In Irish mythology, hungry grass (Irish: féar gortach; also known as fairy grass) is a patch of cursed grass. Anyone walking on it was doomed to perpetual and insatiable hunger.

Harvey suggests that the hungry grass is cursed by the proximity of an unshriven corpse (the fear gorta).[1] William Carleton's stories suggest that faeries plant the hungry grass.[2] According to Harvey, this myth may relate to beliefs formed in the Great Famine of the 1840s.[1] In Margaret McDougall's letters, the phrase "hungry grass" is - by analogy to the myth - used to describe hunger pains.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Harvey, Steenie. Twilight places: Ireland's enduring fairy lore Archived 17 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. World and I, March 1998, v13 n3.
  2. ^ Carleton, William. Phelim O'toole's Courtship and Other Stories
  3. ^ McDougall, Margaret. The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland


Categories