“Samhain, says Lhwyd, is compounded of Samb, summer and fhuin the end: this is a false derivation…the Druids taught that Samhain at this season called the souls to judgment; hence Samhain was named balsab, or Dominus mortis, for Bal is Lord, and Sab death.”

 

Charles Vallancey, “Of Allhallow Eve” from Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis Volume 3 (1786)

 

 

“General Vallancey, though a man of learning, wrote more nonsense than any man of his time.”

 

London Quarterly Review, April 1818