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. Since it is not widely talked about, his origin in Irish folklore is questionable.
Dullahan or Dulachan (Irish : Dubhlachan [Duḃlaċan]) referring to "hobgoblin" (generic term; cf. Dullahan described as "unseelie (wicked) fairy" [1] ), literally "signifies dark, sullen person", according to the lexicographer Edward O'Reilly. [2] Dulachan and Durrachan are alternative words for this "hobgoblin", and these forms suggest etymological descent from dorr/durr "anger" or durrach "malicious" or "fierce". [2] The original Irish term contains the stem dubh, meaning "black" in Irish. [4]
Dullahan was later glossed as "dark, angry, sullen, fierce or malicious being", [a] [8] encompassing both etymologies, though Thomas Crofton Croker considered the alternative etymology more dubious than the dubh "black" ("dark") etymology. [b]
The Dullahan is also called Colainn Gan Cheann, meaning "without a head" in Irish.
"Headless Coach" (Irish : Cóiste Gan Cheann) [9] or the "Soundless Coach" (literally "deaf coach", Irish : cóiste bodhar; [10] [9] Hiberno-English: Coshta Bower, corrupted to "coach-a-bower") [11] [12] is the name given to the vehicle driven by the Dullahan. [13]
He is depicted as a headless horseman, [14] typically on a black horse, [19] who may carry his own head in his hand or under his arm. [20] [1] 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. [21]
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". [22]
There are also legends and tales mentioning the "Headless Coach" [23] (also called "Coach-a-bower"; [24] Irish : cóiste bodhar [10] ), with the Dullahan as its presumed driver. [25] [26] 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. [9] However, William Butler Yeats explained that "the 'deaf coach' was so called because of its rumbling sound". [27] [c] According to one witness, [d] only the silent shadow of the horse-drawn hearse, i.e., the "Soundless Coach" was seen passing by. [9]
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. [28] A later writer prosifying this description supplied additional details, so that the "two hollow skulls" used as lanterns on the carriage [28] are set with candles, [29] and the hammercloth made of pall material "mildew'd by damps" [28] is embellished as being chewed away by worms. [29] [e]
A Dullahan appears as a mounted horseman or a coachman [26] driving a horse-drawn carriage out of graveyards. [6] 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. [6]
He arrives, driving the death coach, at the doorstep of a person whose death is approaching. [12] According to Croker, the appearance of the "Headless Coach" foreshadows imminent death or misfortune. [31] 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 a fit and died. [32]
Croker reports that in one legend, a Headless Coach would run back and forth from Castle Hyde [f] to a glen/valley [g] beyond the village of Ballyhooly, in County Cork. [h] [31] Nearby in the town of Doneraile, [i] 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. [31]
There are rumours that golden objects can force the Dullahan to disappear. [33] [ better source needed ]
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". [1]
In contrast, the headless coach in the tale "The Harvest Dinner" is described as a "blind (thief)", [34] and Croker assumed he lacks sight. [35]
The Dullahan allegedly uses a human spine as a whip according to a number of 21st century commentators. [36] [22] [40] [j]
The headless coachman merely bears 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). [34] Croker deduced that the headless creature, as a way of habit, attempts to destroy his witness's eye [42] 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. [k] [35]
Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1828) contained a section on "The Dullahan" devoted to the lore of headless beings. [43]
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), [l] travels to Cashel where he buys a nag, intending to sell it at Kildorrery fair that June evening. [46] He offers 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 is severed mid-sentence. His head reverts when he regains his senses. He loses his horse to the Dullahans. [47] [m]
Much of what Yeats had to call on might be classed as armchair folklore: Croker describes the merrow, Kennedy borrows from Croker but adds an anecdote, O'Hanlon goes back to Croker and then adds a touch of his own.
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