Is a banshee the screaming ghost of a woman who died during childbirth?

Answer 1

no according to legend it is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. she is said to wail (or cream) outside of the home of some on who is about to die

Answer 2

The banshee , from ban (bean), a woman, and shee ( sidhe, a fairie), 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 pesantry, 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's 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. -

heres some more information:In Irish folklore, the Banshee is seen as both faerie and ghost. As a faerie, she is used in stories to warn children of the dangers of being out alone. They would be told, "the wind through the trees in the winter forest is the banshee." Essentially, she is the one blamed for the things that howl and go bump in the night. She is also what is called a sidh faerie, meaning she derives herself from the faerie mound, closely relating her to the playful puca and other notable entities of the mound.

In ghost lore, she is the apparition attached to ancient Irish families who forewarns the death of a family member. However, the Banshees revolted against the people and united. This unification resulted in their wailing before any of the Irish people died. She wails at their birth place and within the hour, they are no more.

In mythology, she is closely related to Macha, the horse goddess. She eventually became associated with justice and revenge. The Banshee can also be related to Aine, the goddess of the sea, and equivalent to the Greek goddess Diana. The banshee, in essence, is a fallen goddess.
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Answer 3

Alessa, you forgot to mention your direct copy & paste of the Wiki article on Banshee as your source. Other than that, correct.

ADDED: Alessa, I apologize for jumping you about it. I was a bit cranky and had seen WAY too many people doing that lately. I shouldn't have taken out on you, but my submit clicker was moving faster than my brain. As my dad says, my alligator mouth was overriding my hummingbird ***. You had enough sentences that were eerily similar that I made an assumption and now I'm the ***. Just a little leery of answers that sound like a textbook or Wiki article but the only source is memory. I should have sent an email instead of posting.

Answer 4

Rarely, yes. The more common story, however, is as such:

As my mythology text paints the story, when an Irishmen died a woman would sing a lament at their funeral. These women singers are called caoineadh, though it is sometimes rendered as "keeners" in English

Common parlance goes on to say that there were five great Gaelic families (the O'Gradys, the Kavanaghs, the O'Neils, the O'Briens, and the O'Connors) whose renown was so well known that, instead of a mortal keener, their request for a beautiful fae woman (whose voice would be far more soothing to the mourning) was heeded and such a spirit began to come to sing her respects to their dead. However, having foresight, she would appear before the death and keen. The families came to see this as a curse; the last member of the last family to fall (said to be a Kavanagh in most versions I've heard) ... bitter and broken by the curse ... wished his damnation upon the rest of his kindred irishmen.

The reason this story is considered more correct (as opposed to the "modern" version of a murdered woman, or a woman died in childbirth) is because the word Banshee in irish is Bean Si and means "fairy woman", or else just a term for a female fairy.

However, Bean Si can also be translated as "Woman of the Fairy Mound" ... a fairy mound (or sidhe) was not, as one might think, an actual mound ... but instead a raised, hallow dome in which fairy/imps/etc lived. Modern interpretations occasionally think of the "fairy mound" as a burial plot for a murdered woman (fairies are, in modern mythology, known to take pity on those who are struck down ... more often so if they are virginal women .. as such, the murdered variant is, ever so slightly, more common than the child-birth variant).

Answer 5

no they are not Banshees are a spirt attached to a irish family . she comes three nights in a row at the exact time of a family members death and screams on the 3rd night you know that the person has passed on. I myself have not heard our familys banshee the last person to hear her was my mother when her grandfather died, she said it was extreamly eriee.

Answer 6

No its a mythological creature that screams outside your door to tell you youre gonna die soon

Answer 7

No just a annoying family member that has to warn the rest of the family members of a impending death.

Answer 8

All banshee are demons(fallen angels) that come in the disguise of a women.. Because it is more frightening for man-kind to see a woman acting in that manner................................

Answer 9

Sure.