People have always loved to be frightened. It doesn’t stop at being a child. It just stops at there being monsters under the bed and broadens into much more frightening ideas. Most of the superstitions are about death or bad luck as one of the deepest fears of society is our mortality. Way back, the monsters under children’s beds were probably used to distract them from the fears of a bad harvest, disease, war ect. However these days it’s rather sad that the monsters under children’s beds aren’t half as horrific as some of the humans roaming outside their walls.
Anyway we all know the obvious bogeyman, vampire, werewolf, gremlins, and recently what terrifies my little cousin… slenderman. These things never bothered me as a child as they always seemed to have an obvious given weakness. However my research for my book containing some Celtic mythology unearthed some creepy stuff. The Celticmyths have an ‘otherworld’ across a veil, where the deities, fey folk and some nasty stuff live. These creatures live a damn long time; they remain forever young as time passes differently there. One day there will equal a century here.
The fey folk are pretty prominent in Celtic myths. Take your minds of little dolly cute things sat in flowers because they are nowhere close. There are social faeries’ who dance, feast, sing and generally enjoy being alive. Apparently they tend to wear green. If you cross these folk’s path you won’t get into much trouble (hopefully). However, there are the solitary fey.
The first I read about and quite commonly known is the banshee. She is a tall, beautiful wraith-like figure who foretells the death of a person. She normally attaches herself to a family and lets out a blood-curdling scream outside the household, warning those within one is to die. Her screams will be heard three times before the death. She has blood-red eyes from crying constantly. Some hear her sobs.
The pooka may also be known. It is a mischievous shape shifter who often takes the form of a elegant black stallion, offers weary travellers a rest on his back then rides them deep into the sea and takes pleasure in drowning them. It appears on Samhain Eve (the pagan festival of the dead) and likes to spoil blackberry.
Getting more disturbing is the Bean Nighe (Washer at the Ford), a woman wraith that died in childbirth. She can be identified as wearing green and has webbed feet. She is found at streams or lakes, washing the bloodstained clothes of those who are to die. In order to avoid death, the doomed person must seize her breast and suck on it without her seeing you first. This person then becomes foster child of the wraith and is protected. Ew…
Another legendary Irish monster is the Dullahan, a name that can be translated to “dark man.” The Dullahan rides a headless black horse with flaming eyes, carrying his head under one arm. When he stops riding, a human dies. Some versions of this legend say that the Dullahan throws buckets of blood at people he passes, while other say he simply calls out the name of the mortal that will soon die.
I can’t really remember anything from my childhood that disturbed me so much as some of those creatures (aside from the pink rabbit) If any of you readers have any, please comment below I’m interested in what haunts people’s imagination,
Cerridwen.