A spirit from ancient Irish/Scottish Celtic mythology.
From Old Irish "
ben síde" and modern Irish "bean sídhe"/"bean sí", the word roughly means "
woman of the fairies" ("bean": "
woman"; "sídhe": "fairy mound"). When a citizen of a village dies, a
woman (sometimes known as keener (taken from the Irish Gaelic word "caoin" ("to weep/cry")) would sing a caoineadh (lament); legend has it that, for five great Gaelic families: the O'Gradys, the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, and the Kavanaghs, the lament would be sung by a particular fairy
woman.
When the stories were translated into English, a distinction between the "banshee" and the other fairy folk was introduced which does not seem to exist in the original stories in their original language, and the funeral lament became a wail that heralded a
death. Hearing the cry of the banshee came to forewarn a
death in the family and seeing the banshee would signify one's own
death.
Most often, the banshee appears a maiden in white, combing their cascading fair hair with a silver comb (which is likely confused with local mermaid myths), while they are also shown in black or green and wearing a grey cloak.
She may also appear (near a body of water) as a washer-
woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood-stained clothes of the ones who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing
woman).
