THE BANSHEE
One of the grandest and wildest legends of Ireland is that relating
to the Banshee--a mysterious personage, generally supposed to be the
harbinger of some approaching misfortune. The name of the Banshee 'is
variously pronounced Banshi and Benshee, being translated by different
scholars, the "Female Fairy," the "Woman of Peace," the "Lady of
Death," the "Angel of Death," the "White Lady of Sorrow," the "Nymph of
the Air," and the "Spirit of the Air."' The many romantic incidents in
which this weird figure has, at different times, made its appearance
are treasured up among the household stories of our Irish peasantry.
It must not be forgotten that in a country abounding in natural
beauties such a superstition would harmonise with the surroundings of
the picturesque scenery, and so gain a firm hold on the mind of the
inhabitants.
Unlike, also, many of the legendary beliefs of this kind, the popular
accounts illustrative of it are related on the evidence of all sections
of the community, many an enlightened and well-informed advocate being
enthusiastic in his vindication of its reality. It would seem, however,
that no family which is not of an ancient and noble stock is honoured
with this visit of the Banshee, and hence its non-appearance has been
regarded as an indication of disqualification in this respect on the
part of the person about to die. 'If I am rightly informed,' writes Sir
Walter Scott, 'the distinction of a Banshee is only allowed to families
of the pure Milesian stock, and is never ascribed to any descendant
of the proudest Norman or boldest Saxon who followed the banner of
Strongbow, much less to adventurers of later date who have obtained
settlements in the Green Isle.' Thus, an amusing story is contained in
an Irish elegy to the effect that on the death of one of the Knights of
Kerry, when the Banshee was heard to lament his decease at Dingle--a
seaport town, the property of those knights--all the merchants of
this place were thrown into a state of alarm lest the mournful and
ominous wailing should be a forewarning of the death of one of them,
but, as the poet humorously points out, there was no necessity for them
to be anxious on this point. Although, through misfortune, a family
may be brought down from high estate to the rank of peasant tenants,
the Banshee never leaves nor forgets it till the last member has been
gathered to his fathers in the churchyard. The MacCarthys, O'Flahertys,
Magraths, O'Neils, O'Rileys, O'Sullivans, O'Reardons, have their
Banshees, though many representatives of these names are in abject
poverty.[239]
'The Banshee,' says Mr. McAnally, 'is really a disembodied soul, that
of one who in life was strongly attached to the family, or who had
good reason to hate all its members. Thus, in different instances, the
Banshee's song may be inspired by different motives. When the Banshee
loves those whom she calls, the song is a low, soft chant, giving
notice, indeed, of the close proximity of the angel of death, but with
a tenderness of tone that reassures the one destined to die, and
comforts the survivors; rather a welcome than a warning, and having in
its tones a thrill of exultation, as though the messenger spirit were
bringing glad tidings to him summoned to join the waiting throng of
his ancestors.' To a doomed member of the family of the O'Reardons the
Banshee generally appears in the form of a beautiful woman, 'and sings
a song so sweetly solemn as to reconcile him to his approaching fate.'
But if, during his lifetime, the Banshee was an enemy of the family,
the cry is the scream of a fiend, howling with demoniac delight over
the coming death agony of another of his foes.
Hence, in Ireland, a source of dread to many a family against which
she has an enmity is the 'hateful Banshee.' 'It appears,' adds
McAnally,[240] 'that a noble family, whose name is still familiar in
Mayo, is attended by a Banshee of this description--the spirit of a
young girl, deceived, and afterwards murdered by a former head of the
family. With her dying breath she cursed her murderer, and promised
she would attend him and his for ever. After many years the chieftain
reformed his ways, and his youthful crime was almost forgotten even
by himself, when one night, as he and his family were seated by the
fire, the most terrible shrieks were suddenly heard outside the castle
walls. All ran out, but saw nothing. During the night the screams
continued as though the castle were besieged by demons, and the unhappy
man recognised in the cry of the Banshee the voice of the young girl
he had murdered. The next night he was assassinated by one of his
followers, when again the wild unearthly screams were heard exulting
over his fate. Since that night the "hateful Banshee" has, it is said,
never failed to notify to the family, with shrill cries of revengeful
gladness, when the time of one of their number has arrived.'
Among some of the recorded instances of the Banshee's appearance may
be mentioned one related by Miss Lefrau, the niece of Sheridan, in the
Memoirs of her grandmother, Mrs. Frances Sheridan. From this account we
gather that Miss Elizabeth Sheridan was a firm believer in the Banshee,
and firmly maintained that the one attached to the Sheridan family was
distinctly heard lamenting beneath the windows of the family residence
before the news arrived from France of Mrs. Frances Sheridan's death at
Blois. She added that a niece of Miss Sheridan's made her very angry by
observing that as Mrs. Frances Sheridan was by birth a Chamberlaine,
a family of English extraction, she had no right to the guardianship
of an Irish fairy, and that therefore the Banshee must have made a
mistake. Then there is the well-known case related by Lady Fanshawe,
who tells us how, when on a visit in Ireland, she was awakened at
midnight by a supernatural scream outside her window. On looking out
she saw a young and rather handsome woman, with dishevelled hair, who
eventually vanished with two shrieks similar to that which had at first
attracted her attention. On communicating the circumstance in the
morning, her host replied, 'A near relation of mine died last night in
the castle, and before such an event happens, the female spectre whom
you have seen is always visible.'
This weird apparition is generally supposed to assume the form of a
woman, sometimes young, but more often old. She is usually attired in
a loose white drapery, and her long ragged locks hang over her thin
shoulders. As night time approaches she occasionally becomes visible,
and pours forth her mournful wail--a sound said to resemble the
melancholy moaning of the wind:
Who sits upon the heath forlorn,
With robe so free and tresses worn?
Anon she pours a harrowing strain,
And then she sits all mute again!
Now peals the wild funereal cry,
And now--it sinks into a sigh.
Oftentimes she is not seen but only heard, yet she is supposed to
be always clearly discernible to the person upon whom she specially
waits. Respecting the history of the Banshee, popular tradition in many
instances accounts for its presence as the spirit of some mortal woman
whose destinies have become linked by some accident with those of the
family she follows. It is related how the Banshee of the family of the
O'Briens of Thomond is related to have been originally a woman who had
been seduced by one of the chiefs of that race--an act of indiscretion
which ultimately brought upon her misfortune and death.
'Sometimes the song of the Banshee is heard,' writes Mr.
McAnally,[241] 'at the beginning of a course of conduct, a line of
action, that has ended fatally.' A story is told in Kerry of a young
girl who engaged herself to a youth, but at the moment the promise of
marriage was given, the low sad wail was heard by both above their
heads. The young man deserted her, she died of a broken heart, and,
on the night before her death, the Banshee's ominous song was heard
outside her mother's cottage window. On another occasion, we are told
by the same authority, one of the Flahertys of Galway marched out of
his castle with his men on a foray, and, as his troops filed through
the gateway, the Banshee was heard high above the towers of the
fortress. The next night she sang again, and was heard no more for a
month, when he heard the wail under his window, and on the following
day his followers brought back his corpse. One of the O'Neils of Shane
Castle, Antrim, heard the Banshee as he started on a journey, but while
on the same journey he was accidentally killed. According to Lady
Wilde, 'at Lord O'Neil's residence, Shane's Castle, there is a room
appropriated to the use of the Banshee, and she often appears there,
sometimes shrouded and in a dark, mist-like cloak. At other times she
is seen as a beautiful young girl, with long red-gold hair, and wearing
a green kirtle and scarlet mantle, covered with gold, after the Irish
fashion.' She adds that there is no harm or fear of evil in her mere
presence, unless she is seen in the act of crying. But this is a fatal
sign, and the mournful wail is a sure and certain prophecy that the
angel of death is waiting for one of the family.[242]
Mr. Crofton Croker, in his 'Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South
of Ireland,' has given several entertaining stories of the Banshee;
but adds, that since these spirits have become amenable to vulgar laws
they have lost much of their romantic character. The introduction of
the Banshee in the following stanza of a 'keening'--an Irish term for
a wild song of lamentation poured forth over a dead body by certain
mourners employed for the purpose--indicates the popular feeling on
the subject. It was composed on a young man named Ryan, whose mother
speaks--
'Twas the Banshee's lonely wailing,
Well I knew the voice of death,
On the night wind slowly sailing
O'er the bleak and gloomy heath.
If a member of an Irish family dies abroad, the Banshee notifies his
misfortune at home. When the Duke of Wellington died, the Banshee
was heard wailing round the house of his ancestors, and during the
Napoleonic campaigns she often announced at home the death of Irish
officers and soldiers--an occurrence which happened on the night
preceding the Battle of the Boyne. 'Indeed,' says Mr. McAnally, 'the
Banshee has given notice at the family seat in Ireland of deaths in
battle fought in every part of the world; from every point to which
Irish regiments have followed the roll of the British drums, news of
the prospective shedding of Irish blood has been brought home.'
'The Welsh have also their Banshee, which generally makes its
appearance,' writes Mr. Wirt Sikes,[243] 'in the most curdling form,'
and is regarded as an omen of death. It is supposed to come after dusk,
and to flap its leathern wings against the window where the sick
person happens to be. Nor is this all, for in a broken, howling tone,
it calls on the one who is to quit mortality by his or her name several
times. There is an old legend of the 'Ellyllon,' a prototype of the
Scotch and Irish Banshee, which usually appears as an old crone with
streaming hair and a coat of blue, making its presence manifest by its
ominous scream of death. The Welsh have a further form of the Banshee
in the 'Cyhyraeth,' which is never seen, although the noise it makes is
such as to inspire terror in those who chance to hear it. Thus, in some
of the Welsh villages it is heard passing through the empty streets
and lanes by night groaning dismally, and rattling the window-shutters
as it goes along. According to the local belief it is only heard
'before the death of such as are of strayed mind, or who have been
long ill; but it always comes when an epidemic is about to visit the
neighbourhood.' As an instance of how superstitions are remitted from
one country to another, it is told that in America there are tales of
the Banshee imported from Ireland along with the sons of that soil.
FOOTNOTES:
[239] McAnally: _Irish Wonders_, p. 112.
[240] _Irish Wonders_, 1888, p. 114.
[241] _Irish Wonders_, p. 112.
[242] _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_, p. 84.
[243] _British Goblins_, pp. 212-216.