A Scary Irish Folk Tale

‘The Horned Women’

When I was ten years old, I read an old 19th Century anthology “Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales” edited by Joseph Jacobs. One story in particular, “The Horned Women,” terrified me, and yet I re-read it obsessively.

Now I’ve decided to retell it for the 21st Century. (If you want to see the 1892 Jacobs version, it is available at this link https://fairytalez.com/horned-women/ )

Enjoy…

THE HORNED WOMEN

This is the story of the girl Emer O'Donnell, and her troubles with the strange horned women.

Emer was fourteen years old, and the eldest of her parents' ten children, and they all lived in the O'Donnell farmhouse in the wild countryside. (This was back in the old times, when there were still few roads, laws, or churches in Ireland.) One Halloween night, Emer was up alone late by the fireside, after her parents and siblings had all gone to bed. She was sewing together ribbons on a ragdoll as a surprise gift for her young sister's birthday the following week.

There came a knocking on the front door. "Who could that be, so late?" said Emer. Her parents had always warned her to be careful at night, but this time Emer forgot their instructions, and got up to answer the door, still carrying the sewing needle and thimble in her hands.

When the door opened she saw an odd, gray-cloaked woman there on the threshold, and from this woman's forehead grew a single black horn, curved upwards like a hook. Staring in fascination at the woman's horn, Emer was not prepared when the woman suddenly grabbed the needle and thimble from her hands. The woman then quickly used the needle to pierce Emer's palm, and to capture a droplet of her red blood into the thimble.

“Hah!" said the horned woman in a hoarse voice, "with this blood, now I've got you under my trance." And indeed, Emer discovered that she could not move her muscles, or even raise a shout to alert her family.

"Let's sit down by the fire and wait for my Sisters," said the woman. Under the woman's spell, Emer was able to walk to her seat, but could not do anything of her own will.

After five minutes, there was another knocking on the door. "Go answer that," said the horned woman, and Emer was forced to open the door again. Another woman was on the threshold, but this one had two black horns growing from her forehead. She entered, and spoke to the first horned woman: "Greetings Sister! And may I borrow the needle and thimble?"

Once the woman with two horns had these items, she turned to Emer. "Take me to your father," she commanded, and Emer had no choice but to lead the woman upstairs to the bedroom where her parents were sleeping. Unable to say anything, Emer watched as the woman used the needle to pierce her father's arm, and capture a drop of his blood in the thimble. Emer saw her father's face grow pale, and his breathing become shallow, as he too was now caught in a spell.

The woman and Emer returned downstairs to sit by the fire. And now the terrible sequence began: there would be a knocking, and Emer would be compelled to open the door to another woman, one with three horns, then one with four, and one with five. Each time, Emer would have to lead the new woman upstairs and watch as drops of blood were taken from members of her family. Finally there was a woman at the threshold with an incredible twelve horns sprouted from her forehead in a thick cluster. The parlor was now crowded with the group of horrible women, and the thimble was brimful of dark blood. "I was a fool," thought Emer, "to have opened our door and to let ruin into this house." And she was in despair.

The women had a new command for Emer. "Go into the kitchen and start mixing dough for a loaf of bread." So Emer started mixing flour and water as they instructed. One of the women came into the kitchen then, carrying the thimble, and she carefully poured the blood into the mixing bowl with the dough. "Finish the preparations and put it into the oven to bake," she told Emer.

Once the dough was in the oven, this horned woman said, "Ahh, now all we have to do is wait, and then we'll have the fine warm bread that sets us free forever." She looked at Emer. "We don't need you anymore, child. Here, take this sieve out to the spring. Don't come back till it's completely full of water," and the woman started laughing with malicious delight at the folly of this assignment.

Feeling completely miserable, Emer found herself walking outside to the grove at the far side of their farmland, with its fresh spring. She knelt down at the edge of the little waterfall, and tried to fill up the big sieve, but of course the water flowed through it immediately. Emer's heart was breaking inside, and she sobbed as she kept trying to perform the impossible task. The tears ran off her face, and fell into the spring.

A green light began to glow in the depths of the spring, and then a female figure rose up and surfaced from the water. It was a nymph with shining skin.

“Who is dropping salty tears into my fresh springwater?" Emer was amazed, and tried to speak, but she was still under trance, and could not, and so she pointed to her numbed lips.

"I understand," said the nymph, and she raised her glistening fingers to Emer's mouth, and spread her moisture on the dry lips. Suddenly, though still in trance, Emer could speak. "Oh thank you, my lady! Please help me!" And she told the nymph about the terrible horned women who had taken over her family.

The lady of the waters listened carefully to the story. "Indeed, I know these women, for they are the awful Cursed Sisters of Slievenamon. Their souls and deeds have always been evil, and so the Sisters were banished long ago by the Blessed Noble Folk of the forests and rivers. The Sisters are bound by magic to spend every night in their own beds, in their hut on Mount Slievenamon. A protective faery ring was drawn around the mountaintop to keep them prisoner there. But there are always gaps in any magic spell, and so every hundred years there is a Halloween night on which the faery ring cannot hold them. This is one of those nights, and I believe that the Sisters are trying to take possession of your family's beds, so that they will have a new home where the ring cannot hold them again. If they can eat the bread baked with your family's blood, then the Sisters will be free to sleep in the beds of your house every night, liberated from their prison on the mountain. And they will surely keep your family under spell as their slaves." Emer cried out at this news. "Can nothing be done, Lady? Don't you have magic also?"

"I have some, enough to let you speak, but not powerful enough to completely break their bloodspell over you. They have strong dark magic over the elements of Blood, and Wood, and Water, and Fire. And I cannot leave my spring. But don't cry any more, for I can tell you a plan to defeat the Sisters." First the nymph told Emer to gather some mud to paste carefully on the inside surface of the sieve. Once this was done, Emer discovered that she was finally able to fill the sieve with water. "Good," said the lady. "So now their spell will allow you to return to the house. And my touch gave you speech, so we can use your voice to outwit them." Then the nymph gave Emer careful instructions to follow.

After listening carefully, Emer was ready to go back to the house. The horned women were all sitting in the front parlor, so Emer quietly entered the house through the kitchen backdoor without being seen. She put down the sieve, and with this commanded task done, she had more freedom from the Sisters' spell.

She checked on the baking bread, which was not quite ready. Then she crouched near the door to the parlor, unseen. Now she called out, in a hoarse voice that imitated that of the horned women. "Oh no, my Sisters, oh no! Out the window I can see a fire blazing on top of Slievenamon! If our hut and beds burn before daylight, we'll be destroyed! We've got to put out that fire!" The horned women all rose up in a frightened frenzy at this news. Using their magic, they transformed into a flock of huge black crows and flew out the door, and away to their mountain.

Emer knew that she didn't have much time for the rest of the plan, for the Sisters could fly fast, and surely would return within the hour, angry about the trick. As the nymph had instructed, Emer took out the bread, now finally baked. She blew on a section to cool it, and tore off a piece in her hand. She took a crumb from this piece and swallowed it, and instantly felt the strength of her own will again. She went upstairs to her sleeping family. Into each of their mouths she placed a crumb, onto their tongues. Although still in their dreams, they each swallowed the breadcrumbs by instinct, and the rose color spread back into their cheeks immediately.

Running back downstairs, Emer grabbed a hammer, and nailed shut the front and back doors. She then collected any pitchers, kettles or washbasins that contained water, and emptied them through the drainage pipe into the yard outside. Finally, Emer extinguished all the lanterns in the house, and threw a bucket of sand over the fireplace, extinguishing the flames. 

She had just completed this task when she heard screaming outside, and a ferocious wind, and she knew that the Sisters had returned. The horned women banged on the locked door, and howled. One of the Sisters called out. "Stupid tricky girl, our magic will get us back inside!"

And the horned women began a chant: "Blood we took, humans we tranced, open the door for us." But from the loaf of bread in the kitchen came a strange misty voice, calling back. "The humans swallowed my crumbs, and recovered their blood, breaking your spell over them."

A scream came from the horned women. Then they started a new chant. "Timber we command, open these wooden doors." But from the planks of wood in the doors, a voice called back, "Silver nails have closed us shut, we cannot open."

Once again the Sisters screamed, and started a new chant. "Water we command, rise up into a flood and burst open these doors." But from the yard came a response. "I have been splashed out into the drainage ditch, and cannot rise."

The horned women truly began to scream now. "All right, girl," one of them said. "We cannot get in, but we will destroy this house and all who live in it!"

So the Sisters started their final chant. "Flames we command, rise up, and burn everything within this house to ashes." But from the dark lanterns and cold fireplace came the whispered answer. "We cannot. There are no flames left here to rise up and burn."

The horned women howled in fury. And from the window, Emer could now see the first golden traces of the dawn approaching. The Sisters noticed it too, and one of them wailed out. "We must fly quickly Sisters, back to our beds before sunlight reaches the mountain!" Shrieking with pain, the horned women transformed again into ugly black shapes, and fled from the farmhouse. Their entire mission had failed, and they were doomed to their mountain prison again for another hundred years.

Later that morning, when her parents had awakened from their deep sleep, Emer told them the whole tale of the night, and she apologized for opening the door to a stranger. But her parents kissed her and told Emer how happy they were that she had saved them all.

Mr. O'Donnell then said that they also needed to express their thanks to the nymph of the spring. He led the family out to the grove, and gave each of them a silver shilling to throw into the springwater. After they had all done this, they saw the green glowing below, and then the Lady rose again from the water, smiling. She showed them that she was wearing a beautiful silver necklace, which she had crafted out of their shilling gifts, and then bowed to the family before she returned underwater.

Emer and the O'Donnell family headed home, safe and happy, and all things were well with them after that day.

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