Banshee's?

Question

A Banshee is an Irish Folklore. A Celtic apperition who's wailing announces an impending death?
Any interesting stories of Banshee's or do you believe is it a load of old tosh?

Answer 1

The bean-sidhe (woman of the fairy may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.

Whatever her origins, the banshee chiefly appears in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, namely Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain.) She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman).

Although not always seen, her mourning call is heard, usually at night when someone is about to die. In 1437, King James I of Scotland was approached by an Irish seeress or banshee who foretold his murder at the instigation of the Earl of Atholl. This is an example of the banshee in human form. There are records of several human banshees or prophetesses attending the great houses of Ireland and the courts of local Irish kings. In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as the bean chaointe (keening woman) whose wail can be so piercing that it shatters glass. In Kerry, the keen is experienced as a "low, pleasant singing"; in Tyrone as "the sound of two boards being struck together"; and on Rathlin Island as "a thin, screeching sound somewhere between the wail of a woman and the moan of an owl".

The banshee may also appear in a variety of other forms, such as that of a hooded crow, stoat, hare and weasel - animals associated in Ireland with witchcraft.


Personally I belive that the banshee is a folk myth that was evolved over several centuries to explain that which cannot be understood. Humans do not like the idea of death being the end of existence so think that after death the spirit continues. The banshee was the person wjho could take your soul to or at least guide you to Heaven.

Answer 2

A banshee is a spirit that warns of impending death, has been heard in my family history, on my mothers side. It is supposed to follow certian Irish clans of which her side of the family are one.

Many years ago when I was just a young man I seen and heard one, and it scared me shitless, that night my aunt Nora died.
I have no desire to see another one, and hopefully never will.
It just looked like a ghost you could see through it, no hovering in the sky, just sitting outside the door.

Funny enough on my fathers side, we get a knock on our door and when we open it there is no one there. by the way this is an inside door, not the front or back door. And as always someone has died.
Sometimes a picture just falls off the wall , the nail still in the wall and the picture cord still intact. and someone has died during the night or day.
My own personal belief is that these things are sent to seek prayer for the dying soul and do no actual harm to the living.

Answer 3

It's not folklore. Some people of Irish descent know when a loved one is dying because the banshee does wail. In this country, it has been denounced as the wind. The wind, however, doesn't give goosebumps in a warm room.

Answer 4

First off a banshee it not totally Irish, Almost every country on this earth has one form of a banshee, and they do not just announce a forth coming death they also lure people to their death and play a part in killing them........

Answer 5

No, but there is an excellent episode of Charmed with a Banshee in it.

Answer 6

Yeah course, when my mother was dying i was sent to stay with my aunt, on the way there i thought i herd some one screaming, but being a child i thought nothing more, when we returned home the next day i was told the she had passed on in the night, i knew then that the screaming was a sign my heart was going to break! :..)

Answer 7

A nice bit of folklore, after a bit too much poteen.

Answer 8

i believe in banshees i have read alot about them and i find them quite interesting.

Answer 9

went out with a greek girl once, reminded me of one of them.
Fit though, shame she was a banshee!

Answer 10

never actually heard them, but the one that said they were from family experince,I would love to talk to her! I agree that they are an OLD Celtic legend.... I have to say "legend" cuz i have never had any experience with one... But if i do, then it isn't a legend, but fact...