What IS that?: Dullahan

Hi everyone!! I am back again with a very special post that will hopefully lead to a whole new series of posts. This is the first post for a new topic that I would like to discuss: What IS that? Basically what I have planned for this is a series of posts that just dwell into something interesting that I have seen in anime. For when you are watching a show and you are curious about something that is brought up and you think “What is that?” They can basically be anything that I would have to google to find out more about. I will also use this to talk about how it is involved in an anime and maybe how it is different from it is portrayed in the anime. It could basically be anything.

For the first post I decided to kick it off with something that I really had to read up on because it confuses me and I think that it is interesting. It comes from one of my favorite anime ever, Durarara!!, and it pertains to one of our main characters, Celty.

So here I am with this first post of a, hopefully, new series on the blog:

What IS a Dullahan?

Okay so what exactly is a Dullahan? It is actually a figure from Irish folklore. Which is pretty neat because something outside of Japan is one of the main focuses of an anime. I thought that it was neat….anyway. So a Dullahan is an Irish “fairy” (not how I would phrase it but okay) that basically comes to take the souls of the dead to the underworld. Because they take the souls of the dying, and do not actually kill people, there is not much that you can do to stop them from coming and taking you away. It is said that all locks and doors will open for them without anyone doing anything. They do not go around stealing the souls of the healthy so if you see one in passing it will not kill you, but according to legend if you do see one then a basin of blood will get thrown in your face or you will go blind in one eye. Lovely, right?

The Dullahans of legend are described as creatures that do not have a head attached to their body. The head is carried along with them, however, and they do use it to see…kind of. The heads are described as having the coloring and feel of moldy cheese, eyes that are just circular black holes, and a creepy grin on its face. Even better, right? Anyway, they their head either under their arm, in a saddle bag on the side of the horse, or held up in the air with one hand. So they do not need their head….but at the same time….they do need it. They can function pretty well without it but are better off with it.

But they do not walk everywhere. Oh no. The legends vary a little on what exactly their wonderful steed is. Some say that they ride in a carriage pulled by six black horses that otherwise are perfectly normal. Some others say that they only have one black horse. And then others claim that the one black horse (or all of the horses) also do not have a head.

So how exactly does Celty from Durarara!! compare to the Dullahans of legend. Well, like them she does not have a head. She only wears the mask so that she can attempt to live a little bit of a normal life. She is from Ireland and came to Japan because someone took her head. Which…is not good. She has a horse, who does not have a head, that is named “Shooter”. Shooter can turn into anything that Celty needs him for. A motorcycle (his usual form), his regular self, or even himself with a carriage attached. That is not brought up in the original stories but it is still pretty neat if you ask me. Another way that she is different is that her head is not as creepy looking as described. Her head is actually a pretty normal head.

No moldy cheese looking head here. Celty also does not send souls to the underworld. Instead she works as a transporter in Ikebukuro. She does live a somewhat normal life with Shinra, but Celty does worry about where her head has gone and what she is doing. She is even considered to be an “urban legend” in Ikebukuro known as the “Black Bike” and the rumors even speculate that she does not have a head. Celty is both similar to, and very different from, these Dullahans of legend.

And that my friends is what a Dullahan actually is. I hope you learned a little something today even if you have never watched Durarara!! before. I also hope that you liked this blog and are looking forward to more What IS that? fun posts.

What do you guys think? Would you want to see a Dullahan? Does it scare you a little bit to think about it like it does for me? Does it change how you view Celty if you have seen the show? Or do you have something that you think would make a good topic for “What IS that?”? Let me know down in the comments below!!

See you next time!!