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Dullahan
The Dullahan (Irish: Dubhlachan; dúlachán, /ˈduːləˌhɑːn/) 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 described in native sources, there is doubt as to whether 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 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 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, typically on a black horse, who may carry his own head in his hand or under his arm. The severed head has 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 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".
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Dullahan
The Dullahan (Irish: Dubhlachan; dúlachán, /ˈduːləˌhɑːn/) 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 described in native sources, there is doubt as to whether 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 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 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, typically on a black horse, who may carry his own head in his hand or under his arm. The severed head has 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 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".