Medieval French sources attested a figure or troop labelled herlequin / hellequin in accounts of a nocturnal, uncanny host (the Mesnée d'Hellequin). Early chronicles (e.g., Orderic Vitalis) describe a monk encountering a night-roving troop of demons and tormented souls called familia herlequin; later cultural transmission yielded the Italian theatrical name Arlecchino. Over centuries the image was reinterpreted within popular theatre: a mischievous 'devil' or masked leader of night-processions furnished motifs that were secularized into the comic servant Arlecchino in commedia dell'arte and subsequent Harlequinades.
In medieval folkloric descriptions Hellequin appears as a masked leader of a troop; some medieval depictions describe him as club-wielding and, in particular accounts, as a 'black-faced emissary of the devil'—features that scholars connect to later stage mask traditions. The theatrical Arlecchino/Harlequin is characterised by a motley or checkered (patchwork) costume, a black leather half-mask in early modern practice, and accoutrements noted for specific actors (e.g., Tristano Martinelli's linen patched costume and a hare-tail on his cap; also moustache and pointed beard in some representations). The diamond/rhombus pattern of later Harlequin costume derives from 17th-century fashion adaptations.
As a stage stock character, Harlequin's 'powers' are performative: exceptional agility, acrobatic dexterity, comic resourcefulness, and trickster-style cunning; he often outwits masters, pursues romantic interest (Columbine), and performs pratfalls and physical comedy. In the medieval folkloric context Hellequin functions as the leader of a spectral troop that pursues damned souls in nocturnal Wild Hunt narratives—an ominous, otherworldly activity rather than interpersonal trickery.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarta (Ábartach)
Abarta (also Ábartach) is a figure of Irish myth who, in surviving accounts, tricks Fionn mac Cumhaill's warriors by giving them a supernatural grey horse that bears them into the Otherworld. Sources variably identify him as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann or as a Fomorian; after the incident he is compelled to release the captured warriors and is refused entry to the Fianna.
Abcán (Abhcán)
Abcán (modern spelling Abhcán) is a named dwarf poet and musician of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish myth. He appears in a small number of narratives as a musician whose art has soporific power and as the ferryman who brings the goddess Ruad from the Otherworld to the human world.
Abhean
Abhean is a named poet of the Tuatha Dé Danann in medieval Irish literature, described as a poet in particular of Lugh and recorded as having been killed by Óengus before Midir in a poem by Fland Mainistreach preserved in the Lebor Gabála Érenn.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Accolon
Accolon is a mortal knight of the Arthurian court, presented in the Post-Vulgate Merlin tradition and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Morgan le Fay's paramour and instrument in a plot to supplant King Arthur; his tale centers on enchanted weapons (Excalibur and its scabbard), love-manipulation, and a tragic duel with Arthur.
Achall
Achall is an eponymous mortal woman in the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature whose grief-induced death is given as the origin of the hill-name Achall (identified with the modern Hill of Skryne). She appears as a genealogical and etiological figure tied to Tara and later legendary events at the hill, rather than as a recurring supernatural agent.
Achtland
Achtland is a figure from Irish tradition who, according to the surviving account, was a mortal woman famed for rejecting mortal suitors who married a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and crossed into the síde to become immortal as his wife.
Acionna
Acionna is a local Gallo-Roman water goddess attested by a single votive inscription found at a spring in the Orléanais region. The inscription, discovered by Jollois in 1822 and datable by style to the 2nd century CE, dedicates a portico and ornaments "AUG(ustae) ACIONNAE" and was recovered from the Fontaine de l'Étuvée in Orléans; archaeological work in 2007 uncovered remains of a Gallo-Roman temple and a section of an aqueduct at the site.
Adar Llwch Gwin
Legendary large, intelligent birds from Welsh tradition said to understand human speech and obey their master's commands; best known for tearing their master Drudwas ap Tryffin to pieces when bound by a literal order in an Arthurian battle narrative. The term later came to be applied to raptors and metaphorically to brave men in medieval Welsh poetry.
Adar Rhiannon
Adar Rhiannon ('birds of Rhiannon') are a set of three magical birds in medieval Welsh narrative (the Mabinogi) whose song can 'wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.' They appear as otherworldly song‑beings tied to the figure Rhiannon and function within tales as providers of enchanted music that sustains and consoles characters.
Aderyn y Corff
Aderyn y Corff (literally 'bird of the corpse') is a bird-like death-porter in Welsh folklore said to call outside the door of a person about to die. Described as an avian portent that may lack feathers or wings and as existing on another plane when not manifesting, it is treated in Welsh ghost lore and sometimes naturalized as a screech owl in modern accounts.
Community Record
- [1]Harlequin. Wikipedia, 'Harlequin', accessed via provided research noteswiki
- [2]Aubrey Beardsley : the clown, the harlequin, the pierrot of his age. Macfall (Project Gutenberg edition) — biographical/stylistic discussion of harlequin imagery as cited in research notesliterary