2006-03-07 - 1:32 p.m.
The banshee is one of the greatest known characters in Ireland, believed to foretell death with a scream or screeching sound to announce her arrival.
In olden days in Ireland she is said to be seen washing blood stained clothes or human limbs to signify the coming of death. In those days she was said to appear to the doomed person as a washer woman
However in present day the legends tell of her piercing voice and her ghastly appearance. In resent day she is said to appear like a ghost, white cloak with pale features. In these instances she wrings her hands out instead of the blood stained clothes that she used to wash.
She can also appear differently to the person looking at her. There have been notes of beautiful young women, but there have also been recorded stories of the Banshee appearing as an old, worn woman.
One of the most well known Banshee Stories is one that is recorded in the memoirs of Lady Fenshaw while visiting a friend, who resided in his ancient
baronial castle, surrounded with a moat. At midnight she was awakened by a
ghastly and supernatural scream, and looking out of bed, beheld in the
moonlight a female face and part of the form hovering at the window.
The face, she saw, was that of a young and beautiful woman with flame red hair wearing an ancient Irish dress that hung loosely. She looked worn down and disheveled. This young woman then vanished after several moments with the same shrieks as when it had appeared.
The next morning she told her host of this encounter, to which he replied that a member of his family had past away during the night and the sprit Lady Fenshaw had seen had been that of a woman of inferior rank that his brother had once married. Unfortunately due to the shame of their marriage on the rest of the family she had drowned herself.
cool huh!
