banshee
A banshee ([ ˈbæn.ʃiː ] ( ) or [ bæn.ˈʃiː ] ( ), from Irish Gaelic bean sí : "woman from the hills", meaning "woman from the fairy kingdom, Ghost woman ”, older spelling bean sídhe ; cf. Scottish Gaelic bean sìth , bean shìth or bean-nighe ) in Celtic mythology and popular belief in Ireland, a female spirit from the Otherworld , whose appearance heralds an imminent death. In Scotland she washes the blood-smeared clothes or armor of the dying fighters and is thus the harbinger of their imminent death.
mythology
Ireland
The descriptions of spotted banshees in Ireland vary. There are some characteristics that are common to all banshees. There is always only one banshee that is assigned to an autochthonous family. She is mostly depicted as a deathly pale woman dressed in white with long whitish or black hair. Her eyes are often red from crying all the time. In most descriptions she is an old woman, more rarely young and beautiful. She is heard more often than seen: she usually sits in front of the family window a few days before the death of a family member and cries ( banshee wail ). The banshee prefers to appear at the ancestral home of the long-established Irish family they have joined, even if the family member to whom they are mourning their deaths lives abroad. It is often seen or heard on the side of paths or bodies of water . The person whose death the banshee announces does not hear their complaints themselves. Every indigenous family in Ireland is said to have their own banshee.
The voice of the banshee is a wail or screech and, according to some interpretations , can instantly kill or drive insane anyone who hears it. Sometimes it is described as gentle and comforting and welcomes the souls at the transition into the realm of the dead .
Scotland
In Scottish folk beliefs - especially in the western highlands - the bean-nighe or nigheag na h-àth (the “washerwoman at the ford”) is the counterpart to the Irish banshee: Unlike the latter, however, she does not complain under a window, but is in found in the wild washing shrouds . The bean nighe is said to have sagging breasts , a single nostril and protruding teeth, which is why it appears extremely ugly.
Fantasy and science fiction
In many modern fantasy worlds, banshees are depicted as ghostly beings who are feared because of their deadly or obsessive screams or howls.
Banshees also play a bigger role in the teenage series Teen Wolf . They can foresee the deaths of others and have a deafening scream that can be used as a deadly weapon.
In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, a largely female recruited warrior aspect of the Eldar aliens calls themselves Banshees . They wear masks that allow them to make a deafening scream.
Books and radio plays
In the Darkover cycle by author Marion Zimmer-Bradley, there are ratites that are called banshees because of their screams. The names of the birds can be traced back to the Scottish and Irish populations of the fictional planet Darkover.
In the radio play series Sherlock Holmes and Co. , in which pastiches by the detective team Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson will be released, there is a double episode titled "The Scream of the Banshee".
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels "Alles Sense", "Lords und Ladies" and "Ab die Post", banshees appear, sometimes with ironic caricatures.
In the X-Men comic series , an Irish mutant goes by the name of Banshee and whose superpower lies in his voice.
See also
literature
- Elliott O'Donnell: The Banshee. 2nd edition, London / Edinburgh 1923.
- Leander Petzoldt : Small lexicon of demons and elementals. (Beck'sche Reihe 427), Munich 1990, ISBN 978-3406494512 .
- Evelyne Sorlin: Cris de vie, cris de mort: Les fées du destin dans les pays celtiques. Helsinki 1991, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, ISBN 978-951-41-0650-7 .
- Patricia Lysaght: The Banshee: The Irish death-messenger. Roberts Rinehart, Boulder (Colorado) 1986, ISBN 978-1-57098-138-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Banshee entry in the Macmillan Online Dictionary, accessed January 9, 2017.
- ^ Banshee entry in Oxford Learner's Online Dictionary, accessed January 9, 2017.
- ↑ Banshee (Aspect Warrior) - Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum. Retrieved May 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Link to the Hörverlag Romantruhe , accessed on January 9, 2017.
- ^ Banshees - Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki. Retrieved August 12, 2019 .