Mac Carthy's Banshi
Mac Carthy's Banshi is a fairy tale . It is contained in the Irish fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 18, which they translated in 1825 from Fairy legends and traditions of the South of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker .
content
After the death of his father in 1749, the wealthy young Karl Mac Carthy leads a lush, desolate life in Springhouse. He becomes terminally ill on his 24th birthday. Everyone is shocked, especially his mother, who prays on his deathbed for the salvation of his soul, and his childhood friend Jacob. He woke up and told how God gave him three years to repent. He improves and firmly believes in the prediction while others forget about it. To celebrate her 27th birthday, where a wedding is also to take place, the mother asks a close friend to come with her daughters. On the way, in the moonlight, they see a screaming female figure who waves them to Springhouse. A woman seduced by Jacob had hit Karl with a pistol instead of him, and he died of wound fever.
annotation
According to Grimm, names of persons and places are practically completely correct. You give further references. The Irish banshi is comparable to the wälschen Gwrâchy Rhibyn or the drool witch.
literature
- Irish fairy tales. In the broadcast by the Brothers Grimm. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, first edition 1987. pp. 197-211, 266-267. (Insel Verlag; ISBN 978-3-458-32688-5 ; The text follows the edition: Irische Elfenmärchen. Translated by the Brothers Grimm. Friedrich Fleischer, Leipzig 1826. Orthography and punctuation were slightly normalized.)