Celtic Mythology

The Intriguing Celtic Beliefs + Mythology

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“Watch out for wooden plates floating in rivers. Reach for one, and you'll be dragged down to the bottom of the river and forced to nurse the Dracae's children.”

Dracae are ancient Celtic water spirits and are shape shifting spirits that float down rivers in the form of wooden dishes in this they aim to tempt women into the water to take the dish. But to their shock-horror while recovering the dishes the Dracae pull the women down to the river and instead of drowning they are forced to care for the Dracae children.

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kel.pie

Noun: A water spirit of Scottish folklore, typically taking the form of a horse, reputed to delight in the drowning of travellers

  Another Celtic mythological creature is the which can take on different shapes but is usually  in the form of a horse. The kelpie would ride through the town giving the façade that it was merely a lost pony but it would strangely always be drenched wet and it would attempt to trick young children and women to get on and ride it. If someone got on, the kelpie  would then run into the water and drown them and then eat them. Occasionally the kelpie would transform into a handsome man to lure women in.

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leanan sidhe

Noun: (In Celtic folklore) The fairy Leanan Sidhe is a beautiful woman who offers Artists muse in exchange for their love and devotion; resulting in their madness and premature death.

Leanan Sidhe is one of many Ireland’s mythological vampires. The fairy was a beautiful woman and the muse to many poets and musicians – for the price of lives. She would make the artist love her and then she would leave and the men would become so depressed, they would die. She would then return the dead lovers to her lair and drink their blood.

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dulla-han

Noun: Headless phantom, on horseback, in Irish Folklore

  The Dullahan is a legendary Celtic creature and its name can be translated to “dark man.”

The creature is headless and carries the decapitated head in all its hideous glory and is even depicted to have a deviant grin. By holding his head high above his head, Dullahan is able to see across vast lands allowing him  to able to spy on the person who will soon die wherever they are. Dullahan is a foreteller of death as whenever he ceases riding a human dies. It is widely believed that he would merely calls out the name of the mortal to warn of an impending death. As he rode throughout the town he would drench those who he passed with blood, sometimes even removing their eyeballs with his whip which was made of a human spine.

He often portrayed in contemporary fantasy fiction and video games, this foreteller of death is the Ancient Irish version of the headless horseman.

Though like the majority of evil beings The Dullahan had a weakness, gold.

" I seen the dullahan myself, stopping on the brow of the hill between Bryansford and Moneyscalp late one evening, just as the sun was setting. It was completely headless but it held up its own head in its hand and I heard it call out a name. I put my hand across my ears in case the name was my own, so I couldn't hear what it said. When I looked again, it was gone. But shortly afterwards, there was a bad car accident on that very hill and a young man was killed. It had been his name that the dullahan was calling." -W. J. Fitzpatrick

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dearg.due

Noun (In Irish legend) Ancient Irish legend of a female vampire whom lures men in through her beauty

The legend of The Dearg-Due is a long one, the old Irish legend begins with a beautiful Irish maiden. She was renowned for her beauty throughout the land and falls in love with a man whom is of peasant status and then later they made a pact to love each other until both their deaths. 

The maidens father did not approve of the peasant and wished for his daughter to marry a rich man of higher class and so the the maidens father plans a wedding between to a rich man to his daughters dismay. The wedding went ahead and the young bride observed her father cursing him and making a promise of vengeance. 

The maidens new husband was a horrible man whom objectified her, he locked her away so he was the only one who could look upon her beauty and keep her to himself. The maiden was locked away in the dark away from everything she loved and deprived of food and drink.

Her death is rumoured to have occurred in two ways either she poisoned herself or died of a broken heart.

Noone merely blinked at the young maidens death all except for her one true love, the peasant boy. He often visited her grave speaking of desire to see her again. His desire turned to reality as a year later on the exact date she died she rose and with vengeance she found her father and placed her lips gently over his, she sucked every breath of life from him.

After sucking the life out of her father the maiden visited her husband and found him in a compromising position with a young women she became furious and not only drew all his breath but also his blood.

The blood in her deceased body made her feel alive again and she yearned for more.

She began luring men in with promise of love but would instead suck their blood and her hunger for blood consumed her.

Her obsession with blood caused her to forget her one love and she never saw him again. With only one night a year prey on men and their blood the maiden was ravenous and so she would return to her grave a bloody state.

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ban·shee  

Noun (in Irish legend) A female spirit whose wailing warns of an impending death in a house.

  The Banshee, often referred to as the wailing woman, death messenger or even woman of the fairies is a supernatural being in Celtic folklore whose mournful  screaming was believed to foresee death, the wail often meant that the person would die in a violent manner, such as murder. They were often believed to exclusively warn families of pure Irish descent.

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Basic Beliefs + The Druids

Beliefs

Like many other The Iron Age societies The Celts are believed to polytheistic meaning that they believed and worshipped multiple gods or goddesses. They often took part in sacrificing of valuable goods to them - as they believed it would keep them content. Along with these material possessions. The Celts also sacrificed animals and sometimes even humans. Archaeologists have found over 150 weapons made of Bronze and Iron at "Llyn Cerrig Bach" as the Celts often conducted sacrifices into their perception of a sacred place (lakes, rivers or bogs). 

The Celtic religion was closely connected to nature as the chosen place of worshiping gods was in places like lakes, rivers, cliffs and bushes. The moon, the sun and the stars were also of great significance all this was as the Celts believed that there were supernatural forces in every feature of the nature.

Druids  

The druids were the Iron Age equivalent of a priest, although druids took on a priest like role in society their position wasn't restricted to just that as they also took multiple roles including those of philosophers, lawyers, teachers, consolers and even magicians. They were a vital addition to Celtic Society and were educated, powerful and highly respected.

We know a little about the druids from descriptions by Roman historians. The Romans tried to limit the powers of the druids because they were so important in Iron Age society.