Celtic fairy traditions
Oisín
Ossian, identified in the survey with Oisin, is carried over the western sea on a fairy woman’s white horse. He lives with her in the Otherworld before longing to return to his companions. After three hundred years he finds Ireland changed and the Brotherhood gone. Helping lift a stone causes him to fall from the horse, and age immediately overtakes him.
Also known as Ossian
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedOssian, identified in the survey with Oisin, is carried over the western sea on a fairy woman’s white horse. He lives with her in the Otherworld before longing to return to his companions.
Further detail
ReportedAfter three hundred years he finds Ireland changed and the Brotherhood gone. Helping lift a stone causes him to fall from the horse, and age immediately overtakes him.
Context & interpretation
Evans-Wentz combines named informants, manuscript narratives, and his own psychical theory in a 1911 survey. This entry preserves those distinctions: collected belief and literary tradition do not establish the physical existence of an Otherworld.
Original passages
Source 1
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
in that last great fight .^ Ossian's Return from Fairyland 2 Ossian too, like Cuchulainn, was enticed into Fairyland by a fairy woman :Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 377
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0377
- Original scan leaf
- 378
- Recorded leaf number
- 378
- Current Reader position
- 373
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
fairy abductress and lived in the Other world for three hundred years, an overpowering desire to return to Ireland and join again in the councils ofOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 378
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0378
- Original scan leaf
- 379
- Recorded leaf number
- 379
- Current Reader position
- 374
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Cú Chulainn
Ulster hero drawn into the conflicts and affections of the Sidhe.
Shared source pageTime in the Celtic Otherworld
Unequal passage of time between Fairyland and the returning hero’s home.
Same subject and traditionConnla
Prince invited into a deathless land by a fairy woman.
Same subject and traditionFionn mac Cumhaill
Leader of the Fenians whose adventures connect hunting, fairy halls, and rebirth.