{"id":120,"date":"2023-01-10T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/?p=120"},"modified":"2023-01-10T12:00:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T12:00:16","slug":"origins-of-the-hungry-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/origins-of-the-hungry-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"Origins Of The Hungry Grass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Hungry Grass is a cursed patch of land. The unfortunate person who walks across it is struck with extreme hunger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hunger is accompanied by stomach pains and a sudden wave of physical weakness. Moreover, victims become so disorientated that they can walk around in circles for days. This keeps them tied to the cursed ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thankfully, there is a cure although it may not be immediately available. If the afflicted eat the tiniest piece of food, this gives a burst of strength to break free and walk out of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if there is no food to hand, victims waste away to the point of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_63 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/origins-of-the-hungry-grass\/#Is_The_Hungry_Grass_Caused_By_Death\" title=\"Is The Hungry Grass Caused By Death?\">Is The Hungry Grass Caused By Death?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/origins-of-the-hungry-grass\/#When_Fairies_Are_The_Cause\" title=\"When Fairies Are The Cause\">When Fairies Are The Cause<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/origins-of-the-hungry-grass\/#The_Great_Famine_As_The_Historic_Origin\" title=\"The Great Famine As The Historic Origin\">The Great Famine As The Historic Origin<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_The_Hungry_Grass_Caused_By_Death\"><\/span>Is The Hungry Grass Caused By Death?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the stories told about the Hungry Grass, the causes range from the rather general to the very specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some tales say that the cause is a violent event where the victim has been left to die in a remote and lonely spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But other tales don\u2019t include violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, one story describes a corpse falling from a hearse while it was being transported to be buried. &nbsp;In those days, a hearse would be a horse and cart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spot on the side of the road where the corpse lay became permanently cursed as Hungry Grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was nothing special in the way the body hit the ground in that story. But with other accounts, the positioning is very specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In some stories, the corpse must fall mouth downward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cIf you step on the spot the mouth touched, even if it were a thousand years before, you will be stricken by Hungry Grass.\u201d<\/p>\n<cite>The Event and its Terrors: Ireland, Famine, Modernity. Stuart McLean<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Keeping with corpses, myth mixes with Christian lore in the versions where the body on the patch of ground is an unshriven corpse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnshriven\u201d refers to a person who died without confessing their sins to a priest and receiving absolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_Fairies_Are_The_Cause\"><\/span>When Fairies Are The Cause<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast to corpses, some stories blame a fairy curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, mankind also has to answer for this state of affairs. The usual problem is that someone is eating their meal outside on a journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps they are walking to work and devouring a delicious hunk of bread filled with ham and cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this thoughtless individual doesn\u2019t throw a few crumbs to the side of the path to feed the local fairies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the little people don\u2019t always hanker after human food, they can get very annoyed at this lack of respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, they gather together to plant the hunger grass on the spot they feel a morsel of food should have been dropped for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>William Carleton, the 19th century writer, told several tales with fairies as the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Hungry Grass\u201d was one such tale, and \u201cPhelim O\u2019Tooles Courtship\u201d another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Phelim\u2019s story, he\u2019s explaining to his parents why he\u2019s late home and feeling famished. I\u2019ll quote Carleton below. It should be readable to those who aren&#8217;t Irish \u2013 but \u201cwaker\u201d is \u201cweaker\u201d and \u201cdhraps\u201d is \u201cdrops\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>\u201cAs I was crassin\u2019 Dunroe Hill, I thramped on hungry grass. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>First, I didn\u2019t know what kem over me, I got so wake; an\u2019 every step I wint, \u2019twas waker an\u2019 waker I was growin\u2019 till at long last, down I dhraps, an\u2019 couldn\u2019t move hand or fut.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Thankfully, Phelim was saved by a quick-witted passer by who knew exactly what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good Samaritan pushed a morsel of food into Phelim\u2019s mouth and helped him walk away from the cursed patch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The wise traveller explained the situation to the bemused young Phelim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>\u00a0\u201cThis is the spot the fairies planted their hungry grass.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Great_Famine_As_The_Historic_Origin\"><\/span>The Great Famine As The Historic Origin<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Perhaps the most common cause for Hungry Grass is based on the Great Famine, a time of mass disease and starvation throughout Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Corpses lay unburied for days for want of enough coffins. Some were covered in sackcloth in the shallowest of graves by survivors too weak to do more than scrape the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the tales I heard in childhood, the grass that grew to cover these pitiful bodies was somehow infused with their ravenous hunger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dib.ie\/biography\/macdonagh-donagh-a5169\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donagh MacDonagh<\/a>, judge and poet, describes how these awful circumstances brought about a cursed patch of land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Little the earth reclaimed from that poor body<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet remembering him the place has grown<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bewitched and the thin grass he nourishes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Racks with his famine, sucks marrow from the bone.<\/p>\n<cite>excerpt from The Hungry Grass, Donagh MacDonagh<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Hungry Grass by Donagh McDonagh,\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/12ekrORSVAI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hungry Grass is a cursed patch of land. The unfortunate person who walks across it is struck with extreme hunger. The hunger is accompanied by stomach pains and a sudden wave of physical weakness. Moreover, victims become so disorientated that they can walk around in circles for days. This keeps them tied to the &#8230; <a title=\"Origins Of The Hungry Grass\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/origins-of-the-hungry-grass\/\" aria-label=\"More on Origins Of The Hungry Grass\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreirishancestry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}