Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Cryptic Cocktail Party, a show where we
have a few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive into the unknown. I am your host Dave.
And today I am joined by the most beautiful man I know, one of my best friends, Jonathan
Bunting. What's going on, bud?
Dave, you flatter me too much. Um, I, I was just about to say something and I have the
active shooter thing going and literally right as you said, how are you? The, the, uh, action
news started playing. John, how are you active shooter alert? Well, John, I guess that's
the good, uh, you had a pretty interesting warning up in your area. I guess down here
it's been fine. Uh, what's going on, John? Well, I woke up this morning and I went to
go make breakfast and then my phone started blaring and so did my watch. So I figured
that's gotta be like another ambler alert or something. But then I looked at it and
it said, Hey, uh, shelter in place and lock all your doors because there is police activity
in the area. And I'm like, I mean, okay. So of course I do what any normal person would
do is put my shoes on and go outside and try to find said police activity. And right next
to my apartment is where the St. Patty's day parade was going to happen. And everybody
was excited for that. Didn't happen last year, got canceled because of the rain. And then
this year gets canceled again because of shots fired. So the guy apparently has, uh, murdered
three people and is on the loose in Trenton, New Jersey currently. Yeah. Possibly with
hostages, possibly with hostages. Dude, that is the area of Pennsylvania that you live
in is just like a, like, I don't, we were talking about this a little bit before the
show started, but I don't understand how that small of an area can just be so fucking, it's
like, uh, recently a man, uh, decapitated his father in that area and then put the video
on YouTube. Uh, and then there wasn't there a guy just got arrested for January 6th, uh,
insurrectionism. And then I think there was a, wasn't there like a, there was, there's
a guy, uh, two streets down from where my dad lives. There was a guy who was out in
this backyard just popping shotgun rounds off in the backyard screaming that the feds
were going to get them. It's just normal red blooded Americans. The area is so fucked,
dude. It's, I mean, we can have a whole different, like I said before the show, I could have
a whole different podcast on this, but it's just really cause this area decided that it
didn't want to have regulations for, you know, recovery houses. So any Tom, Dick and Harry
can just buy a house, throw 10 people in it, say they're all in recovery, charge them all
a hundred bucks a month in rent and yay. Yeah. Now, now they all come down to this area,
but you know, it's a nice area. I've loved watching the steady decline of the place that
I grew up in. Well, besides a narrowly almost maybe possibly getting shot today, are you
doing good? You're good. Yeah. Doing great. Doing great on this lovely Saturday inside.
Well Jonathan, you know, you know what this, well, I guess when this episode comes out,
you know what it's going to be. It's going to be St. Patrick's day, bud. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Yay. Wait, what's the 17th tomorrow? Yeah. Oh, so it's a Sunday and what are we doing?
Thinking. So you mean every day? Well, you know what, Jonathan, I figured to get into
the St. Patrick's day mood, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to do something
a little different on this episode. We're not going to be talking about a cryptid. We're
not going to be talking about conspiracies or aliens. It's going to be a little bit more
fun than that. Okay. Cool. And it might actually be a subject that you, I'm not going to say
you're like well versed in, but you're, you're like a fantasy guy. You could have a conversation
about it. You're, you're a fantasy guy. You're a D and D guy. I know that you're also a big
R and D guy. So today, Jonathan, are you ready to dive into what we're going to be talking
about? I'm ready. Are you? You don't look ready. I'm very ready. Okay. All right. So
Jonathan, Ireland, the country that brought us Guinness, Jameson whiskey and Liam Neeson
will also being the country that indirectly and unfortunately gave us the dropkick Murphy's
known as the Emerald isle. Ireland is a beautiful country with wildly beautiful landscapes like
the giants causeway and the bun, Bulbin. I don't know if I pronounced that right. It's
the, it's the sounds like a Pokemon. No, it's like this famous mountain. It looks like a
table. Like it's like tall and flat. Okay. It's home to many a lively city like Dublin,
Cork and Galway and boasts a rich literary history with famous playwrights and authors
hailing from the country like Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. But Jonathan,
Ireland isn't just home, like the home of pubs, cliffs, and that one rock. Everyone likes
the Spiderman kiss. There's actually a hidden world under the green and mossy landscape,
a realm of magic, mischief, and sometimes even death. Today, Jonathan, we're going to
be diving into the fairy realm of Ireland to discuss the origins, the legends and the
behaviors of some of the different types of fairies of which there are many. That's great.
That's great. Yup. I am. I'm Walverson fairy culture and lore. I mean, I meant that as
like you read a lot of fantasy novels and D and D they got there. No fairies in D and
D. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So fuck you, John. All right. Your wife, your wife, your wife
did give me that fantasy smug book to read. Did you read it? I've been, I'm like halfway
through. I get a little too hot under the collar and then I got to put it down for a
little while. Is it really that's money? Not really. No. Okay. Cause everyone, cause it
was wild is that she was talking about it. And of course, because all our technology
is listening to us. Uh, I would get like Tik TOKs that were about that book. And it's all
just people like talking about how fucking like, Oh God, that's a, it's a hot book.
But, uh, all right, Jonathan, before we dive into all the different types of we folk out
there, I want to talk about fairies in general. Now, do you, do you know anything about fairies?
Um, they're tiny. They're usually, uh, for some reason, very attractive women that have
wings. All right. Well, it's Jonathan. Fairies are deeply rooted in Irish tradition, beliefs
and folklore. While many in Ireland may not wholeheartedly believe in fairies, there is
a lot of superstition and most people just like, won't go out of their way to try and
piss them off for reasons that we're probably going to get into. Uh, but there was a time
when nine out of like 10 people in Ireland believed like full send. So Jonathan might
be asking, how did the fairies come to be in Ireland? Is that what you're asking yourself?
Yes. Okay. According to legend, the ancient Celts believed in the Tuatha de Danann, which
means quote, the folk of the goddess Danu. Uh, they were, they were a supernatural race
that some believe represent represented pre-Christian deities, I guess, uh, of Ireland and lived
on the Island long before humans. Like they're like the OG Irish folk that is until the Milasani
and milk. I don't know how to pronounce this word. Molessians. That's not the, you're about
to say something else. Yeah. The Molessians, Molessians, uh, arrived and attacked the Tuatha
and drove them underground. The Tuatha de Danann used their magical powers to become
she better known today as fairies, little people, or we folk and established the fairy
realm also known as the other world, which is metal is all hell. Not that, not that place
on grand Avenue, not the place. No, which I still need to go to. Yeah. Now the fairy
realm or other world is a place just beyond, but parallel to our own. It's said to be a
beautiful, ethereal world filled with magical beings and just all around. Seems like a pretty
chill place. Enterances to the other world are all around Ireland caves such as the Awanaga
cave in Ross Roskerman is said to be one, a neolithic tombs, stone circles, standing stones,
burrows, tree hollows. All of these are said to be portals to the realm of the Faye. A
lone Hawthorne tree are often referred to as fairy trees. There's also fairy forts,
which are the remains of iron age ring forts. And there's like a billion of them all over
the country. Uh, farmers and landowners will actually not like, we'll actually mow around
them as to not piss off the fairies because they will make your life a living hell if
you do. Um, now Jonathan, when I asked you what you know about fairies, the first thing
you said was basically that it was like a Tinkerbell kind of thing or some sort of Disney
ass like animated thing. Um, now are there, uh, there's, there's no fairies in D and D
or like the Faye is not a thing. I feel like they are. Yeah, they are. They are a thing.
Now I am not well versed enough in them because I don't particularly, I don't know. I'm not
playing a fairy when I play. Cause you're such a big strong man, Jonathan. I'm trying
to be a big old brute, don't I? No. You sound so defeated. I'm always play, I always, I
always play a wizard. I'm too, nevermind. Okay. Well, in reality, uh, it's nothing like
that. Uh, fairies come in all shapes, sizes, different levels of nightmarish. Uh, now John,
are you ready to dive into what some of these fairies are and how awesome they are? I've
never wanted anything more in my life. I feel like you're lying to me, but it's fine. It's
all for the sake of radio. First up, we got the Pooka, uh, considered a solitary type
of fairy. The Pooka is a shape shifting prankster that transforms into variety of animals, but
is usually seen as a black horse with fiery eyes. And while it does like to cause mischief
to humans, it does help out, uh, like the, it does help out. I don't know how to word
this. It's not a shit head. It will help protect animals and assist lost travelers to find
their way home. I don't know why that was so hard for me to fucking get out. Now, next
up, Jonathan, we got the, and I don't know, I think it's pronounced the Duluth, the Dullahan.
We'll go with Dullahan. That sounds right. Uh, this thing is a fucking nightmare. Uh,
it's basically like the headless horseman of sleepy hollow, but like just worse in every
way. Uh, considered a dark fairy. It is associated with death and darkness. According to legend,
the Dullahan or quote unquote dark man is a harbinger of death and is depicted as a
headless rider that holds its own decapitate decapitated and decaying head as a lantern.
Uh, I'm all about this. It lights, it lights its way with the hellish hellfire that emits
from its eyes. He has a whip. The whip is made from a human spine that it ripped out
of a corpse and both his cloak and horse are said to be darker than the darkness itself.
Now, for that's the coolest thing I've ever heard, right? It's fucking metal and shit,
dude. Yeah. Now for some, they may get a warning that death itself, the Dullahan is coming
for them, uh, courtesy of the next fairy we're going to be talking about. And that is one
that you're probably very familiar with. And that is the Banshee. You're familiar with
the Banshee, right? Yeah. All right. No Banshees. Now, while the Dullahan does the ripping in
the Terran and is just death incarnate, the Banshee is like an early warning system basically
for your impending doom. Uh, in unlike the Dullahan who will kill just pretty much anyone
it comes across the Banshee or quote, woman of the fairy mound is a female spirit who
heralds the death of a family member by unleashing an unearthly whale that is filled with such
sorrow that its cry has been described as quote mournful beyond all other sounds on
earth. Jesus. Now descriptions of the Banshee differ by region. Some describe her with long
streaming hair that she continuously combs. Uh, she may be wearing a gray cloak and green
dress. Her eyes, bloodshot from continuously crying. She's also been described as having
red hair and wearing a white dress with like a ghostly complexion. Some say she's average
height. Others say she's between one and four feet tall. So could, so really could be anything.
Some say she appears as an old woman. Well, others say she assumes the form of a quote
sweet swinging virgin of the family who died young end quote, and has now been tasked to
be the bearer of bad news for her living kin. But no matter what she appears as it's not
good. Like you do not want to hear this thing coming because it could possibly just means
either certain death for you, a loved one. And I for one do not want the headless horseman
man showing up and just like beating me to death with a human spine. Like that's no,
honestly, that honestly would probably be a good way to go though. Just being beaten
to death by a man. But it's like you said, it's metal as fuck. I like to think so. I
think so. So when I was doing the research for this episode, I didn't, I always assumed
like I did have that preconceived notion of like fairies being like, I knew they were
a bit mischievous and I knew that they were like little, you know, just, just a little
guy. Just a little guy. Yeah. This is a little guy doing pranks. Little scamps. Yeah. Scamps.
I didn't realize that like fairies, and I'm not going to say it's like a, like an old,
like a broad overall term to describe a lot of things, but I didn't think it was going
to be fucking a headless horseman and the Banshee were considered fairies. You know
what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah. I only know, I only know very little about like, if you're
going to talk about like the Faye world, but from what I know is that it's everything is
like extremely exaggerated. Every things that aren't supposed to, you know, you ever see
the movie annihilation? Yeah. Yeah. It's like we're things that aren't supposed to kind
of go together, go together and make some weird amalgamation or anything. Like that's
kind of what, at least what I'm described as have been described as the Faye realm, like
trees that are like all weird and have like limbs and shit growing off them. Yeah. But
everybody's like, it's all it, but everybody's having a good time. You know? Yeah. Cause
that's their normal world. Cause that means that like the Banshee, the fucking Pooka,
the changelings, all those things, like when they're, when they're in the fairy realm,
they're all living in harmony. They're all vibing just a chill fucking place. But as
soon as they're in our world, they're all just nightmarish hell creatures that want
to just ruin your day. Exactly. All right, John. So the headless fairies like Billy down
the, down the street in the Faye realm, stepping on your front porch to get your paper. Hey,
what's going on? Yeah. Arias again, that fucking horse shitting all over my front lawn. You
know, he seems like the kind of guy that would cut down limbs from a tree that's not on his
property. Yeah. That's kind of fun. It was that that arm was hanging over a little too
far, a little too far of my property line. It was hanging over my horse and it's, it's
clearly a dead tree. If it falls on my horse, the insurance isn't going to cover it. It's
an act of nature. I mean, exactly. All right, Jonathan. Well, the last fairy type we're
going to be discussing today is an Irish classic. All right. We all know them. We all love them.
And that is the leprechauns. What'd you say? What did you say? You said the car bomb? So
the car bomb. No, but speaking of which, since it is St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I did decide
I'm going to drink Guinness all day today. And I was really hungry before recording this,
but I had one Guinness and it's like eating a loaf of bread, dude. I'm so full. Dude, I
only ever drink Guinness when I, when car bombs are involved. I don't have, like if
I got to chug it real fast. Cause I can't, I can't like, well, no, not that I can't,
but like if I'm going to have a Guinness, it's gotta be like a half and half or like
a black and white or something like half Guinness, half Allagash. It's pretty good. The Allagash
like really cuts through the Guinness pretty well. I love Guinness. It's like drinking
soup. It's like drinking a stew. No, I hate that. I hate that. Well, John, I don't want
to chew my beer. It's cause you're uncultured. All right. Now, Jonathan, the leprechauns,
what do you know about leprechauns? That's true. That was not an answer to my question.
They're really ugly. That they're really ugly and made a bunch of movies about them. True.
Now pretty much, like you said, the leprechauns are kind of ugly. Uh, the ones that we've
come to know they're, they're, they're short, redheaded little dudes dressed in all green
and hoarding gold. Um, they're pretty much like a staple of like St. Patrick's day attire
and children's cereal mascots, but yeah, the lucky charms guy. Yeah. There's a lot more
to these little guys than you would think. Uh, for instance, leprechauns are always shown
to be wearing green, uh, with their fancy waistcoats and top hats. But in reality they
wore mostly red. And the reason for that, according to William Butler Yeats, uh, is
because leprechauns are solitary fairies and solitary fairies were red. Well, the more
social of like this more social fairies, they were green or other colors. Honestly, that
makes perfect sense. Red stay away from me. Green. Let's party. I honestly did not think
about that until you just said it, but that is pretty good. Uh, but also, uh, what leprechauns
wear look like and act is, well not act, but what they, what they wear and look like is
entirely dependent on what part of Island you're in. Uh, because there are actually
four different types of leprechaun. Are you ready to, you ready to learn about the four
different types of leprechauns? You're not ready. The red ones, the blue ones, the green
ones and the purple. Jonathan, you agreed to come on and you sound like exacerbated.
This is funny. Oh wait, there's more. There's more leprechauns. Uh, in the Northern areas
of Ireland, we've got the low green man and he's sporting a red coat and white pants.
Kinda looks like a, uh, like a revolutionary war soldier, like a British soldier. Uh, he's
also got a pointy hat with a big old brim on it. Uh, next is the, uh, lor, lor, loriga
dawn, the loriga dawn. I got it. Okay. Uh, he can be found in the area of Tipperary or
Tipperary and he is also, he, he's donning a fancy little red jacket as well as a jockey
cap and just for added flare, he's got a little sword that he uses as a magic wand. Uh, next
we've got a chubby little guy known as the lorica on, uh, just like an absolute slob
of a leprechaun. He's a portly little fella, uh, sports a red coat, uh, that has seven
rows of buttons, but never actually has it buttoned in every depiction I've seen. He's
not wearing an undershirt, so it's just like it's man tits and big old belly just flopping
out. And he also wears a helmet that is several sizes too big for him, just sloshing around
on top of his head. So kind of relatable in a way. Sounds like the Robert Baratheon of
leprechauns. Yes, no, that is yes. It is Robert Baratheon on his death bed. Just fucking gut
out. Next. Uh, and finally we got the, uh, cloricon, my favorite. He's found in Monaghan.
He's a fancy little boy. He's got a posh red dress coat that he wears over a green vest
with the trademark white pants, black stockings and shiny black shoes. He wears a hat that
basically looks like a dunce cap, but like a fancy dunce cap. Uh, it's, it's just slightly
a jar on top of his head. And the reason why is because he likes going to the different
pubs and taverns and just getting absolutely fucking shit house. Fuck. Yeah. Let's go party
with this guy. No, the differences in all the types of leprechauns pretty much stops
there at their attire because when it comes to their personalities and behaviors, they
prefer to be alone and spend a majority of their time mending or making shoes. I did
not know this about leprechauns, but apparently they're cobblers. Um, nice. Now as to why
they like being alone. One reason given was that they are voluntary bachelors and decided
to self exile themselves. So that way they could just be left the fuck alone. Not like
an, not like an incel type of way, because that's involuntary. This is yeah. Yeah.
Mech beards. Well, they do kind of always show. Now leprechauns are also wildly territorial
and hide their entrances to their homes so that no snooping humans can disturb them.
But if a person does stumble upon the home of a leprechaun, they will very quickly come
to regret it because they will not hesitate to fuck your world up. They will attack you.
No questions asked. The leprechauns know their standard grand loss. Well, the other thing
is if a leprechaun isn't up for fighting you, it will do one thing and that is make a mental
note of who you are and then proceed to fuck with you for the rest of your life. Pretty
much making every moment a waking hell for you. Uh, it'll do things like move or throw
your furniture, turn the heat up on your stove while you're cooking to burn all your food,
throw your baby, take your dog out on a ride and ride it like a horse, just normal rascal
type stuff. Take your dog out on a ride, but throw your
baby. You like how I sandwich that in there?
Yeah. Just shot putting your baby across the...
Now, if you really make them mad, and I'm talking like John Wick after his dog was killed
mad, they will just straight up steal your baby and then replace it with a fairy lookalike
called a changeling. What's even more fucked up is that I could not find any mention of
what they do with your real baby. It's the same thing. Sorry for the Game of Thrones
references, but it's the same thing. Like when the White Walker took the baby, the Night
King took that one baby and then made its eyes blue and turned it into a White Walker
and then you never heard anything about it ever again.
What are they doing with these babies? What are they doing with all these babies?
What happens to the changeling baby? You just wake up and your kids... I think it'd be cool
as hell. My baby's got super powers.
True. It did not say whether or not... See, the thing about changelings though, I don't
know if the changeling is like...
Like a full ass adult?
Well, I don't know how fairies work. I don't know if fairies are born or if they're just
like up here. So I don't know if it's like a 45 year old man pretending to be your baby.
It's like every anime where it's like I died and then become a changeling baby. I don't
know how it works. But Jonathan, even with all this newfound... Are you looking it up
right now?
Yes.
All right. Well, while you do that, I'm going to continue. So pay attention. Now, Jonathan,
even with all this newfound knowledge, there are things that pulp culture has gotten right
about leprechauns. Like if you catch a leprechaun, you will be handsomely rewarded. Some of these
rewards include things like wishes, his pot of gold, or if he's out and about and you
happen to just get him in a fucking headlock, he'll give you some of the gold from his personal
stash. Now, the thing is to be wary of is that even though... Excuse me, the Guinness
coming back up. Even though you caught him, again, leprechauns are notoriously wily and
they will try to escape and they will do this in several different ways. One is they will
full on just start fucking attacking you. And they're pretty... What's the word I'm
looking for? Spry. Like they will fuck you up. The other thing too is that they will
try to distract you. So they'll give you like a pouch of gold and the gold in there is enchanted.
So while you're counting your... So he'll dump out this pouch of gold in front of you
and while you're counting it, he'll put the pouch back in his pocket. Now they're enchanted.
So what that means is that after a while, they will go from your table back into the
pouch in his pocket. So it's basically trying to fuck you over. And there's a lot more to
like leprechaun folklore and there's a lot more to all these different types of fairy
folklore actually. This was a very truncated and brief look at all of this stuff. And I
hope it's all accurate. There was a lot of different stories and a lot of conflicting
information so I had to pick and choose which ones I really liked. But anyways, there you
have it. This is kind of a brief, hopefully accurate account of some of the origins, behaviors
and legends of the Irish fairies. I don't know, but it's pretty good. I learned a lot
today. Did you? Yeah. I hammered through that. I talked so fast. I tried to keep it under
a half hour. If I had talked normally, this would have been easily an hour long episode.
That's fine. That's fine. I'm interested enough that I've, uh, that now I'm researching
fae and how they're born. And what do we got? Well, I did find, so I did find probably from
the most reliable resource on the internet, Tumblr. Tumblr says the way fae reproduce
depends on the type of fae species they are. Some are more corporeal than others and so,
and so are their reproductive means. Well, the thing is they can have sex with humans
and bear offspring depending on the type of species they are. All right. Now, Jonathan,
hold on real quick. Now, is this what, what is this like fantasy fae or is this Irish
fae? Cause I feel like Irish folklore, like fairies and just like normal face shit might
be a little different. I don't think this is no, cause it does. I don't know. It's just
it's otherly creatures. So go follow otherly creatures on Tumblr. Yeah. This is not your
normal faerie blog. It says, so I'm sure it's a hundred percent whatever constitutes your
normal faerie blog. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got a lot of this information
from a website called, uh, Irish wedding rings.com or something. Nice. And John Solo, John Solo's
really good. He did a lot of, he did a lot of the heavy lifting for me. Well, I will
say, the only last thing I will say is someone who posted this has probably the best username
I've ever seen in my life. Oh God. Accio sleep deprivation. Okay. Oh God. Pretty good. Yeah.
All right, John. So, so where are you at? How are you feeling about the fae? You know,
like is it, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling like I want to do a little bit more research
on this Saturday afternoon and really immerse myself into the world of fairies and leprechauns.
That's what I'm saying. Like there was so much that I could not put into this. Like
each one of these fairies quote unquote could like constitute a full episode. And I might
do that because I feel like, first of all, the, uh, headless horseman guy deserves a
full episode because I feel like there's a lot more there because sometimes apparently
he's not just a headless horseman. He is a headless carriageman and he has six black
horses pulling his carriage and he is consistently accompanied by a Banshee who like trails ahead
of him and screams the entire time. So that way you fucking know he's coming and then
he gets to town and just fucks your shit up. And apparently he mostly is always seen during
certain times of year and festive like festivals. Like he just waits for people to gather and
then it's just like, now's my time and just fuck shit up. Like it's pretty good. It's
wild. Also, I learned a new word today called keening. Didn't know what that meant. Apparently
the Banshee either screams, shrieks, howls, cries, or keens. And keens just means that
it just sobs. Never heard of that term before for sobbing. And sometimes, uh, it can only,
it can only keen while it's brushing its hair. That's another thing that I learned. That's
ew. Dude, the world of the fairies is fucked up and weird and awesome. There's a bunch
that I didn't cover. I didn't cover the changelings. We didn't go over changelings. No, we didn't.
There's a lot. Cause I, I w I want to know if the parents who get the baby swap, what
they do with the changelings or to changelings just kill them. I don't know. Like what's
the point of swapping the baby? Why wouldn't you just kill the parents? Like, I don't know
if you have to kill the baby to become a changelink, like to change into the thing. Do you have
to kill it? I don't know. I didn't look into it. I, we don't know. We'll never know. All
right, Jonathan, let's, let's end this episode. Let's do it. All right, Dave. It's been a
pleasure. It's been a pleasure. Uh, thanks everyone for listening. I hope you enjoyed
this. If any of the information I gave was wrong or inaccurate, keep it to yourself.
I don't want to know. I like to live in my own fantasy world. So, uh, no, but for real,
if anything I said was wrong, let me know. You can email me at cryptococktail at gmail.com.
You can follow me on Instagram at cryptococktail. Follow me on TikTok at cryptococktail party.
You can donate to the patreons $5 a month. Uh, you won't get anything in return because
I'm lazy as fuck. We also got a discord server that I don't ever use because it got lonely
and I was talking to myself. So if you want to join the discord, there's a link in my
Instagram bio. And besides that, I think that's all. Uh, Jonathan, would you like to say goodbye
to the audience? Goodbye audience. It has been a pleasure as always.