The incredible Creatures of Celtic Mythology and Folklore - Mythology Bestiary - See U in History

celtic mythology is one of the most diverse in the world whose stories refer to several creatures some are kind and peaceful others are hideous and cruel monsters the leprechaun is one of the best known figures in celtic mythology and is well known in irish folklore usually represented as a small man with the size between 30 and 50 centimeters the leprechaun is part of the family of elves and gnomes he lives in the bushes or in small boroughs made in the tree trunks of the forest where he spends his days working on a single shoe as the shoemaker in charge of making the shoes for the fairy people the leprechaun makes only one pair of shoes a year as these are magical and extremely rare items the leprechaun is also known to be the guardian of valuable treasures such as pots full of gold coins for this reason he usually avoids humans who driven by greed always tried to capture the leprechaun to steal the precious metal although they are almost always associated with forests and woods some creatures from celtic mythology also inhabit the seas selkies are humanoid beings that live in the sea but differ from the traditional versions of mermaids found in other cultures selkies can assume the form of seals and return to their human appearance whenever they wish to change shape a selkie only needs to swim to shore when she reaches dry land she removes her seal skin becoming a beautiful young woman when she returns to the sea selkie puts her seal skin back on and dies into the water there are also male selkies described as very handsome in human form they seek out human females who are dissatisfied with their love life if a woman wants to establish contact with a male selkie she must go to a beach and even shed seven tears into the sea the origin of selkies is mysterious some people believe that they were once human beings but victims of some curse they were condemned to live like animals until the end of their days others believe that selkies are souls of those who have drowned and are trapped between the material and spiritual worlds when we think of fairies we usually imagine kind and cheerful creatures that flutter and dance among the trees and flowers but there are also dark fairies who will do anything to harm humans a good example of an evil fairy is the lenincida also known as the fairy lover in irish folklore lenin is portrayed as an exceptionally beautiful woman who lives near the tombs in cemeteries and is always looking for male lovers especially widowers who visit the graves of their deceased wives legend has it that when a man becomes the lover of a leonin he shortens his life but is filled with pleasures and joys a no legend says that there was once an artist that had no inspiration to create his songs then alien appeared before him in exchange for his love gave him the inspiration he needed to continue his work the artist accepted the proposal and spent his days totally in love with the lienen composing the most beautiful songs ever written and making a lot of money but as days passed madness took over his mind and he died alone wandering among the hills of ireland another example of evil fairies are the fearsome banshees whose cries are so loud and terrifying that they can take a person's life banshees live in the dark regions of forest and are often found in graveyards where they wander among the graves shedding tears of grief and resentment the cry of the banshees is a harbinger of death announcing that the end of a life is near either the person who heard the cry or a close relative the legend of the banshees come from an ancient celtic custom where some women were hired to mourn wistfully the death of some important member of the nobility banshees can arise both physically and spiritually their death scream can be heard from miles away making it impossible to escape the clutches of death although they are also part of the fairy family spriggans have little in common with their relatives they are perhaps the strangest creatures in celtic mythology spriggans are usually male beings with a distorted and ugly body often made of wood and tree leaves although they are almost always small spriggans are considered ghosts of giants who even though they inhabit a more fragile body retain their enormous ancient strength in some stories they can grow enormously when they are angry briefly regaining the full magnitude of their past as giants spriggans live in old castle ruins where they guard buried treasures and love to do evil against those who offered them they are blamed for episodes of bad luck for stolen houses collapsed buildings or stolen cattle for example as was the case in many ancient cultures the celts believed in the existence of sacred and cursed places which were often inhabited by man-eating creatures kelpies are spirit beings found mainly in scottish folklore they live in the locks and dark moors kelpies look like large horses with dark fur and a cadaverous appearance they can assume a beautiful human form to lure people to the water where they are suddenly attacked and devoured by the monsters in some cases kelpies take their victims into the water devour them and throw their entrails at the water's edge despite mentioning a dark and frightening creature the legend of the kelpies was a warning to children and young people not to go alone to the lakes where they could have accidents and drown with the arrival of christianity in scotland in the 6th century folk believes were altered and the kelpies became associated with the figure of satan they began to be portrayed as a hybrid between a hoofed animal and a human body like the god pan from greek mythology belief in the spirit world also influenced a considerable part of life in celtic culture people believe that the souls of the dead will be judged by the gods and only the worthy could enter the other world but if a person were despicable cruel and dishonored in life he could be rejected by the gods and condemned to a life as a wandering spirit known as slough present in irish and scottish folklore the slaugh were the souls of evil people who even after death maintain confrontational and destructive behavior since a single spirit does not represent a great danger the slough formed groups that moved like ghostly clouds usually coming from the west they would try to enter the houses of people dying to steal their souls and then add them to their melancholy cloud for this reason the windows of a house that were faced west were sometimes kept closed to keep potential victims of the slough away another being that exists between the world of the living and the world of the dead is the cruel abbatac a vampire who rises from his grave to drink human blood the ancient inhabitants of ireland were afraid to go near the cemeteries at night as they were sure that they would be attacked by abertak legend says that the app apertac had been a dangerous dwarf connoisseur of powerful magic and someone who loved to do mischief wherever he went tired of seeing his people suffer a tribal chief who was also a great warrior killed the dwarf he was buried vertically but the next day he reappeared as a vampire more powerful than ever the tribal chief killed him a second time but the dwarf came back to life again finally a wise druid told the warrior to kill him a third time and bury the body upside down ending the monster's existence something interesting about this legend is that there is actually a place known as the giant's grave in ireland where the locals believe abertak is buried to this day as the middle ages approached many celtic legends were adapted and included in medieval tales the questing beast is a monster that appears in the king arthur legends with origins in galician portuguese folklore which in turn had many influences from celtic folklore the bestial creature was the fruit of a forbidden love between a princess and a demon therefore its very existence was evil and harmful to the world similar to the griffins of greek and asian mythology the questing beast is a hybrid of several animals with deer feet lion's tail leopard's body and snake's head as the fruit of an evil relationship the question beast could only be killed by a knight of the holy grail his end came in an epic fight against the knight palamides who is part of the medieval legend of tristan and isolde some of the oldest legends of celtic culture tell of a great war for dominance in ireland between the divine people of the tuata de danan and the demonic formorians who were giant monstrous beings from the sea or the center of the earth the greatest warrior of the femorians was the most powerful of his kind known as balor the evil eye balor was a giant according to different versions of the story he could have one two or three eyes one of them poisonous and incendiary with unequal strength and a powerful magical eye during battles balor would launch a jet of fire capable of melting and setting fire to everything in its path seemingly invincible balor was killed during a great battle where he faced a great god lug lug with a flaming spear pierced balor's eye putting an end to his reign of terror celtic mythology is so vast in its stories that it continues to be studied and unraveled to this day much of its influence can be found in current literary and somatic works [Music] you

Channel: See U in History / Mythology

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Keywords: history, mythology, balor, kelps, leprechaun, selkie, Questing Beast, Abhartach, Sluagh, Spriggan, Leanan Sidhe, banshee, celtic mythology, celtc monsters, celtic creatures, celtc folklore, see u in history, see you in history, mythology bestiary, top monsters, list of creatures

Id: 0HLv7aRohzs

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021