Fear gorta

In Irish mythology, the fear gorta (Irish: Man of hunger / Man of famine; also known as the fear gortach) is a phantom of hunger resembling an emaciated human.

According to Yeats' Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry the fear gorta walks the earth during times of famine, seeking alms from passers-by. In this version the fear gorta can be a potential source of good luck for generous individuals.^[1] Harvey relates a myth that the fear gorta was a harbinger of famine during the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, and that the spirit originally arises from a patch of hungry grass (féar gortach).^[2]

References

↑ Yeats, W. B. (ed.) Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. 1888.
↑ Harvey, Steenie. Twilight places: Ireland's enduring fairy lore. World and I, March 1998, v13 n3

Fairies

Royalty in folklore

Royalty in literature

Fairylands in folklore

Fairies in culture

Fairies in folklore

Northern European folklore

Fairy-like beings in folklore

African folklore

Oceanian folklore

American folklore

Asian folklore

European folklore

Greek folklore	Dryad Hamadryad Kallikantzaros Lampad Maenad Naiad Nereid Nymph Oceanid Pan Potamides Satyr Silenus

Romanic folklore	Căpcăun Faun Iele Lares Penates Sânziană Spiriduş Squasc Vâlvă Vântoase Zână Zmeu

Slavic folklore	Bagiennik & Bannik Berehynia Domovoi Karzełek Kikimora Likho Polevik Psotnik Rusalka Vila Vodyanoy

Celtic folklore	Tuatha de Danaan

Texts	Daemonologie (1597) Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751) Goethe's Faust (1832)

See also: Portal Category List of beings referred to as fairies

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