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BANSHEE – THE WOMAN OF TEARS

Ireland has many beautiful wild landscapes where a female ghost appears in its wooded surroundings. And that female ghost is called Banshee.

This spirit has been part of Irish folklore since the 8th century when the first stories of women hired to sing lament songs at funerals arose. The presence of these women was relevant in the funeral rites to ensure that the soul reached the “Other World” in the calmest way possible. However, the principal role of these professional mourning women was for the community to publicly express their sadness, thus becoming a type of grief therapist. At that time, people believed that music connected the spirits and fairies that inhabited the forests. People said that a fairy began to sing in pain before the news about the death of a person who had died far away reached their relatives. Therefore, the cry of that Banshee was the first thing they heard before the passing of a loved one.

Banshee also is called: The Female Fairy, The Lady of Death, The Woman of Sadness, The Spirit of the Air, The Messenger of the Other World, The Angel of Death, and The Woman of the Sepulcher. It is the ghost of a woman who once lived and is attached to a family of ancient Irish lineage whose last names began with O or Mac. As an ancestral spirit, she not only appears to predict the death of any family member but helps people prepare to see them depart to the spirit world.

The representation of the Banshees is not always the same. Sometimes these ghosts may appear as beautiful young ladies but can also take the shape of old women wearing long dresses of different colors, but black, white, silver, or gold predominate in their clothing.

As for their faces, their eyes stand out. Sometimes they are black, gray, or blue, but they are always brightly shining as if they have stars, and at the same time, they are full of pain and compassion. The appearance of their bodies transmits despair and grief, although sometimes they can also take the form of something devilish, extremely terrifying. They generally hide, but people can hear them in different ways. Some announce their arrival with moans, others with sighs or screams, but when they cry, their anguish and despair are felt by those nearby. It is for sure that some can hear them clapping their hands, hitting the walls, or breaking the windows, while sometimes they sound like they are smashing and making thunderous and frightening noises. It is indisputable that what causes the greatest fear is when their laughter sounds horrifying. Some say satanic, and it is so horrible that it freezes the blood of those who listen to her because it seems to mock the terrible omens and unpleasant events or surprises that are about to happen.

From all this it can be deduced that there is a division between these spirits. There are two types: the Friendly Banshee and the Evil Banshee. The first one shows sadness when she arrives, since when she was alive was very close to the family, and because of her love, she appears singing sweetly to announce that the angel of death is near. The Evil Banshee instead appears screaming with demonic joy since while she was alive, she was an enemy of the family, so she has a good reason to hate all its members.

There is a case of a noble family visited by this type of Banshee in that Irish region. A family member killed the young woman, and when she took her last breath, she cursed her killer and promised she would be with him and his family forever. Time passed, and people forgot the crime. One evening, while they were sitting in front of the fireplace, they heard screams outside the castle. They ran to see what was happening, but it was dark, and could’nt see anything or anyone. They heard screams all night as if demons possessed the castle. Then, the unfortunate young man recognized in his tears the voice of the woman whose life he had cruelly taken. The following evening, they again heard the screams and torn moans of the spirit, and at that precise moment, the soldiers killed the criminal. Since then, according to people, she has never stopped telling the family, with tears of revenge and joy, when the time has come for one of them to die.

The song of this “Woman of Tears” is commonly heard at night, a day or two before the death she announces. The strangest thing is that she is never seen or heard by the person whose death she predicts. They say that, on one occasion, a young woman got engaged to marry the man she loved. When they were in church, the young man with whom she would marry heard a devastating cry, then he left the church, frightened, leaving his girlfriend in front of the altar. Unsurprisingly, she died of disappointment a day later, and the night before she died, people said they heard the song outside her mother’s cabin window.

AUTHOR: IRISH FOLKLORE

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