She's a witch, a harbinger of death, a siren of doom. The banshee is a figure steeped in the Old Irish lore. The name banshee derives from old Irish meaning "woman of the fairy mound". The concept is taken from the many mounds that scattered the Irish countryside. These mounds are called tumulus. Tumuli were covered graves and according to local legend, also the home of spirits and ghosts.
The banshee is also known as "the little washerwoman". Locals spoke of sightings of a woman washing the blood-stained clothes of the nearly deceased.
She appears in three forms a young maiden, a matron, or a crook-back crone. She would be dressed in a gray or white hooded cloak. Her eyes reddened from weeping.
The predictor of death came from the shrill she would exude, rippling deep within the bowels of the forest. Tales have been passed down from generations about soldiers abandoning the battlegrounds by the sounds of the siren of death.
Those that have claimed to have seen her describe a woman combing her long hair. While others speak of a woman pulling her hair out in anguish. According to some, she appears only to select families. Those of O’ Neills, O’ Connors, O’ Briens, O’ Gradys, and Kavanaghs although the list varies depending on who is telling the story.
While the banshee is benign the fairy mistress, Lianhan Sídhe, (pronounced lan-hawn shee) is a beautiful woman who attracts men but this love will lead to their downfall. W.B. Yeats describes her as a seeker of mortals.
If they refuse, she must be their slave; if they consent, they are hers, and can only escape by finding another to take their place. The fairy lives on their life, and they waste away. Death is no escape from her. She is the Gaelic muse, for she gives inspiration to those she persecutes. The Gaelic poets die young, for she is restless, and will not let them remain long on earth – this malignant phantom.
Another figure in Irish legend is Aibell, anglicized as Aeval) was the guardian spirit of the Dál gCais, the Dalcassians or Ó Bríen clan. She was the ruler of a sídhe in north Munster, and her dwelling place was Craig Liath, the grey rock, a hill overlooking the Shannon about two miles north of Killaloe. Aibell also had a lover (called Dubhlainn Ua Artigan) and a magic harp (of which it was said "[w]hoever heard its music did not live long afterwards").
The name Aibell may come from Gaelic aoibh, meaning "beauty" (or aoibhinn "beautiful") Alternatively, as a theonym it could be derived from Proto-Celtic *Oibel-ā, literally "burning fire", which may have been a byword for the notion of "ardor"; the Romano-British equivalent of this Proto-Celtic theonym is likely to have been *Oebla. A variant name for the character is Áebinn.
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 Scottish folklore, a similar creature is known as the bean nighe or ban nigheachain (little washerwoman) or nigheag na h-àth (little washer at the ford) and is seen washing the bloodstained clothes or armor of those who are about to die. In Welsh folklore, a similar creature is known as the cyhyraeth.
Besides signaling impending death the banshee also liked to cry at the crowning of a true king. One reported case of this happening was at the crowning of legendary Brian Boru who overthrew the O’Neills and began the O’Brien dynasty. Possibly the only example of a human Banshee appearance was in 1437 when a woman purporting to be a ‘seer’ approached King James I of Scotland and correctly predicted his murder at the instigation of the Earl of Atholl.
In 1801 the Banshee paid a visit to the Commander in Chief of the British forces in Ireland. He had attended a party at Dublin Castle and invited a few guests back to his home in Mount Kennedy, Co. Wicklow, afterward. These guests, Sir Jonah Barrington, and his wife woke up at 2:30 am to what he described as ‘plaintive sounds’ coming from outside his window. His wife and a maid were also awoken by it, and the sound later turned into the name ‘Rossmore’ being screeched three times. The next morning, they were told that a servant, having heard odd sounds from Rossmore’s room at 2:30 am, entered to find him dying.
The Banshee was usually thought to have once been a normal woman who enjoyed life, was incredibly beautiful, and radiated happiness, but some great sorrow overcame her at some point in her life and she became a haggard old woman. She was seemingly very wary of mortals and would disappear at the first sign of any human activity. She didn’t seem to enjoy the company of anyone, mortal or not, and traveled as a solitary fairy.
When the Banshee moved from place to place, witnesses have heard a fluttering sound similar to birds flying. When she disappeared, all that would be left behind was a cloud of mist. There are several purported ‘Banshee Chairs’ around Ireland; wedge-shaped rocks where she would sit and cry for general misfortunes if there was no death to be attended. When a family emigrated, legend has it the Banshee would follow, or if she didn’t, she would stay at the family’s seat and lament their leaving there. The Banshee was relatively harmless. Apart from the dread people felt at hearing her cry, the only other things she seemed to do were knock on doors or windows. This pales to her sister spirit, the Lianhan Sidhe or ‘sweetheart fairy’, who sought the love of mortal men, but in the end, destroyed them by driving them into madness.
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