Analysis: these horror movie-worthy stories remind us we're not so different from our medieval ancestors: we love a good scare
"It just so happens that Halloween is based on the ancient feast called All Hallow's Eve. It’s the one night of the year where spirits of the dead can return to Earth."
So it's said in the 1993 Halloween cult classic, Hocus Pocus. It echoes beliefs that have been asserted since the 19th Century, when Irish immigrants brought their Halloween customs to the United States. And although these claims are often embellished to explain the practices of trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and pumpkin-carving, the statement is not entirely untrue.
Our modern conception of Halloween does bear similarities to the Irish festival of Samhain, later Christianised as All Hallows’ Eve, which celebrates the end of the summer and the coming of the winter. The festival of Samhain appears in medieval Irish literature as a time for feasting and merriment, with the High King’s Feast of Tara taking place on Halloween in several medieval sagas. And just as we gather together and tell stories of demons and ghouls each October 31st, so too did the people of medieval Ireland.
"The fairy-knolls of Ireland were always open about Hallowe'en."
This is a quote from The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, a tale that describes the childhood adventures of legendary hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill. In the story, dated to the 12th Century, Fionn attempts to enter a fairy hill on Samhain to win the love of a beautiful woman named Éle who could only be wooed on Halloween night. This is reminiscent of the repeated idea that the veil between the human realm and Otherworld was thinned on Halloween, and certainly informed much of the medieval literature set on or around Samhain. Samhain often served as the perfect backdrop for the supernatural goings-on of medieval Irish sagas, and it is not unusual to find fairies, ghouls and other creatures appearing on Samhain to taunt the heroes of our stories.
From RTÉ Brainstorm, how the Irish really invented Halloween
Another story from The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn also tells of a supernatural being named Aillén who, once a year on Samhain, would emerge from the Otherworld to lull the people of Tara to sleep, and burn the fort to the ground with his dragon-like fire breath.
Also from the 12th Century, in a text known as The Dialogue of the Elders, we have a tale of werewolf-like creatures living in Connacht. In this story, two heroes named Cas Corach and Caílte, are tasked with killing three sisters who live in the Cave of Cruachan in county Roscommon. Each Halloween, these sisters transform into wolves and leave their cave to hunt local livestock. Cas Corach and Caílte succeed in luring these wolf-women from their cave, and kill them to free the locals of their annual torment.
"Great was the darkness of that night and its horror, and demons would appear on that night always."
The above is a quote from one of the spookier medieval stories set on Samhain night, The Adventures of Nera. This description of Halloween night is not far removed from the way ghost stories are told today, with an emphasis on darkness and supernatural creatures, and provides a spooky setting for our hero’s ghostly encounters. The story, which has been dated to the 10th Century, opens at the Samhain feast of the infamous Queen Maeve and her husband Ailill. While Samhain festivities are getting under way, King Ailill proposes a seasonally-appropriate challenge for his warriors. He asks that some brave warrior volunteer to venture into the dark night, and tie a willow branch around the feet of one of his two captives who had been hanged the day before.
One brave warrior named Nera volunteers. Nera soon learns, however, that Samhain is a night to be reckoned with. One of the dead captives springs back to life, as something akin to a zombie, to provide some helpful advice in tying the willow branch. In return for this advice, he asks Nera to bring him for a drink with the eery comment that "I was very thirsty when I was hanged". Seemingly unphased by this, Nera carries the reanimated corpse to three houses in search of a drink of water. When he finally gets one, the ghoul spits on the sleeping occupants of the house and kills them.
"They will come on Halloween next: for the fairy-mounds of Erin are always opened on Halloween"
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From RTÉ Archives, Father Seán Ó Dúinn, professor of folklore at MIC, explains the pagan origins of Hallowe'en and links with Christianity ('Would You Believe' broadcast 31 October 1991)
This horror-movie-worthy turn of events is not, however, the end of Nera’s ghostly adventure. Upon returning the corpse to his resting place, Nera finds Maeve and Ailill’s fort engulfed in flames and under siege by the armies of the Sídhe, or fairy folk. He suddenly finds himself in the Otherworld, and is invited to stay as long as he brings the King of the Sídhe his daily firewood. Nera dutifully does this and time passes, until one day a fairy woman reveals to him that the burning fort was only a vision, and that it would become reality next Samhain if he did not warn the King and Queen that the Sídhe would attack the fort the following Halloween. Nera returns to deliver this warning, and finds that no time has passed in the human realm since he left the captives.
These are only a few of the ghost stories that survive from medieval Ireland. Literature from the period is littered with references to fairies, ghouls and monsters emerging from their lairs to torment the human folk on Halloween, as well as stories of deceit, murder and foul play on this night. While much of our Halloween festivities are a modern invention, these ghost stories are a reminder that we are not so different from our medieval ancestors: we love a good scare.
Hannah Mac Auliffe is a PhD candidate in the school of History at Trinity College Dublin researching patterns of alternate succession in early medieval Irish kingship.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
