Dullahan

The Irish Dullahan (also Gan Ceann) is a type of unseelie fairie. It is headless, usually seen riding a headless black horse and carrying his head under one arm. The head's eyes are massive and constantly dart about like flies, while the mouth is constantly in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head. The flesh of the head is said to have the color and consistency of moldy cheese. The dullahan's whip is actually a human corpse's spine, and the wagons they sometimes use are made of similarly funereal objects (e.g. candles in skulls to light the way, the spokes of the wheels made from thigh bones, the wagon's covering made from a worm-chewn pall). When the dullahan stops riding, it is where a person is due to die. The dullahan calls out their name, at which point they immediately perish.

There is no way to bar the road against a dullahan—all locks and gates open on their own when it approaches. Also, they do not appreciate being watched while on their errands, throwing a basin of blood on those who dare to do so (often a mark that they are among the next to die), or even lashing out the watchers' eyes with their whips. Nonetheless, they are frightened of gold, and even a single gold pin can drive a dullahan away. The myth may have inspired the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Another legendary parallel is the Green Knight, in the medieval story of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", who is otherworldly, greenish in color, hostile, determined to take Sir Gawain's life and, after Sir Gawain strikes him, headless. This story has antecedents in the ancient Feast of Bricriu, with legendary Irish warrior Cú Chulainn in the role later played by Sir Gawain. See also Celts as head hunters.

The Dullahan is portrayed in fantasy fiction and video games as a beheaded knight who carries his severed head under one arm while viciously attacking interlopers in the place that is haunted by the Dullahan. They also have some magic in their bodies, giving them magical swords or the ability to breathe fire from the severed head. Alternately, the Dullahan may be an animated suit of armor; and instead of a head under its arm, it holds a shield with an animated face that would breath fire.

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