The Goborchinn [Irish folklore]
The 11th century Irish chronicle Sex Aetates Mundi (literally ‘the six ages of the world’) describes the existence of the Goborchinn, a race of horse-headed beings.
References to these monsters in Irish manuscripts are scarce and we don’t really know how they treated or were treated by humans, but as they were described in a decidedly negative light, being grouped together with monsters, they were likely malicious.
They are often claimed to be a subspecies of the mythical Fomorians/Fomóraig, the ancient monstrous opponents of the early Irish people, but this is inaccurate. Rather, these two groups share the same origin as they were descended from the same ancestor: after the biblical Flood, Cham (or Ham) mocked his father Noah for being drunk and naked. Under the influence of this curse, Cham became the father of Luchorpáin (think of these as early leprechauns), the Fomóraig and the Goborchinn, a race of human-like beings with the heads of horses. The horse-headed Goborchinn have often been associated with the Fomorians, and while the name can mean either ‘goat-headed’ or ‘horse-headed’, we do know that one of the Fomorian kings in the Lebor Gabála was named Eochaid Echchenn, a name that translates to something like ‘Horsehead’, hence why the Goborchinn are generally accepted to have the heads of horses.
In earlier Celtic mythology, horses and horse-associated spirits were viewed in a more beneficial light, and the Christianisation of these myths might partially account for the change. It is unclear to me whether the Goborchinn were based on earlier, non-Christianized monsters, or to what extent, though it seems there is indeed a connection with earlier Celtic spirits.
Interestingly, there is evidence that these monsters were derived from the Cynocephali, a race of dog-headed humans discussed in older medieval texts. They might also be related to the more well-known Irish water horse monsters.
MacCulloch, J. A., 1911, The Religion of the Ancient Celts, Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh, p. 189-190, 399 pp.
Clarke, M., 2012, The Lore of the Monstrous Races in the Developing Text of the Irish Sex Aetates Mundi, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 63, p. 15-49.
Lyle, E., 2021, Myth and History in Celtic and Scandinavian Traditions, Taylor & Francis, 302 pp.
(Image source: 'Horsehead' by Alex Tuis, visuals for Horsehead)
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