The ' (; ; , ) is a figure from Irish folklore. She is depicted as a beautiful woman of the Aos Sà("people of the fairy mounds") who takes a human lover. Lovers of the leannán sÃÂdhe are said to live brief, though highly inspired, lives. The name comes from the Gaelic words for a sweetheart or lover and the term for inhabitants of fairy mounds (fairy). While the leannán sÃÂdhe is most often depicted as a female fairy, there is at least one reference to a male leannán sÃÂdhe troubling a mortal woman.
A version of the myth was popularized during the Celtic Revival in the late 19th-century. The leannán sÃÂdhe is mentioned by Jane Wilde, writing as "Speranza", in her 1887 Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland. W. B. Yeats popularized his own 'newly-ancient' version of the leannán sÃÂdhe, emphasizing the spirit's almost vampiric tendencies. As he imagined it, the leannán sÃÂdhe is depicted as a beautiful muse who offers inspiration to an artist in exchange for their love and devotion; although the supernatural affair leads to madness and eventual death for the artist:
The 2017 horror movie MUSE, written and directed by John Burr, features her as the mythical and deadly spirit who becomes the muse and lover of a painter.