SLOO-ah
A host of restless, malevolent dead said to fly through the night sky.
The Sluagh ("host") are described as a flock of unquiet spirits of the dead who fly in the night, sometimes said to come from the west, and traditionally blamed for various misfortunes to travelers caught outdoors after dark. In some regional traditions, windows were kept shut and facing away from the west at night specifically to keep the Sluagh out.
The sluagh, or sluagh sídhe, are the "host" of the restless dead, said to travel in a crowd through the air at night, usually on the west wind. In both Irish and Scottish Gaelic tradition they are feared because they were said to seize the living, or to carry off the souls of the dying.
One piece of folk belief recorded in the Highlands was to keep west-facing windows shut at night so that the host could not enter. Because the sluagh are souls who have not found rest, they differ from the fairy folk proper, and they are linked in tradition with unquiet death and unmarked graves.
Read more: Creatures of Irish mythology →
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 21 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 7 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
The Sluagh (or Sluagh na Marbh, "host of the dead") are a host of restless, unforgiven spirits in Irish and Scottish folklore said to fly through the air at night, sometimes entering houses through unlatched west-facing windows.
Because the Sluagh were believed to travel from the west, some households kept west-facing windows and doors closed at night, particularly around Samhain, to prevent the host from entering and carrying off a soul.
No — where a banshee heralds one family's death and a ghost is usually an individual spirit, the Sluagh is a collective host of the restless dead, moving and acting together rather than as a single haunting presence.