With all of the self-distancing and quarantining I’ve been doing during this COVID-19 chaos, I found myself pretty bored. When bored, I tend to read a lot. Lately, I’ve been into folktales, legends, and myths. I’ve always been intrigued by cultures and their histories, where their ideas for mythical beings come from and if you are too, I’d recommend a podcast by Aaron Mahnke aptly named “Lore”. The Lore podcast is where I first heard of banshees, pookas, and changelings — which are all common to Irish lore.
Ireland has a unique Celtic culture, many of their folklore contain warrior tales, romance and tragedies, ghost stories, and tales of supernatural beings. The wonderful thing about Irish folklore is that there are different variations of the same tale, due to oral tradition and a storyteller’s creative imagination while changing details to suit their audience. The tradition of oral storytelling and different variations of a story gives current authors influenced by mythology a way to create their own versions and therefore creating a new canon of Irish tales for future generations. However, there are a few creatures who are common in Irish legends that we can find elsewhere: fairies, goblins, and demons — although they do have different names in Irish lore.
While there are some legends that you may have heard of, I’ve complied a list of some of the most “common” of Irish lore.
Irish folklore talk of the banshee, whose song (or wailing, as some legends state) at night symbolizes the death of a family member of whomever heard the banshee’s scream.
While we do not know exactly what the Banshee looks like, Irish legend states that she is heard by her “keening” which is a typical Irish lamentation wail for funerals.
Finn MacCool (Fionn Mac Cumhaill) was the leader of Irish warriors called Fianna. Both Finn and the Fianna were known to be incredibly large and incredibly strong. In spite of this formidable physical appearance, Finn was known to be generous and wise. Finn and the Fianna play parts in many tales of Irish lore.
Children of Lir is one of the most popular tales in Ireland. The story begins with Lir and his wife having four children, tragedy strikes and the wife dies. Later, Lir remarries, but the new stepmother is jealous of how much attention Lir gives to the children — so she turns them into swans. They remained as swans for hundreds of years, being miserable and sorrowful the entire time.
Changelings are part of some of the most sinister of Irish lore. It is the idea that a fairy could steal a child away and leave an awful substitute in its place. It is believed that a parent would know they had a changeling because their baby would suddenly be ill, however, the child’s appetite would never be sustained. The replacement child would most likely be deformed, or aloof, sometimes colicky and unsettled. However, to modern readers the symptoms that changelings portrayed could be conflated with autism, downs syndrome, or other developmental disorders. Because previous Irish generations subscribed to these tales of changelings, it is believed that many of these disabled children would have been treated harshly.
This image features faeries and a changeling, who is represented in white.
The Pooka is the Irish goblin. It is considered the most mischievous fairy as it enjoys lying, causing havoc, and terrifying humans. A Pooka can take almost any shape it chooses, but the typical forms include those of a dog, rabbit, old man, or a dark horse. Pooka’s have the power of human speech and enjoy “embellishing” the truth. There are different types of goblins in Irish lore, but the Pooka is one of the most common referred to in legend.
The myth of Leprechauns is still one of the most well known of Irish mythology, although they are rarely seen in early lore. As part of the fairy family, a leprechaun is known to be devious, smart, and quick-witted. Leprechauns are also thought to be only 2 or 3 feet tall, with beards and green coats. Leprechauns are not only tricksters, but also shoemakers and dancers.
These tales are only the beginning of a rich and diverse world of Irish folklore, there are so many more legends and myths out there! Like some of the Brothers Grimm tales, they may not all be appropriate for youngsters, but are nonetheless very compelling. The stories told in Irish folklore are meant to be taken as didactic or are told to describe why certain things happen. If you are interested, I found a few websites that have links to books containing Irish myths, legends, and folklore — which is where I got most of my information for this post! And, if you’re a fan of the physical book experience, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and even some local libraries carry copies of Irish Folklore compilations.
Websites:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Guide-to-Irish-Fairy-Tales
https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/ireland.html
https://www.libraryireland.com/Folklore.php
Barnes and Noble: (I’d recommend the W.B. Yeats one, who compiled the stories himself!)
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0815602189/qid=1043511807/sr=1-1