28-512: The Dullahan (Irish: Dubhlachan ; dúlachán , / ˈ d uː l ə ˌ h ɑː n / ) is a type of legendary creature in Irish folklore . He is depicted as a headless rider on a black horse , or as a coachman, who carries his own head. As it is not widely attested in native sources, including no references to it on the Irish Folklore Commission 's website , there is doubt as to whether
56-535: A "long whip" in Croker's tale "The Harvest Dinner", with which he lashes the horses so furiously, he almost strikes a witness blind in an eye (the would-be-victim regarded it as deliberate assault). Croker deduced that the headless creature, as a way of habit, attempts to destroy his witness's eye or eyes with his whip, reasoning that the coachman's wrath turns to the onlooker because he lacks the ability to look due to his headlessness. Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of
84-485: A 17th-century manor house outside of the town, was the site of a well-known skirmish during the Irish Civil War , known as the "Ballyhooly Massacre", despite the fact that only one person was killed. Ballyhooly is also the subject of the novel The Ghost of Ballyhooly by Betty Cavanna, which relates the story of a local girl who disappeared from the castle in the 1890s and was never found. Other books include The Ford of
112-410: A fantastical approach. It seems the religious and moral implications of animals were far more significant than matching a physical likeness in these renderings. Nona C. Flores explains, "By the tenth century, artists were increasingly bound by allegorical interpretation, and abandoned naturalistic depictions." Ballyhooly Ballyhooly ( Irish : Baile Átha hÚlla , meaning 'town of the ford of
140-488: A fit and died. Croker reports that in one legend, a Headless Coach would run back and forth from Castle Hyde to a glen/valley beyond the village of Ballyhooly , in County Cork . Nearby in the town of Doneraile , it was said that the coach would visit the houses in succession, and whichever occupant dared to open the door would be splashed with a basin of blood by the coachman. There are rumours that golden objects can force
168-461: A revolting appearance, as in Croker's tale "The Headless Horseman": ..such a head no mortal ever saw before. It looked like a large cream cheese hung round with black puddings: no speck of colour enlivened the ashy paleness of the depressed features; the skin lay stretched over the unearthly surface almost like the parchment head of a drum. Two fiery eyes of prodigious circumference, with a strange and irregular motion, flashed like meteors. According to
196-401: A ride to a cloaked female, and when he grabs her to exact a kiss as payment for the ride, he discovers her to be a Dullahan. After losing consciousness, in the church ruins he finds a wheel of torture set with severed heads (skulls) and headless Dullahans, both men and women and nobles and commoners of various occupations. Larry is offered a drink, and when he is about to compliment it, his head
224-467: Is embellished as being chewed away by worms. A Dullahan appears as a mounted horseman or a coachman driving a horse-drawn carriage out of graveyards. The rumour of a Dullahan's appearance often develops near a graveyard or a charnel vault where a wicked aristocrat is reputed to be buried. He arrives, driving the Death Coach , at the doorstep of a person whose death is approaching. According to Croker,
252-677: Is severed mid-sentence. His head reverts when he regains his senses. He loses his horse to the Dullahans. Some believe the Dullahan to be the embodied spirit of the Celtic god Crom Dubh . Legendary creature A legendary creature (also called a mythical creature or mythological creature ) is a type of fantasy entity, typically a hybrid , that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends ), but may be featured in historical accounts before modernity . In
280-526: The Holy Spirit , and the classical griffin represented a guardian of the dead. Medieval bestiaries included animals regardless of biological reality; the basilisk represented the devil , while the manticore symbolised temptation. One function of mythical animals in the Middle Ages was allegory . Unicorns, for example, were described as extraordinarily swift and uncatchable by traditional methods. It
308-547: The Hydra to be killed by Heracles , while Aeneas battles with the harpies . These monsters thus have the basic function of emphasizing the greatness of the heroes involved. Some classical era creatures, such as the (horse/human) centaur , chimaera , Triton and the flying horse Pegasus , are found also in Indian art . Similarly, sphinxes appear as winged lions in Indian art and
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#1732852564693336-452: The Piasa Bird of North America. In medieval art , animals, both real and mythical, played important roles. These included decorative forms as in medieval jewellery, sometimes with their limbs intricately interlaced. Animal forms were used to add humor or majesty to objects. In Christian art , animals carried symbolic meanings, where for example the lamb symbolized Christ, a dove indicated
364-594: The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary , a sheeplike animal which supposedly grew tethered to the earth. A variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the classical era . For example, in the Odyssey , monstrous creatures include the Cyclops , Scylla and Charybdis for the hero Odysseus to confront. Other tales include Medusa to be defeated by Perseus , the (human/bull) Minotaur to be destroyed by Theseus , and
392-551: The classical era , monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops and the Minotaur appear in heroic tales for the protagonist to destroy. Other creatures, such as the unicorn , were claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity. Some legendary creatures originated in traditional mythology and were believed to be real creatures--for example, dragons , griffins and unicorns. Others are based on real encounters or garbled accounts of travellers' tales, such as
420-403: The "Soundless Coach" (literally "deaf coach", Irish : cóiste bodhar ; Hiberno-English : Coshta Bower , corrupted to " coach-a-bower ") is the name given to the vehicle driven by the Dullahan. He is depicted as a Headless Horseman , stereotypically on a black horse, and he is either a headless body without a head or he carries his own head in his hand or under his arm. The severed head has
448-404: The "Soundless Coach" was seen passing by. In Croker's poem "The Death Coach", the carriage axle is made of a human spine and the wheel-spokes are constructed from thigh bones. A later writer prosifying this description supplied additional details, so that the "two hollow skulls" used as lanterns on the carriage are set with candles, and the hammercloth made of pall material "mildew'd by damps"
476-414: The Dullahan as its presumed driver. Cóiste Bodhar was referred to as "Soundless Coach" by Robert Lynd , who gave an account of a "silent shadow" of a coach passing by, provided by an avowed witness from Connemara . However William Butler Yeats explained that "the 'deaf coach' was so called because of its rumbling sound". According to one witness, only the silent shadow of the horse-drawn hearse , i.e.,
504-481: The Dullahan to disappear. A modern commentator stated that the Dullahan has the ability to see with the severed head and can "use it to scan the countryside for mortals about to die". In contrast, the headless coach in the tale "The Harvest Dinner" is described as a "blind (thief)", and Croker assumed he lacks sight. The Dullahan allegedly uses a human spine as a whip according to a number of modern-day (21st century) commentators. The headless coachman merely bears
532-582: The Dullahan was originally a part of the Irish oral tradition. Dullahan or Dulachan ( Irish : Dubhlachan [Duḃlaċan]) referring to " hobgoblin " (generic term; cf. Dullahan described as "unseelie (wicked) fairy"), literally "signifies dark, sullen person", according to the lexicographer Edward O'Reilly . Dulachan and Durrachan are alternative words for this "hobgoblin", and these forms suggest etymological descent from dorr/durr "anger" or durrach "malicious" or "fierce". The original Irish term contains
560-566: The South of Ireland (1828) contained a section on "The Dullahan" devoted to the lore of headless beings. The tale "The Good Woman" recounts a peasant's encounter with a cloaked female who turns out to be a Dullahan. A peasant named Larry Dodd, a resident of " White Knight 's Country" at the foot the Galtee Mountains ( Galtymore ), travels (westward) to Cashel where he buys a nag, intending to sell it at Kildorrery fair that June evening. He offers
588-409: The appearance of the "Headless Coach" foreshadows imminent death or misfortune. In "Hanlon's Mill", Michael (Mick) Noonan is returning from his trip to a shoemaker at Ballyduff, Co. Cork, and during his journey, he sees a black coach drawn by six headless black horses, driven by a headless coachman clad in black. The next morning, Mick receives news from the huntsman that Master Wrixon of Ballygibblin had
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#1732852564693616-560: The apples') is a small village and civil parish in north County Cork , Ireland. It is situated along the N72 between Castletownroche and Fermoy . Ballyhooly is home to two pubs, a church, a community centre and a petrol station with a shop. During the Celtic tiger , several housing estates were attached to the village. Ballyhooly is part of the Cork East Dáil constituency. Castle Ballyhooly,
644-551: The horn of a unicorn." This is because the translators of the King James erroneously translated the Hebrew word re'em as unicorn. Later versions translate this as wild ox. The unicorn's small size signifies the humility of Christ. Another common legendary creature that served allegorical functions within the Middle Ages was the dragon . Dragons were identified with serpents, though their attributes were greatly intensified. The dragon
672-413: The modern storyteller Tony Locke of County Mayo, the Dullahan's mouth, full of razor-sharp teeth, forms a grin reaching the sides of the head, its "massive" eyes "constantly dart about like flies", and the flesh has acquired the "smell, colour and consistency of mouldy cheese". There are also legends and tales mentioning the " Headless Coach " (also called "Coach-a-bower"; Irish : cóiste bodhar ), with
700-426: The stem dubh, meaning "black" in Irish. Dullahan was later glossed as "dark, angry, sullen, fierce or malicious being", encompassing both etymologies, though Thomas Crofton Croker considered the alternative etymology more dubious than the dubh "black" ("dark") etymology. The Dullahan is also called Colainn Gan Cheann , meaning "without a head" in Irish . "Headless Coach" ( Irish : Cóiste Gan Cheann ) or
728-440: Was always heat present in these locations. Physical detail was not the central focus of the artists depicting such animals, and medieval bestiaries were not conceived as biological categorizations. Creatures like the unicorn and griffin were not categorized in a separate "mythological" section in medieval bestiaries, as the symbolic implications were of primary importance. Animals we know to have existed were still presented with
756-472: Was believed that the only way for one to catch this beast was to lead a virgin to its dwelling. Then, the unicorn was supposed to leap into her lap and go to sleep, at which point a hunter could finally capture it. In terms of symbolism, the unicorn was a metaphor for Christ. Unicorns represented the idea of innocence and purity. In the King James Bible , Psalm 92 :10 states, "My horn shalt thou exalt like
784-417: Was supposed to have been larger than all other animals. It was believed that the dragon had no harmful poison but was able to slay anything it embraced without any need for venom. Biblical scriptures speak of the dragon in reference to the devil, and they were used to denote sin in general during the Middle Ages. Dragons were said to have dwelled in places like Ethiopia and India, based on the idea that there
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