Dedicated to the study of fairy tales and fairies.              .

Enter your search terms   Web www.zeluna.net Submit search form Fairy Tales Home Fairies Norse-Franco-German Fairy Tales Norse Franco German Fairies Gernan Fairy Tales Swedish Fairy Tales Norwegian Fairy Tales French Fairy Tales & More tales Celtic Fairy Tales Celtic Fairies Welsh Fairy Tales Irish Fairy Tales & More Tales Fairy Blog Fairy Songs Origins of Europes Fairies & More Fairy Articles Finno-Baltic-Siberian Fairy Tales Finno-Baltic-Siberian Fairies Finnish Mythology Estonian Mythology Mari-el Fairy Tales & More Tales Greco-Roman Mythology Greco-Roman Fairies Greek Fairy Tales Roman Mythology Slavic Mythology Slavic Fairies Russian Fairy Tales Polish Fairy Tales & More Tales Tales of Other Lands Fairies of Other Lands Japanese Fairy Tales Chinese Folktales & More Tales Fairy Tales for Kids Children's Dutch Fairy Tales Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know

Fairy Tale Stories      Children's Fairy Tales      Fairies       Faery Woodlands Magazine      Blog     About Celtic Fairies List of Irish Fairies Aughisky -Irish Fairy Similar to the Scottish Each Uisge, they were a hourse which was sai dto live in the ocean but which could come up on land to gallop over fields or beaches and to eat cattle. They were the best horses however if they got close to salt water they would gallop into, carrying their rider where they would devour them. Banshee-Irish Fairy Banshee’s are an ancestral spirit, often depicted as sweet singing virgins, though also occasionally depicted as an old hag who live out on the moors. They have long streaming hair and where a long grey cloak over a green dress and their eyes appear red from continual weeping.  They come out of the moors to aid their family or morn a family members death. Banshees are best known for their roles as death portants, crying at or before the death of important people. Less well known are the stories in which they show up at someones birth to give them great gifts that will make them heroes and or poets. Bean-nighe - Irish Fairy The bean nighe , is a Scottish and Irish Fairy, who is seen as washing the blood stained clothes of those about to die in isolated streams, such that she is seen as an omen of is death. She is fairly small and hes red webbing for her feet, indicating that she may once have been thought of as a water fairy. She typically dresses in green. If someone can sneak up on her and get between her and the water she will grant them tree wishes. The bean nighe is also willing to answer three questions in return for the right to ask three questions. A person may also gain a wish by seizing her breast and sucking on it, which allows them to claim her as their foster mother. She is very dangerous however, she snapps the clothes she is washing at those who interupt her so hard that they can take off a limb.  Clurican (Irish Fairy) A solitary fairy much like the leprechaun which wears a red nightcap, a leather apron, and long blue stockings. Unlike the leprechaun the Clurican is not a hard working fairy. They feast and drink in peoples cellers, though to some extent they also act as gaurdians of the cellers scarring servents who try to steal the wine. The clurican can grow so difficult to live with if they are mistreated that sometimes the owner of the house where they live tries to move, but the clurican will sneak into one of his wine casks to move with them. Grogan (Irish Fairy) In Ireland the grogan is  a householf fairy of the brownie type, which is also very hairy and of low stature, they are however very strong.  They often do farm related work by sheving grain. Those who have a grogan to help them must be careful to only lay out so many sheaves of grain in a night for the grogan will kill themselves trying to get everything done in one night. In the highlands the Grogachs were often richly dressed but in Ulster the grogachs were naked and hair little men about four feet high. In another description it ahs a large head and soft body with no bowns and seems to tumble along. Another is a cattle herder A girl pittying their nakedness gave him a shirt and he went away weeping because he thougth she was trying to lay him. Daoine Sidhe (Deenee shee) Irish Fairy The fairy peoples of Ireland who are said to be the dwindled deities of the Tuatha Da Dannan who the Irish overthrew. They are said to live underground in the fairy mounds,under lakes, in the ocean, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans. People always take great care not to offend the Daoine sidhe, and as part of this almost never name them directly. Rathe people call them "The Good Neighbors", "The Fair Folk", or simply "The Folk". T The daoine sidhe are can act as nature gaurdians protecting trees, hills, the Craggy rocks where they live., etc. Fir Darrig (Irish Fairy) A fairy who loves practical joking above all else,. His jokes are often dangerous, using illusionary magic to torment those who chooses. Yet at the same time the te Fir Darrig will occasionally help those who are trapped in fairy land. As with all solitary fairies he wears red coats and hat. Cancanagh (Irish Fairy) Is a male faerie in Irish mythology which is known to seduce women with the aid of a drug which they secreat from their skin which causes women to become addicted to them. This drug is so powerful that when the Cancanagh leaves the women gos through such intense with drawl that they die.  He carries a clay pipe for an unknown reason because fairies dislike smoke. Leanan-Sidhe (Irish Fairy) A beautiful fairy which acts as a muse, inspiring poets and artists. However when they grant the gift of art the humans life becomes shorter as they also have vampiric tendencies to a certain extent. Leprechaun (Irish Fairy) The fairy shoe maker who appears as an old man wearing a red or a green coat. Like many of the other fairies they love to make mischief, but at the same time are some of the hardest working of all fairies. Making shoes for the others in order to obtain gold. There are a number of stories of them being captured so that they can be foreced to tell where their gold is, or so that they can grant three wishes, etc. The Leprechaun is usually very clever however and turns such attempts back on the people trying to make them through guile. Lunantishee (Irish Fairy) A Tribe of fairies which is said to guard blackthorn bushes so that people cannot cut them on Nov 11th or may 11th (Halloween and May Day) without being horribly cursed. Merrows (Irish Fairy) Merrow (from Gaelic murúch) or Murrough (Galloway) is the Scottish and Irish Gaelic equivalent of the mermaid and mermen of other cultures. These beings are said to appear as human from the waist up but have the body of a fish from the waist down. They have a gentle, modest, affectionate and benevolent disposition. There are other names pertaining to them in Gaelic: Muir-gheilt, Samhghubha, Muidhuachán, and Suire. They would seem to have been around for millennia because according to the bardic chroniclers, when the Milesians first landed on Irish shores the Suire, or sea-nymphs, played around them on their passage. The merrow were capable of attachment to human beings and there are reports of them inter-marrying and living among humans for many years. However, most times they eventually return to their former homes beneath the sea. Merrow-maidens are reputed to lure young men to follow them beneath the waves where afterwards they live in an enchanted state. Merrows wear a special hat called a cohuleen druith which enables them to dive beneath the waves. If they lose this cap, it is said they have no power to return beneath the water. Sometimes they are said to leave their outer skins behind, to assume others more magical and beautiful. The merrow has soft white webs between her fingers, she is often seen with a comb parting her long green hair on either side. Merrow music is often heard coming from beneath the waves. An old tract found in the Book of Lecain states that a king of the Fomorians, when sailing over the Ictean sea, had been enchanted by the music of mermaids until he came within reach of these sirens .... then they tore his limbs asunder and scattered them on the sea. From Dr. O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters - entered in the year 887 A.D. there is a curious tale of a mermaid cast on the Scottish coast - Alba - She was 195 feet (59 m) in length and had hair 18 feet (5.5 m) long, her fingers were 7 feet (2.1 m) long as was her nose, while she was as white as a swan. Most of the stories are about female beings; however, there are some about mer-men who capture the souls of drowned sailors and keep them in soul cages under the sea.[2] Female Merrows were considered very beautiful, but the mermen were basically ugly, another reason why Merrow women sought out human men. In most cases, the female Merrow had a cap or cape, normally red, and if a human could capture and hide either so the Merrow never found it, then she would remain on land without a fuss. But if the Merrow should ever find her cap or cape, she would feel compelled to return forever to the ocean, leaving entire families behind. Phooka, Pouka, Phouka (Irish Fairy) A shape shifter who often takes the form of a horse in order to lure people into trying to ride him so that he can take them on a terrifying and wild ride. They also change form into bats and other things in order to cause people to trip and fall. Generally the Phouka is mischievious and doesn’t actually do any real harm. In one story a boy captures a phouka by throwing his coat across its back such that the phouka then does all the work at his fathers mill. Eventually feeling sorry for the Phouka the boy gives him clothing freeing him from service, but the phouka gives him a golden cup as a wedding gift some years later. In another tale the Phooka acts as a household fairy with the head of an ass, and in this case is also laid by the gift of clothes.