31 Monsters!
Oct. 10th, 2010 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivienThe banshee is one of my favorite monstrous creatures. She is a fairy creature tied to certain families of Ireland. She forewarns these families of deaths with her wails of mourning.
According to this site:
She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman).
An "eyewitness" account is written here:
In about the middle of the nineteenth century lived the Reverend Charles Bunworth of Co. Cork. Mr. Bunworth became deathly ill. His wife was not too worried because it looked like his health was improving.
A servant of the household knew his master was going to die. He heard the dreaded wail along with several others. He tells his story:
“As I came through the glen at Ballybeg, she was along with me screeching and keening, and clapping her hands, by my side every step of the way, with her long white hair falling about her shoulders, and I could hear her repeat the master’s name every now and then as plain as ever I heard it. When I came to the old abbey, she parted from me there, and turned into the pigeon field next to the berrin ground, and folding her cloak about her, down she sat under the tree that was struck by lightning, and began keening so bitterly that it went through one’s heart to hear it."
Mrs. Bunworth dismissed this as superstition because her husband's health was getting better.
A few nights later a low moaning accompanied by the sound of clapping was heard outside of Mr. Bunworth’s window. Two men visiting the house immediately ran outside to find the source of the sound. They found nothing and heard only silence. Meanwhile the people still in the house kept hearing the wailing and moaning and clapping. This continued for hours. All the while Mr. Bunworth began slipping away. He was dead by the morning.
I... would probably die of fright, too, if I thought a banshee was outside heralding my death with keening. I've often wondered whether the Southern tradition of owls hooting to predict death comes straight from this tradition (since so many people from Ireland and Scotland settled the Southern colonies).
I will dress up as a banshee one Halloween, because all I need is a white shroud and bloody clothes to pretend to wash. Then I'll go around screeching all night. Easy peasy and spooky, too!
According to this site:
She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman).
An "eyewitness" account is written here:
In about the middle of the nineteenth century lived the Reverend Charles Bunworth of Co. Cork. Mr. Bunworth became deathly ill. His wife was not too worried because it looked like his health was improving.
A servant of the household knew his master was going to die. He heard the dreaded wail along with several others. He tells his story:
“As I came through the glen at Ballybeg, she was along with me screeching and keening, and clapping her hands, by my side every step of the way, with her long white hair falling about her shoulders, and I could hear her repeat the master’s name every now and then as plain as ever I heard it. When I came to the old abbey, she parted from me there, and turned into the pigeon field next to the berrin ground, and folding her cloak about her, down she sat under the tree that was struck by lightning, and began keening so bitterly that it went through one’s heart to hear it."
Mrs. Bunworth dismissed this as superstition because her husband's health was getting better.
A few nights later a low moaning accompanied by the sound of clapping was heard outside of Mr. Bunworth’s window. Two men visiting the house immediately ran outside to find the source of the sound. They found nothing and heard only silence. Meanwhile the people still in the house kept hearing the wailing and moaning and clapping. This continued for hours. All the while Mr. Bunworth began slipping away. He was dead by the morning.
I... would probably die of fright, too, if I thought a banshee was outside heralding my death with keening. I've often wondered whether the Southern tradition of owls hooting to predict death comes straight from this tradition (since so many people from Ireland and Scotland settled the Southern colonies).
I will dress up as a banshee one Halloween, because all I need is a white shroud and bloody clothes to pretend to wash. Then I'll go around screeching all night. Easy peasy and spooky, too!