Hah...

How fast time flies ~~旦_(- ω-｀｡)

Greetings, fellow humans!

I'm Winter, the writer. I hope you are all having a good time, or as good a time as you can realistically have (life does throw some nasty curve balls from time to time, am I right?)

As I already have many ongoing projects—some which I publish online (Arcana Trials, BOTJ, SING!), while others are related to my published novel and to-perhaps-publish stories—I don't usually do monthly challenges. I already struggle with time management as it is, so the last thing I need is another reason (idea) to go on a tangent about, to delay even more my upload schedule.

That said, when I saw by chance Honeyfeed's Monthly Challenge last month (May), I immediately went

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ DULLAHANS?!

It just turns out one of my (other) projects involves Dullahans (and many more mythological creatures), and Sleepy Hollow is an incredibly dear movie to me. It also helped that one of the suggestions for the challenge was to write a short story around 7,500 words. So I thought.....why not give it a try? I was craving to write some fun, psychological terror, so this challenge really appeared at the best time. Unfortunately, due to some life circumstances (anime convention, move-in, office work, priority series), I couldn't finish the story by the end of May. Regardless, it was a very fun experience that I thoroughly enjoyed, so no regrets here.

Since Dullahan is an Irish legend, I wanted to do something as close to its roots as possible—which meant I could bask in some Fae-lore territory “ψ (｀∇´) ψ Although my overall knowledge on Irish/Welsh/Celtic mythology is quite scarce when compared to actual enthusiasts, I was always fond of them. So I did my best in my researches to create a story that made sense, and was actually referencing Irish tales in a proper way. Perhaps I failed, or was not as successful as I could be. To that I say, whatever was not properly executed or explained, do let me know so I can correct such mistakes and improve future drafts. I am but a simple writer, always striving to learn new ways to improve my art m(_ _)m

The hardest was, without a doubt, to properly convey Irish/Scottish accent in the dialogues ( ´ ∀ `) I am an absolute fan and simply adore the way Gabaldon does in the Outlander series, and it's a dream to be able to convey different accents in my writing like this, one day. So I did as much research on the subject as I could, yet I'm quite aware it's nowhere near perfection (or as good as I wish it actually was). Nevertheless, I hope the efforts I took were enough to provide a bit more flavor to this story.

My logic regarding the 'accents' was to somewhat mix Irish/Scottish dialect and speech, though still trying to put a bit more focus on the Irish side. Some characters, like the family in Chapter 1, had 'English roots' like Eoghan himself. The more 'local' the person was, the more I tried to reflect that in how they spoke. I guess I doubled down on that with the Blood Huntress Cailleach though ₍₍ ◝(・ω・)◟ ⁾⁾ I really wanted her to speak actual Irish. Which is where A LOT of mistakes and grammatical murder may have occurred. I did try my best, yet I am quite aware it could've still been quite disastrous. I will gladly make any corrections as mistakes are brought to my attention m(_ _)m

(side note: if anyone is curious about what the witch said whenever she spoke in Irish, I can later put the translations here :3)

NOW! Some fun trivia regarding some characters' names

Eoghan Conroy:

Eoghan = 'born of the yew tree'. The yew tree, in some cultures, symbolizes death and resurrection. Which I thought was the most fitting for the main character and what he would go through (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ Conroy is merely a surname I fancy.

The English pronunciation of Eoghan would be Ewan/Ewen, by the way.

Mórbhach:

This one can be trickier, since it starts involving a lot of Irish that I am nowhere familiar with. That said~

Mór- is one of the adjectives used to describe big/large. Bhach is taking inspiration from words related to 'death' (bás), 'destruction' (mhaith é), and like...bad stuff. So their name would translate to something akin 'THE GREAT MALIGNANT DEATH', or something with similar vibes.

If Internet has not failed me, the pronunciation would be something like MOHR-vakh.

Keelin MacNeil:

Keelin is the anglicized form of Caoilfhionn (I didn't want to strain the readers' eyes that much ^^;). Caoilfhionn takes the Old Irish elements cáel (slender) and finn (white, blessed), which I thought was very appropriate for little MacNeil.

Again, the family name is simply one I liked how it sounded, so no deeper meaning here.

As some insights for the story itself, the idea was always to have Eoghan become the new Dullahan. His character was supposed to be someone who was simply in the wrong place at the worst of times. And though I do consider him an ordinary man in many senses, as the story is told from his perspective, things are not exactly as he portrays them to be (regarding his family history).

I didn't want to focus too much on his backstory, since I already struggle with short stories as it is, so I tried to provide enough information to give readers some context, and his character more depth. Yet he does have some biased perspective and opinion regarding his mother and uncle, which were influenced by how most of the traumatic events were experienced during his childhood, and how the memories and feelings he went through and felt as a child became more toxic and distorted as time passed.

All of this is to say that, although Eoghan was not a bad person who deserved all that he went through, he was not the nicest guy.

As I wrote, I mostly listened to Sleepy Hollow OST, by the great and amazing Danny Elfman, and some other eerie and creepy music. And once again I was reminded why I should not write the super scawy and tense stories near bedtime while listening to scary music (Ｔ▽Ｔ)

After all this mumbling, I just wanted to thank you once again for giving this story of mine the grace of your time (୨୧•͈ᴗ•͈)◞ᵗʱᵃᵑᵏઽ*♡ I'm super thrilled I was able to finish a story this short, without affecting too much my other WIPs. Perhaps I may try again, if there is ever a prompt that catches my interest. Until then, my focus shall remain on AT and BOTJ.

 
THANK YOU VERY MUCH! (*ˊᗜˋ*)/

 
Happiest of Blessings,

Winter