DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Aes Sidhe : The Hosts of the Sidhe or Hollow Hills. The inhabitants of the Otherworld. They were thought to ride out on the eves of the four great fire festivals: Samhain (31 October), Oimelc (31 January), Beltaine (30 April), and Lughnasadh (31 July), when they had communion with earthly folk. WB Yeats wrote of them as ‘The Hosts of the Air’. Another name by which they were referred were the ‘Aes Dana’ - but this was used more specifically to refer to a learnéd class within the Aes Sidhe who excelled within their art or craft.