Exploring Celtic Mythology: Creatures in Celtic Mythology

creatures of Celtic mythology throughout this series we've discussed different gods heroes villains and strange tales but mythology and folklore are often filled with unusual creatures and monsters these creatures less than God's but stranger than men are often some of the most pervasive elements of oral tradition providing mystery superstition and fear to people for generations while this video will look at some of the most well known entities from Celtic lore including the differences from popular depictions I'll also discuss some of the lesser-known creatures to start with we have our talk known as the Irish vampire according to legend our talk was a warlord who ruled over a small Kingdom during the fifth century our talk was known for his brutality and his people greatly feared him going so far as to believe that he had powers of dark magic eventually our talks people decided to conspire against him and went to a neighboring clan in the hopes of appealing to their chieftain to slay our talk the chieftain calf on agreed to the task and later ambushed our talk easily slain him kathan proceeded to bury our talk standing up in his grave as was a tradition for kings and chieftains shockingly the next day our talk awakened from his grave and goes to his subjects demanding their blood Pathan returned to slay our talk once again killing and burying him in the same manner but again our talk rose bewildered kathan went to a druid for assistance who informed him that since our talk was already dead it was useless to slay him again instead he told Kath on to stab him in the heart with a wooden sword bury him upside down in a grave surround the grave with thorns and place a large stone on top Kevin went to our talk a third time and did as the druid instructed it is said that our talk is still there under the ground waiting for someone to remove the gravestone moving from Ireland to Scotland we have the kelpie a water spirit that can take the form of a horse or of a human generally male tales of the kelpie are spread across Scotland and vary from place to place but generally it is seen as a malevolent creature that drags humans into a body of water and devours them the stories are sometimes Bella shhhht with the concept of the kelpie leaving the victims entrails on the water's edge and children are often victimized in these tales children come across a beautiful black horse begin to pet it and climb on its back and then are taken into the water to be slaughtered unable to escape kelpies taking the form of humans generally seek out the same purpose of killing any who wander near there are some tales of kelpies being captured or killed stating that a kelpy under control has the strength of ten horses some believe the legendary Loch Ness monster to be an ancient kelpy still in Scotland although they are not strangers to Ireland either are the Katchi spirits taking the form of black cats with a white spot on their chest catch she are said to be larger than normal cats and were generally seen as a fearsome things to be avoided particularly in Scotland one of the most notable aspects of catch she was the belief that they could steal the souls of the dead before the gods could take them to counter this people were trying to distract the cat she from the body until the time when it would be buried they would hold wrestling contests to amuse the catchy music would be played and riddles would be asked and catnip was spread around away from the body additionally no fires would be lit near the body as the cat she would be drawn to the warmth catch she were also capable of placing curses and on the night of soin a saucer of milk would be laid out for the cat she otherwise it would curse that family's cows to run dry of milk a well-known tale sometimes connected to the cat she involves a farmer coming home from his fields one night seeing a procession of cats carrying a small coffin chanting about the king of cats being dead when the farmer returns home he tells his wife of what he had seen and suddenly the family cat stands up says old Tom is dead then I must be king and runs off into the night never to be seen again one creature present and stories across multiple Celtic regions as well as elsewhere is the changeling since stories of changelings vary from country to country the definition can be a little hazy but most broadly a changeling is a fairy that has been exchanged with a human baby generally stolen without warning this replacement could be a tiny adult elf an elderly fairy hoping to be coddled by humans a troll or fairy child or even a magical creation meant to fool the parents until the magic eventually fades reasons for taking a human child and replacing it vary from hoping to raise a human as a servant as a sacrifice or simply malice on their part some fairies hoped to have a human upbringing or they required human milk to survive sometimes who was believed the changelings would grow up to be hideously distorted but it was also believed that changelings could continue to grow and masquerade as humans sometimes even forgetting that they are changelings to ward off fairies from taking their children parents would often leave iron near the baby believing fairies to be afraid of it or leave other simple charms around or just keep a constant watch over the baby unfortunately things also took darker turns when parents were so convinced that their baby had been replaced that they would attempt to scare the changeling by abusing or torturing the baby this included beating or whipping the child and there is at least one reported case of a child being killed when its mother placed it in an oven another case in Ireland in 1895 involved a woman named Bridget Cleary who was burned to death by her husband who believed she was actually a changeling heading back to just Ireland we have one of the most well known Irish creatures the Banshee a banshee was a fairy spirit that was generally depicted as a pale woman young or old with long hair either white or red and bloodshot eyes from continually crying an old funeral tradition from Ireland in parts of Scotland called Keenan consisted of a woman or a group of women that would wail and cry in order to lament for the deceased some women were so skilled at Keenan that they would be renowned as professionals and would be in high demand for funerals this is believed to be the origin for the banshee who would wail and cry in the night announcing the recent or imminent death of a family member it is believed by some that each Irish family has their own banshee and whether or not a banshee is warning of an imminent demise or celebrating a recent death depends on the banshees relationship with the family it was also said that especially hate-filled banshees would continually follow an individual and wail throughout the night until the person killed themselves finally we have the most famous creature of Irish folklore and that is the leprechaun the leprechaun has perhaps been altered more by pop culture than any other Celtic creature and its early depictions in folklore paint a vastly different picture leprechauns are originally depicted as wearing red coats rather than green and their appearance varies based on region sometimes wearing a cocked hat or carrying a sword an early story involving leprechauns features a king falling asleep on a beach and waking up to see three leprechauns dragging him into the sea in turn he captures the leprechauns who grant him three wishes in exchange for their release leprechauns were most well known however for being shoemakers and cobblers and it was said you knew one was nearby listening for a small sound of a tiny hammer on nails leprechauns have traditionally always been male and there exists practically no folklore records of female leprechauns so perhaps leprechauns just spring out of holes in the ground leprechauns did traditionally have their own hoards of wealth and it was possible to relieve a leprechaun of his treasure by capturing or tricking him but leprechauns burnish Tory ously tricky themselves and loved practical jokes leprechauns have certainly become emblematic of Irish culture despite the alterations made to their design likely due to their mischievous rather than malicious nature of course there are plenty more creatures across Celtic folklore and tradition than just these there's the Dullahan the Irish Headless Horseman that uses a human spine as a whip or the Scottish selkie capable of changing between a human and a seal the Welsh have the a dry golf the famous red dragon and the Cornish have the Spriggans small fairies capable of changing the weather stealing children and casting curses many creatures of Celtic mythology have been featured in films shows books comics and video games and stories of these entities are certainly among the most unique and evocative in history while the days of extreme superstition may be largely in the past we can look back and begin to understand the things people believed when they heard cries in the night or when they saw something a little out of the ordinary you

Channel: The Exploring Series

Views: 409,693

Rating: 4.9267664 out of 5

Keywords: abhartach, kelpie, cat sith, cait sith, cat sidhe, changeling, banshee, bean sidhe, leprechaun, dullahan, spriggan, selkie, celtic folklore, mythical creatures, irish myths, irish legends, celtic legends, irish tales, tuatha de danann, irish folklore, ancient ireland, irish mythology, celtic mythology, celtic myths, celtic monsters, irish monsters, scottish monsters, irish creatures, what is a banshee, what is a kelpie, what is a cat sith, what is a dullahan

Id: sMNJb3Tc39M

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 16 2018