtin, before 1730 addressed a political petition to Donn of Dumhach complaining, like most Irish antiquaries, of the neglect of the gentry, and praying for any menial post at his Court. As there was none that answered, the petitioner had to rest content with the hospitality of the MacDonnells of Kilkee and the O’Briens of Ennistymon. Donn’s heartless conduct met poetic justice, for he has ever since ‘lacked a sacred bard,’ and, save for a slight uneasiness in a few poor old people passing across the sandhills after the golfers have left and the sun has set, he is now all but forgotten. In another poem of MacCurtin’s, on a monk’s horse ‘overlooked’ and killed by the evil eye, or by the look of a red-haired woman, or by ‘the stroke of a fairy,’ the poet recommends the holy man to get the aid of a local practitioner of renown, Peter the Fairy Killer. – Thomas Johnson Westropp (1910) A Folklore Survey of County Claire, Chapter 3, Fairies and Fairy Forts and Mounds. Folklore, 1910 (published across multiple volumes)
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Ellén Trechend (Ireland) A three-headed monster in Irish myth. The exact appearance seems to differ among accounts, but it is usually depicted as a three-headed carrion-bird, vulture or dragon-like creature.
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Fanntaire (Ireland) And in the plural Fanntairidhe. Dinnenn (1904) defined this as a spectre or phantom. The word is related to fanntair, weakness or fainting.
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Fiothal (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: a dwarf, anything stunted ; a fairy, a hag, a goblin. Variants include Fiothail.
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Fiothail (Ireland) See Fiothal.
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Friothóir na Rátha (Ireland) Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as ‘the head fairy’ in Connaught. Variants include Fiothail.
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Fir Caitchenn (Ireland) Cat-headed warriors in Irish myth. Much like the Fir Conchenn (dog-headed men), Fir Caitchenn served in the coalition army led by Daire Donn, High King of the Great World. They fought the Fianna at the Battle of Ventry. The leader of the cat-headed Fir Caitchenn fought the Tuatha warrior Abarthach, son of Ildathach.
In a different tale, Fionn mac Cumhaill of the Fianna fought with a cat-headed warrior named Pus an Chuine (Puss in the Corner). This cat-headed man was a son of a magical hag, and when Fionn cut off his head, the head continued to bite and attack. The head only stopped attacking and died when Fionn poured the hag’s blood onto the head. The story implies that the head continued to fight in this way because of his mother’s magic (i.e. cat-headed warriors in general don’t appear to have had this property).
Fir Conchenn (Ireland) These are dog-headed men (Cynocephalus) in Irish myth. They are described as humanlike dog-headed warriors in armour and wielding spears. Fir Conchenn fought with the Fianna on several occasions. At the Battle of Ventry, Fir Conchenn were allied under a coalition army led by Daire Donn, High King of the Great World. The Fir Conchenn themselves were evidently ruled by royalty, as their own sub-king fought against Lir of Sidhe Finnachaidh in the battle. Another instance of an Irish dog-headed warrior was Coinchenn, mother of Delbcháem in Tír Iontais (The Land of Wonder). Dog-headed warriors occur in British folklore and stories too. See Cinbin, Gwrgi Garwlwyd and Healfhundingas.
Gaborchend (Ireland) Evidently, a race of goat-headed people in Irish myth, but exact details and scant. The name would be read goat- (gabor-) -head (chend) and is sometimes spelled Gabhar Chenn, Ghabharchenn, or Gabharceann. In modern texts, gaobhar is sometimes used. Most of the information about Gaborchend is conjectural. Authors have attested variously, that Gaborchend were a minor tribe that controlled a small portion of Tír na nÓg, or that they were a minor tribe that was allied with the Fir Bolg, and were defeated and exiled at the same time that the Fir Bolg were defeated by the Tuatha Dé Danann, or that they represent an offshoot of the Formori. The Formorians do sometimes have goat horns, but tend not to be described as fully ‘goat-headed’. Assuming some of the notes and stories about Gaborchend represent a thin oral tradition that was written down only imprecisely, then the primary theme to take away seems to be of a small tribe of uncanny beings, who were either actually goat-headed, or (perhaps) very ugly. It is possible that the goat-headedness might have been intended only as metaphorical insult: goats are considered ugly creatures in Irish prose. See also Bánánach, Bocánaigh, Púca, Phooka etc for other goat-human hybrids in Irish myth.
Geniti glinni (Ireland) Apparently a mixed Irish-Latin name meaning genii (spirits) of the glens or valleys. These appear to have been fierce female spirits that haunted remote valleys. They are sometimes equated with Bánánach. P.W. Joyce (1906) provides the following:
In many remote, lonely glens there dwelt certain fierce apparitions–females–called Geniti-glinni, ‘genii or sprites of the valley,’ and others called Bocanachs (male goblins), and Bananachs (females): often in company with Demna aeir or ‘demons of the air.’ At any terrible battle-crisis, many or all of these, with the other war-furies described above, were heard shrieking and howling with delight, some in the midst of the carnage, some far off in their lonely haunts.
In the story of the Feast of Bricriu, we are told how the three great Red Branch champions, Laegaire the Victorious, Conall Cernach, and Cuculainn, contended one time for the Curathmir, or ‘ champion’s bit’ (chap, xvii., sect. 1, infra), which was always awarded to the bravest and mightiest hero ; and in order to determine this matter, they were subjected to various severe tests. On one of these occasions the stern-minded old chief, Samera, who acted as judge for the occasion, decided that the three heroes separately should attack a colony of Geniti-glinni that had their abode in a neighbouring valley. Laegaire went first ; but they instantly fell on him Avith such demoniac ferocity that he was glad to escape, halfnaked, leaving them his arms and battle-dress. Conall Cernach went next, and he, too, had soon to run for it ; but he fared somewhat better, for, though leaving his spear, he bore away his sword. Lastly, Cuculainn : and they filled his ears with their hoarse shrieks, and falling on him tooth and nail, they broke his shield and spear, and tore his clothes to tatters. At last he could bear it no longer, auJ showed plain signs of running away. His faithful charioteer, Loeg, was looking on. Now, one of Loeg’s duties was, whenever he saw his master about yielding in a fight, to shower reproaches on him, so as to enrage him the more. On this occasion he reviled him so vehemently and bitterly for his weakness, and poured out such contemptuous nicknames on him, that the hero became infuriated ; and, turning on the goblins once more, sword in hand, he crushed and hacked them to pieces, so that the valley ran all red with their blood. – P.W. Joyce (1906) A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland
Fuaidreadh (Ireland) A ghost or spectre. Also used to mean a quick dancing or capering movement, which perhaps suggests a link to Will-o-the-wisp, or similar. Also in the form Fuaidridh.
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Gósta (Ireland) A ghost. Also in the masculine form Gostaidhe. Very likely an Anglo-Irish word derived from ‘ghost’ or similar.
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Góstán (Ireland) According to Dinneen (1904) a ‘male sprite’. Confusion between the Fairies and the Dead is common in folklore. See Gósta.
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Góstóg (Ireland) According to Dinneen (1904) a ‘female sprite’. Confusion between the Fairies and the Dead is common in folklore. See Gósta.
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Gríobh-aitheach (Ireland) The word gríobh means a large claw or talon, as of belong to a bird of prey. A Gríobh-aitheach was a ‘monster with large claws’ by Dinnenn (1904). The name is likely related to Athach, Addanc and similar.
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Maochrán (Ireland) A beautiful young woman but also used to mean a fairy woman. Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) provides the following definition (with the Irish transliterated into Roman lettering):
Maochrán, a beautiful young woman, a fairy woman (occurs in the song “úr-Chill an Chreagáin,” U.) perhaps for maothráin, from maoth, soft, but the true reading in the song appears to be maoth-chrobh, soft hand. – Dinneen (1904)
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Meisi (Ireland) In Irish myth a spectre of fear. In one account, these spirits were sent against the invading Milesians by a Tuatha Dé Danann queen, Banba. From Joyce (1906):
When the Milesians landed in Ireland, they were encountered by mysterious sights and sounds wherever they went, through the subtle spells of the Dedannans. As they climbed over the mountains of Kerry, half-formed spectres flitted dimly before their eyes : for Banba, the queen of one of the three Dedannan princes who ruled the land, sent a swarm of meisi [misha], or ‘phantoms,’ which froze the blood of the invaders with terror : and the mountain range of Slieve Mish, near Tralee, still retains the name of those apparitions. – P.W. Joyce (1906) A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland
Mórrigan
Péirt (Ireland) And in the plural form Péirte. Dinnenn (1904) defined this as a beast, reptile, worm or sea monster. Uill-phéist and oillphaist were also used to mean monster, where uill, oill, and oll mean ‘great’. Piast (plurals Piaste and Piastaidhe) was used more specifically for serpent, sea-serpent, worm or tapeworm.
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Púca (Ireland)
Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary (1904) defines this as: a “pooka,” a fairy, a sprite, a hobgoblin ; fig., a surly glum person. Dinneen (1904) provides the plural pucaidhe.
Fairy adjacent words are often used for examining early modern views of a particular fairy or goblin. Púca was used to mean a pouch or bag, but this is probably derived from pocá, also meaning pouch or bag, rather than being connected to the fairy Pucá directly. Pucaidhe was used to mean a he-goat, and is connected to poc, for a male goat. There does seem to be a connection between male goat-words and Pucá, although the connection might simply be in the sense of a shared ugliness. Goats were considered ugly in Irish folk tradition. Pucán is a diminutive form used to mean a small male goat. Puchán was a disease in sheep consisting of a pustule on the lower jaw. Fairies were often thought to inflict injury or disease on humans or livestock, and the related fairy Puck is certainly connected to ideas around inflicted fairy sickness (usually minor or painful rather than lethal). Púca peill and púca peilleach (probably meaning ‘Púca’s pillow’) appear to have been words used for puffballs (Dinneen’s description: ‘an egg-like fungus or mushroom’). This is interesting, as an older English name for puffballs was ‘puck fist’. The exact lore is unclear. Puffballs are sometimes confused for being edible, and although they tend not to kill, they do cause sickness and vomiting. Given that to ‘puke’ (vomit) in English is probably derived from Puck, Pouke, etc, perhaps there was some sense that mushrooms of a poisonous type were special to Puck, or in Ireland Pucá?
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Samhail (Ireland) A ghost or apparition, but also meaning a likeness, resemblance, similitude or image. The connection to ‘copy’ words suggest this was a word for a Doppelgänger or Fetch: so an omen ‘ghost’ of the living, rather than a ghost of the dead. Also in the form Samhla and Samhlacha.
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Samhailt (Ireland) Also in the form Samhailte and Samhailteacha. Dinnenn (1904) defined this only as a ghost or apparition, without the ‘copy’ nuance of Samhail. However, Dinneen also refers the reader to Samhail, suggesting the words means (if not exactly the same thing) something very similar.
REF: [24]
Scím draoidheachta (Ireland) A ‘fairy film’ over a landscape denoting prosperity. Scím means ‘film’, and was used for a ‘film of sleep’, a fine covering, or a daze. The notion that Sídhe or Siabhraidhe (see Siabhra) might bless or bring prosperity to a land is likely linked to older beliefs about fairy folk being diminished gods or at least godlike beings.
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Seiceadúir (Ireland) Also in the forms Seiceadúra and Seiceadúiridhe. A ghost, apparition or ‘skeleton-like’ person. Also used to mean ‘an executioner’, presumably in a somewhat metaphorical sense.
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Sheevra (Ireland) A term for fairies: Síabhra, written out phonetically. The following excerpt describes fading beliefs in Sheevra in 1910:
In recent years I have met only one sign of true respect for the ‘Sheevra’ race. A small patch of land was left untilled in the midst of a cornfield at the end of the steep descent from Carran old church to Eanty in the Burren. It was left for three years amidst the tillage, and then the field was allowed to return to grass. The owners obviously disliked to explain the matter, but the act was clearly understood in the neighbourhood as a concession to the spirits of the field when the grass land was broken up for the first time in human memory.
The appearances of the fairies also seem now very rare indeed. At Newmarket-on-Fergus, a centre of much folklore, we find that, besides the two forts named above and a low earth mound (perhaps sepulchral), only one spot has been honoured by an actual apparition in the last ten years. In this case a man walking on the Ennis road, not far from Lough Gaish, saw a very little man neatly dressed in green and walking on the path. Suspecting the green man to be a leprechaun,—and hence an owner of gold,—the Clare man tried to grasp him, but the sprite vanished out of his hands. – Thomas Johnson Westropp (1910) A Folklore Survey of County Claire, Chapter 3, Fairies and Fairy Forts and Mounds. Folklore, 1910 (published across more than one volume)
Síodhán (Ireland) In the plural form Síodháin. Dineen (1904) defined this as: ‘a fairy, a goblin or a fairy abode’. Síodhán is a diminutive of Sídh. Compound words provided by Dinnenn (1904) include síodhan sléibhe: foxglove; síodh-bhrat: a fairy covering or garment; síodh-bhrugh: a fairy ‘mansion’ (fairy fort or hill); síodh-chnumhóg (-óige, óga) the silkworm; síodh-chruit: fairy harp; síodgha: silky, silk-like, silken; síodhghacht: silkiness; síodh-ghaoth: fairy wind. Most of these align well with compound words for other common Irish fairy names, like Sídh(e). Foxgloves are closely associated with fairies throughout Ireland and Britain (see Shefro and Foxglove). Fairies are associated with enchanted music, frequently harp music, and they were thought to travel about in invisible hosts on a whirlwind or similarly strong wind. The association with silk and silkiness is not surprising, but isn’t as commonly attested elsewhere. Perhaps the diminutive more strongly suggested something delicate or gossamer, when compared to a word like Sídh(e), which might have suggested strength and power instead.
REF: [24]
Síodhbhradh (Ireland) Also in the forms Síodhbhraidh and Síodhbhaidhe. Dinnenn (1904) defined this as ‘a fairy, a weakling, a very delicate person’. The connection to Síodhán implies a diminutive, which might underscore the weak and delicate aspect. It is possible this word was used for changelings, though if so, probably the weak, diminishing, feeble sort of changeling, rather than the raucous and wild sort. Changelings often displayed behaviour that was strange or out of character, but this could be either sudden and unexplained weakness and sickness, or it could be fevered madness and wildness. The more wild and crazed sort of changeling seems to be linked more closely to Síabhra.
REF: [24]
Síodh-bhruinneall (Ireland) A fairy maiden compounded from síodh, a diminutive form of Sídh. See also Síodhán.
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Síodhuidhe (Ireland) Also in the form Síodhuidhthe. According to Dinneen (1904) , ‘a fairy phantom, a goblin’. Dinnenn suggested the word was commonly pronounced síoguidhe. The name uses síodh, which is a diminutive of Sídh(e).
REF: [24]
Síománach (Ireland) Also in the form Síománaigh. This appears to be a forgotten fairy name in Irish. Dinneen (1904) defined this as both a ‘sprite’ and ‘wretch’ (fairy names often turned into insults over time), and the associated words are all fairy-ish: síomán: a blast of wind (fairies were often imagined as flying about invisibly in whirlwinds); síomán: a strap used to bind a sheaf (perhaps linked to ideas of something small, or linked to a fairy helper, as in a Brownie or Hob); síomanaidhe: tricks, pranks or pretences.
REF: [24]
Táchrán (Ireland) Also in the form Táchráin. Dinneen (1904) defined this as ‘an orphan, infant, sprite, ghost, feeble child, a weakling’ and attributed its use to Donegal. It might have been a word for Changeling, but plausibly might be related to Scottish ideas around Tarans.
REF: [24]
Taidhbhse (Ireland) A ghost or phantom. The word seems linked to ideas of being showy or putting on a show. Also in the forms Taidhbhreacha and Taidhbhridhe.
REF: [24]