Leanan sídhe

Uncommon card · No. 171079

The leannán sídhe (Irish: [ˈl̠ʲan̪ˠaːnˠ ˈʃiː]; lit. 'fairy lover'; Scottish Gaelic: leannan sìth, Manx: lhiannan shee) is a figure from Celtic mythology. She is depicted as a beautiful woman of the Aos Sí ("people of the fairy mounds") who takes a human lover. Lovers of the leannán sídhe are said to live brief, though highly inspired, lives. The name comes from the Gaelic words for a sweetheart or lover and the term for inhabitants of fairy mounds (fairy). While the leannán sídhe is most often depicted as a female fairy, there is at least one reference to a male leannán sídhe troubling a mortal woman. A version of the myth was popularized during the Celtic Revival in the late 19th-century. The leannán sídhe is mentioned by Jane Wilde, writing as "Speranza", in her 1887 Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland. W. B. Yeats popularized his own 'newly-ancient' version of the leannán sídhe, emphasizing the spirit's almost vampiric tendencies. As he imagined it, the leannán...

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