Banshee

Bean-Shidh, Bean-Sídhe

From the Irish bean sídhe ("woman of the síde" or "woman of the fairy mounds") is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. Her Scottish counterpart is the bean shìth.

The aos sí (people of the mounds, people of peace) are variously believed to be the survivals of pre-Christian Gaelic deities, spirits of nature, or the ancestors. Some Theosophists and Celtic Christians have referred to the aos sí as "fallen angels".

Also known as the Washer at the Ford; in Scotland, she is called Cointeach, which means "one who keens (sings)." Also Cyhraeth (Cornish), Cyoerraeth (Welsh), and Eur-Cunnere Noe (Brittany), the Bean-Sidhe [ban-shee] (Irish).

A female spirit of the Gaelic and Celtic peoples, rarely seen but often heard. This Faerie almost always appears as a pale woman whose hair, lips, hands, and gown are covered in blood. She has long stringy hair, and a white hooded shroud, and she usually appears wet, as if she has just emerged from the swamp. Others say she's a woman with straggling black hair. one nostril, protruding teeth and eyes red from weeping, dressed in a shroud, or as a pale, beautiful young woman dressed in a green robe and grey cloak.

But she is usually seen in loose white drapery, mournfully wailing as the sun sets. She has an appalling cry, described by some who have heard it as a blend between the howling of a wolfhound, the cry of wild geese, the screams of an abandoned child, and the groans of a woman in labour.

For the most part, she is a family Faerie, with each household having its own spirit. The wail of a banshee has only one meaning - that a member of the family which hears it is doomed to die and its usually heard wailing outside a family's ancestral home just prior to a person's death.

Many tales have been told of banshees wailing outside someone's birthplace just as the person dies, far across the seas. The man or woman may be far from his home, but the banshee warns the family in the homeland. A large number of them together omens the death of a great or holy person. According to the Irish, to see one is to foresee one's own death.

If seen while wailing, she usually appears as a misty, white apparition walking aimlessly through the night. Her wail has been described as bone-chilling and frightening by some, yet comforting to others. She can also be seen washing bloodied clothes in a brook or stream. This sight can signify a life-altering event that is about to occur. In Scotland she has been seen squatting by the door of one who is about to die.

Those who have heard a banshee say that this dreadful semi-human sobbing, screaming, and wailing will awaken the soundest sleeper and rise above the wildest gale. It is especially awesome when it echoes over the moors and lakes in the twilight of a grey summer's day.

The Banshee, by W. B. Yeats:

The banshee (from ban [bean], a woman, and shee [sidhe], a fairy) is an attendant fairy that follows the old families, and none but them, and wails before a death. Many have seen her as she goes wailing and clapping her hands. The keen [caoine], the funeral cry of the peasantry, is said to be an imitation of her cry. When more than one banshee is present, and they wail and sing in chorus, it is for the death of some holy or great one. An omen that sometimes accompanies the banshee is the coach-a-bower [coiste-bodhar] - an immense black coach, mounted by a coffin, and drawn by headless horses driven by a Dullahan.

It will go rumbling to your door, and if you open it, according to Croker, a basin of blood will be thrown in your face. These headless phantoms are found elsewhere than in Ireland. In 1807 two of the sentries stationed outside St. James' Park died of fright. A headless woman, the upper part of her body naked, used to pass at midnight and scale the railings. After a time the sentries were stationed no longer at the haunted spot. In Norway the heads of corpses were cut off to make their ghosts feeble. Thus came into existence the Dullahans, perhaps; unless, indeed, they are descended from that Irish giant who swam across the Channel with his head in his teeth.