Sidhe

The Sidhe are a type of fairy found in Scottish Highlands.

The term Sidhe (pronounced as “shee”) would translate into modern English as “the people of the fairy hills”. This description reveals the nature of what people in ancient Scotland believed them to be, fairies who lived in hills, mounds or underground.

The Sidhe are not recorded anywhere in any literature as ever having a particular time of arrival in Scotland, they have just always been. Yet unlike they do now, the Sidhe did not live underground. It is said that when people arrived, they fought with the Sidhe and won, driving them underground. As part of their defeat, the Sidhe were forced to sign a treaty of peace, although as part of that documents humans were meant to leave tributes of milk or butter out for the creatures.

The stories involving Sidhe describe them as a fairly advanced mythical race, on par with tribal society of the time. The Sidhe live in almost clan like structures, with kings and queens. They interact between each other in a similar manner to Scottish clans. It is also said that the Sidhe are above typical mythological creatures in that they are extremely smart, some even going so far as to call their knowledge heavenly.

Interestingly, the Sidhe are actually the group for a much more well known Scottish mythological creature, the Banshee. Banshees are actually just female Sidhe. The first part of the name meaning woman and the second being the pronunciation of Sidhe.