leanan sídhe

{{Short description|Spirit figure in Irish folklore}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Culture of Ireland}}

The {{lang|ga|leannán sídhe}} ({{IPA|ga|ˈl̠ʲan̪ˠaːnˠ ˈʃiː|lang}}; {{Literal translation|fairy lover}};[http://breis.focloir.ie/en/fgb/leann%c3%a1n Focloir Gaeilge-Bearla] {{langx|gd|leannan sìth}}, {{langx|gv|lhiannan shee}}) is a figure from Irish folklore.{{cite web |title=Leanan Sidhe |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/leanan-sidhe |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=31 May 2020}} 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, lover, or concubine and the term for inhabitants of fairy mounds (fairy).[https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/s%c3%ad Focloir Gaeilge-Bearla] 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.{{cite journal |title=Transactions for the Year 1854 |journal=Transactions of the Ossianic Society |date=1855 |volume=2 |pages=90–92 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924027086911/page/n95 |access-date=31 May 2020}}

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.{{cite book |title=Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland|author=Wilde|first=Lady Jane|publisher=Ticknor and Co.|year=1887|location=Boston}} W. B. Yeats popularized his own 'newly-ancient' version of the leannán sídhe, emphasizing the spirit's almost vampiric tendencies.{{cite web |last1=Ó’Súileabháin |first1=Brian |title=The Truth about Leannán Sidhe |url=http://irishimbasbooks.com/the-truth-about-leannan-sidhe-or-leannan-si/ |website=Irish Imbas |access-date=14 March 2019 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416204023/http://irishimbasbooks.com/the-truth-about-leannan-sidhe-or-leannan-si/ |url-status=dead }} As he imagined it, the leannán sídhe is depicted as a beautiful muse who offers inspiration to an artist in exchange for their love and devotion; although the supernatural affair leads to madness and eventual death for the artist:{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33887/33887-h/33887-h.htm#Page_81|title=Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry|author=Yeats|first=W.B|publisher=The Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd.|year=1888|location=London|pages=81}}

{{blockquote|The Leanhaun Shee (fairy mistress) seeks the love of mortals. If they refuse, she must be their slave; if they consent, they are hers, and can only escape by finding another to take their place. The fairy lives on their life, and they waste away. Death is no escape from her. She is the Gaelic muse, for she gives inspiration to those she persecutes. The Gaelic poets die young, for she is restless, and will not let them remain long on earth—this malignant phantom.}}