~~Irish Myths and Legends...The Leanansidhe~~
The Leanansidhe
Leanansidhe (Lhiannanshee) Leanan Sidhe: The Lhiannan Shee of the Isle of Man is said to be a vampir like fairy who attached herself to one man, to whom she appeared irresistibly beautiful, but invisible to everyone else. If he yielded to her, he was ruined body and soul.
She is both a muse and a demon of sorts, In Celtic lore the Leanan Sidhe is one of Ireland’s mythological vampires.
The fairy was a beautiful woman who was said to give inspiration to poets and musicians – but at the price of their lives.
She can often be found around wells or natural springs.
According to some legends she would make an artist her lover, sharing with them her intelligence, creativity and magic, but when she left, the men would be so depressed, they'd die. Leanan Sidhe would then take her dead lovers back to her lair.
Rather than directly suck the blood of her victims, Leanan Sidhe got creative, and collected their blood in a giant red cauldron, which was the source of her beauty, youth and artistic inspiration.
In other versions of this myth she takes is energy, like a type of energy vampier, ether way he die's..
As with Dearg-due, to prevent the undead Leanan Sidhe from rising, one must put a cairn of stones over her resting place.
The Irish Leanan Sidhe is known as the inspiration of poets and minstrels. She would roam the night, searching for romantic men to inspire with eloquence of word and beautiful music while in her embrace, and would draw from their life force until he would die.
Both names mean "fairy Sweetheart". In Scotland, the Leannan Sith was a term used to denote a fairy lover of either sex. In fact, the translators of the Bible into Scots Gaelic used this term, and the Scots took this as Biblical proof of the existence of fairies.
The Lhiannan Shee of Ballfletcher was the tutrelary fairy of the Fletchers, and gave them the fairy cup, which was drank from every Christmas in her honor.
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