the Sluagh

Sluagh is thought to be the souls of evil people, or people that weren’t baptized that have already died and aren’t welcome in heaven, hell or in the other world, they had also been rejected by the Celtic deities and by the earth itself.

One of the worst and most dreaded in the realm of faerie, Sluagh was more feared than death itself. Death was easy. The Sluagh, now that was something entirely different. Even death has no choice but to defer to the Sluagh, in an otherworldly race for the immortal souls of the living.

Like all fairies, the Sluagh fear iron objects and salt. Religious objects may be helpful. In addition, it is believed that the Sluagh either always approach from the west or can never approach from the east

Said one monk in times of yore, “The spirits fly about in great clouds, up and down the face of the world like the starlings, and come back to the scenes of their earthly transgressions. No soul of them is without the clouds of earth, dimming the brightness of the works of earth. In bad nights, the Sluagh shelter themselves behind little russet docken stems and little yellow ragwort stalks. They fight battles in the air as men do on the earth.”

Coming from the West, the Sluagh fly in groups like flocks of birds and attempt to enter a house where someone is dying to take the soul away with them. West facing windows are sometimes kept closed to keep them out. In the testimonies of many rural folk a distinction is often made between the sidhe who are seen walking on the ground after sunset, and the Sluagh Sidhe, or Fairy Host, who travel or fly through the air at night and are known to kidnap mortals with them on their journeys

The Sluagh are also believed to be sadists, if denied their feast, they don’t balk at the slaughter of cattle, cats, dogs, and sheep with their poison darts. It is said that the Sluagh “commanded men to follow them, and men obeyed, having no alternative. It was these men of earth who slew and maimed at the bidding of their spirit-masters, who in return ill-treated them in a most pitiless manner. They would be rolling and dragging and trouncing them in mud and mire and pools.”

humans are still very much their prey. The Sluagh exists on stealing the souls of the living, and especially the dying. Huddling and hiding in forgotten and dark places, they lay in wait for nightfall. Once the sun has left the sky, they strike out, in what, to the untrained or unsuspecting eye, appears to be a vast and ominous flock of large ravens or other birds. Flapping wings, screeching, and a whirlwind of undulating shadows are all you’d witness as the Sluagh descends for an attack. Owing to the folklore of the Wild Hunt, countless cultures and legends still link black birds (and especially ravens) as evil omens or signals of upcoming misfortune.

The beautiful daughter of a king of France was taken up by the sluagh and carried about in the air, over lands and seas, continents and islands, till they came to the little island of Heistamal, behind Creagorry, in Benbecula, where they laid her down in such an injured state that she died from the hard treatment; not, however, till she had told about the lands to which she had been carried, and of the great hardships she had endured while travelling through space. The people of the island buried the princess where she was found.

how to read myths article

https://nealsmythblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/how-to-read-myth.pdf

an Allegorical approach is maybe the most common way of interpreting myths, people that use an allegorical approach usually look for logical explanations for the myths, point out the lack of evidenced in some myths claim the story was exaggerated overtime.
“One of the earliest allegorical theories about myths was developed by Euhemerus of Messene, a Greek scholar who lived during the late 300’s and early 200’s B.C. He believed that myths originated as historical facts about actual persons and events. These stories became exaggerated and romanticized as people told and retold them over time. In his main work, Sacred History, Euhemerus claimed to have discovered inscriptions proving that the gods Kronos and Zeus were based on historical kings.”

a Comparative approach is the theory that all myths either started from one story and slowly got exaggerated and changed overtime or that all myths are used to describe natural things like the earth revolving around the sun and rain.

an Anthropological approach started off with Edward Tylor stating as societies continued to evolve, various spirits became associated with abstract moral qualities, such as good and evil. These associations fostered the primitive belief that gods reward those who are good and punish those who are evil.
Tylor believed that from these ideas and the myths associated with
them, all human cultures would eventually develop into societies where reason, ethics, and the rule of law shape human behavior.

a Psychological approach is that the basis of mythology is that behind the literal surface of a myth lay hidden its true psychological meaning, like how myths reflect a person’s attitudes and behavior, everyone has both a personal unconscious and a collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is formed by the person’s experiences in the world as filtered through the senses. The collective unconscious is inherited and shared by all humankind.
Carl Jung believed that the collective unconscious is organized into basic patterns that are represented in universal symbols, which he called archetypes. Jung believed that all mythologies have certain archetypes in
common. He recognized such archetypes as the Miracle Child, the Wise Man, or the Unrelenting Father that often appear in myths in the form of such characters as gods and heroes.

a Literary approach tells that myths are stories, with unique features, narrative logic, appealing characters, vivid images, and powerful symbols. Joseph Campbell had written a book called, “Hero with a Thousand Faces” Campbell examined myths from around the world. He noticed that many myths tell of an individual, usually a man, who leaves the ordinary world and enters the supernatural world. There he learns of his heroic destiny and receives charms or magical weapons. The man defeats the forces that oppose him and returns to the society from which he came with new knowledge and new powers.

“I guess darkness serves a purpose: to show us that there is redemption through chaos. I believe in that. I think that’s the basis of Greek mythology.”

some people know that most Greek mythology myths are redemption stories, like Heracles, the Centaur’s or Perseus. and throughout the whole journey there is chaos. the people in Greek mythology gain redemption through chaos, which is the basis of Greek mythology.

ankou

Ankou is basically the grim reaper. He is the personification of death in Breton and Cornish mythology. he is also known a the graveyard watcher, he protects the graveyard and the souls around it, he collects the souls of the people in his graveyard. He appears as a man or skeleton wearing a cloak and has a scythe, and in some stories he is just a shadow, often on top of a cart for collecting the dead, in some stories he wears a black robe with a large hat which conceals his face. he was the first child of Adam and Eve Other versions say that the Ankou is the first dead person of the year, charged with collecting the others souls before he can go to the afterlife. He drove a large, black coach that gets pulled by four black horses and two ghost’s on foot.

There is plenty of stories involving Ankou like “there were three drunk friends walking home one night, when they came across an old man on a rickety cart. Two of the men started shouting at the Ankou, and then throwing stones; when they broke the axle on his cart they ran off. The third friend felt bad and, wanting to help the Ankou, found a branch to replace the broken axle, and then gave the Ankou his shoe-laces with which to tie it to the cart. The next morning, the two friends who were throwing stones at the Ankou were dead, while the one who stayed to help only had his hair turned white. He would never speak of how it happened.

An origin story of Ankou is that the Ankou was once a cruel prince who met Death during a hunting trip and challenged him to see who could kill a black stag first. Death won the contest and the prince was cursed to roam the earth as a ghoul for all eternity.

As in most myths there is many different versions of the story, like the Celtic one that says the Ankou is a death omen that collects the souls of the deceased (like most stories say). The Ankou is the last person to die in a parish during a year. The last deceased person will become the person that has to call for the dead. They describe the Ankou as a tall, sickly thing with long white hair. It is also perceived as a skeleton with a rotating head able to see everything everywhere. The Ankou drives a cart that stops at the house of someone who is about to die. It knocks on the door, this sound is sometimes heard by the living.

The Ankou is something that you definitely wouldnt want to run into, he is literally death after all.

Red Cap

Red Caps originated in Scotland and are kind of like the Jason Voorhees of the faerie realm, he gets his name because of his red cap, which is red because he soaks it in the blood of his victims. Redcap is “a short, thickset old man with long prominent teeth, skinny fingers armed with talons like eagles, large eyes of a fiery red color, grisly hair streaming down his shoulders, iron boots, a pikestaff in his left hand, and a red cap on his head”

Red cap mainly stays in ruined old castles near the Anglo-Scottish border. When travelers take go into in his lair he will throw huge stones at them, and if he kills them he will soak his cap in their blood, giving it a red hue.

He may be driven away by repeating words of a bible or holding up a cross. He will utter a sad, defeated yell and vanish with flames, leaving a large tooth on the spot where he just was.

the redcap has plenty of stories as well, like the story of “robin redcap”
“The redcap familiar of Lord William Desoulis called Robin Redcap , is said to have wrought much harm and ruin in the lands of his master’s dwelling, hermitage castle. Ultimately, William was (according to legend) taken to the Ninestane rig, a stone circle near the castle, then wrapped in lead and boiled to death. In reality, William DeSoulis was imprisoned in Dumbarton castle and died there, following his confessed complicity in the conspiracy against Robert The Bruce in 1320.