Banshee

The banshee belongs to Irish-language tradition: a bean sí, or woman of the fairy mound. She is chiefly known through keening or lament heard before a death in a family. Accounts vary by place and teller; she may appear as a young woman, an old woman, or remain unseen. Her cry announces rather than causes death, an important distinction from modern monster portrayals.

The tradition is connected to Irish funeral lament and hereditary keening practices, while also drawing on beliefs about the sí, the otherworld people associated with ancient mounds. Folklore collections preserve local variations rather than one universal description.

Film, television, and games often recast the banshee as a shrieking attacker whose voice is a weapon. That is a major departure from the traditional role of family-associated death messenger and mourner.

• Dúchas, The Schools’ Collection, 1937–1939, entries concerning the banshee and death customs.
• Patricia Lysaght, The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger, Roberts Rinehart, 1986.