In Irish mythology, hungry grass (; also known as fairy grass) is a patch of cursed grass. Anyone walking on it was doomed to perpetual and insatiable hunger.
History Steenie Harvey suggests that the hungry grass is cursed by the proximity of an unshriven corpse known as the fear gorta,Harvey, Steenie. Twilight places: Ireland's enduring fairy lore . World and I, March 1998, v13 n3. who in some retelling asks for alms and rewards those who offer them. William Carleton's stories suggest that faeries plant the hungry grass,Carleton, William. Phelim O'toole's Courtship and Other Stories or that a meal had been eaten in the area with no portion left to share with the "otherworld". According to Harvey, this myth may relate to beliefs formed in the Great Famine of the 1840s. In Margaret McDougall's letters, the phrase "hungry grass" is - by analogy to the myth - used to describe hunger pangs.McDougall, Margaret. The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland
Carrying a crust in a pocket was believed to protect or ward off the effects of the grass as eating something immediately would avoid death from the sudden hunger.
Hungry grass or Féar gortach is also the native name for quaking-grass, believed to be a reference to its poor nutritional value.
A 1969 novel by Richard Power, is entitled The Hungry Grass.
See also Hungry ghost
References
External links
Oral history account of the hungry grass