the.com/banshees
Death's hype woman, screaming your obituary before the doctor even shows up
means In Irish folklore, banshees are female spirits whose wailing or shrieking is said to foretell a death in the family.
from Straight from Irish: bean sí, meaning 'woman of the fairy mound' — bean is 'woman,' and sí refers to the síde, the otherworldly fairy folk who dwell in ancient burial mounds. English swallowed it whole in the 18th century, anglicizing the sound into 'banshee.' The wailing reputation comes from old Gaelic traditions of the keening woman, the bean chaointe, who mourned the dead with ritual lament — so the banshee is essentially that grief, made supernatural and arriving early.
- name meaning
- From Irish bean si, woman of the fairy mound
- family loyal
- Traditionally wail only for certain old Irish bloodlines
- the comb
- Folklore warns never to pick up her dropped comb
- the scream
- Lent its name to literal military rocket sirens
- multiple omen
- Several keening at once foretold someone holy or great
banshee of beara — irish folklore spirit associated with the beara peninsula in county cork, appearing before deaths in local families
banshee of northern ireland — referenced in ulster folklore and 18th-19th century accounts of wailing spirits preceding deaths in antrim and down counties