Banshees
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rynner said:
Is that Minor drag's evil twin?:devil:
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Anonymous
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The song that went with the banshee was.
Come on to me
Come on to me
Come on to me
The wee Banshee
This was the call of the banshee, this was then followed by 3 knocks on your door.
Come on to me
Come on to me
Come on to me
The wee Banshee
This was the call of the banshee, this was then followed by 3 knocks on your door.
bean-shea
the english version of bean-shea is of course:- banshee
i think that this is the right place for this bit??
i have had the bird of death/doom banging on my window.
here goes:-
about 5 yrs ago i was living on the top floor of a converted house, when i herd a banging sound on the skylight window, the window was locked and out of reach of myself and people out side, when i looked i could see a bird (dont know which type*) almost like it was trying to hurl it self against the window.
my paternal step-grandfarther who was very ill in hospital died sometime later about 2-3 weeks later.
a coincidence?
if people arent blood relatives of the family, eg adoptive(d), such as my self. do they also then recieve the "same treatment?"
* i think that the bird of death/doom are all white??
the english version of bean-shea is of course:- banshee
i think that this is the right place for this bit??
i have had the bird of death/doom banging on my window.
here goes:-
about 5 yrs ago i was living on the top floor of a converted house, when i herd a banging sound on the skylight window, the window was locked and out of reach of myself and people out side, when i looked i could see a bird (dont know which type*) almost like it was trying to hurl it self against the window.
my paternal step-grandfarther who was very ill in hospital died sometime later about 2-3 weeks later.
a coincidence?
if people arent blood relatives of the family, eg adoptive(d), such as my self. do they also then recieve the "same treatment?"
* i think that the bird of death/doom are all white??
marion
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Re: bean-shea
When these superstitions ( or actual happenings ) started people had less of a hold on the idea of genetic relationships , people considered themselves just as related to people married into the family as actual genetic relatives , so I would say yes , they would appear to non-genetic relatives too .
I think generally they were supposed to be white birds though I think certain families would have other specific types of birds or animals as death warners .
melforkbeard said:
When these superstitions ( or actual happenings ) started people had less of a hold on the idea of genetic relationships , people considered themselves just as related to people married into the family as actual genetic relatives , so I would say yes , they would appear to non-genetic relatives too .
I think generally they were supposed to be white birds though I think certain families would have other specific types of birds or animals as death warners .
Beakmoo
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Re: Re: bean-shea
It's all coincidence though IMO. A bird will tap at a window because it sees it's reflection, someone dying a few weeks later has nothing to do with it. People see birds and people die all the time.
Beak "of death" Boo
We have robins.Marion said:
It's all coincidence though IMO. A bird will tap at a window because it sees it's reflection, someone dying a few weeks later has nothing to do with it. People see birds and people die all the time.
Beak "of death" Boo
OneWingedBird
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Modern Bahn Sidhe Manifestations
Last night I was talking to a friend who told me that (I think cira 1970s) herself and her brother had experienced a bahn sidhe / banshee manifestation the night that their father died.
I'd only ever heard of this as the wailing woman of folklore and can't say that it'd ever occurred to me that such things might still be experienced. Her description of it was more like a low grade polt, lots of loud banging and knocking noises coming from empty rooms to the point where they were almost convinved that someone else was there and searched the whole house. A few hours later they got the phone call to say that their father was dead. She believes that she heard the wailing manifestation a few weeks later, though as on the first occassion it was unseen.
According to her, the Bahn Sidhe often follows the family line (she is Irish on her father's side)
I'm curious now as to wether this is something that is still regularly experienced, and wether it also manifests to people of different cultures?
Last night I was talking to a friend who told me that (I think cira 1970s) herself and her brother had experienced a bahn sidhe / banshee manifestation the night that their father died.
I'd only ever heard of this as the wailing woman of folklore and can't say that it'd ever occurred to me that such things might still be experienced. Her description of it was more like a low grade polt, lots of loud banging and knocking noises coming from empty rooms to the point where they were almost convinved that someone else was there and searched the whole house. A few hours later they got the phone call to say that their father was dead. She believes that she heard the wailing manifestation a few weeks later, though as on the first occassion it was unseen.
According to her, the Bahn Sidhe often follows the family line (she is Irish on her father's side)
I'm curious now as to wether this is something that is still regularly experienced, and wether it also manifests to people of different cultures?
OneWingedBird
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Doh! There was a bean sidhe thread.
Interesting, never realised the connection with the image of the woman brushing her hair before (very creepy in a Ring kind of way).
Interesting, never realised the connection with the image of the woman brushing her hair before (very creepy in a Ring kind of way).
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Anonymous
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BRF: I can't remember if I posted this but a friend of mine experenced 'the knock' wich is more in the lines of what you discused.
It's a banshee for the lower classes in Ireland and insted of wailing to anounce the passage of the dead it 'knocks.'
It's a banshee for the lower classes in Ireland and insted of wailing to anounce the passage of the dead it 'knocks.'
escargot
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In my family, there is a 'knock' at the front door when there is a death. I've heard it (in fact have described it on here somewhere) and gone to open the door, then realised that the normally yap-happy dogs haven't heard it. 
No Irish in my family, plenty of Welsh though.
No Irish in my family, plenty of Welsh though.
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Anonymous
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I heard about a Lord somewhere whose family had a great afinity with foxes. Every time a member of the household died all the foxes in the neighbourhood used to come and sit on the front lawn howling and yiping.
I haven't got any details but apparently the last time it happened was quite recently in modern times. It was well documented and several witnesses saw it.
Not exactly banshees, but someone asked in an earlier thread what the English have in the way of banshees. They don't seem to have any horrible hags that make a lot of noise when people are due to die, so I thought these foxes might qualify as stand-in banshees.
Mind you ... what am I saying!? We did have one horrible hag who made horrible noises and jumped about like a mad thing whose coming heralded the deaths of scores of Argentinians as well as British soldiers, not to mention the premature deaths of the entire coal and steel industries. This dreadful apparition was known as the 'mag gyth atcher' and was thought to be the result of an experimental crossing between a badger's bollock sack and a monkey's afterbirth, but nobody knows for sure.
I haven't got any details but apparently the last time it happened was quite recently in modern times. It was well documented and several witnesses saw it.
Not exactly banshees, but someone asked in an earlier thread what the English have in the way of banshees. They don't seem to have any horrible hags that make a lot of noise when people are due to die, so I thought these foxes might qualify as stand-in banshees.
Mind you ... what am I saying!? We did have one horrible hag who made horrible noises and jumped about like a mad thing whose coming heralded the deaths of scores of Argentinians as well as British soldiers, not to mention the premature deaths of the entire coal and steel industries. This dreadful apparition was known as the 'mag gyth atcher' and was thought to be the result of an experimental crossing between a badger's bollock sack and a monkey's afterbirth, but nobody knows for sure.
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escargot said:
I'm sure i remember something about the Welsh mining comunities having something similer to the Cornish 'Knocker' who warned of inpending disaster by knocking on the walls of a shaft.
I don't know of any stories involving 'the knock' (wich seems to be a seperate if similer entity) in Wales but perhaps someone could tell me otherwise?
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Anonymous
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What about the Scottish wish hounds? I can't remember much about these but I seem to recall that they were blue or purple and seeing one meant certain death.
Then there is old Black Shuck the demon dog a sighting of whom has similar fatal consequences.
I'm not clear about whether these horror pooches portend death or actually cause it.
Then there is old Black Shuck the demon dog a sighting of whom has similar fatal consequences.
I'm not clear about whether these horror pooches portend death or actually cause it.
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Anonymous
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Steve Jefferson said:
caused it I think I'm not sure to be honest (and me a Scot!)
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Anonymous
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Black Shuck
from an artical here:
http://www.cambridgeparanormal.co.uk/phantomhounds.html
and here:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Black Shuck
it apears that 'To see or even hear the phantom hound was a foreboding of misfortune, madness or death.' (cambridgeparanormal.co.uk)
from an artical here:
http://www.cambridgeparanormal.co.uk/phantomhounds.html
and here:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Black Shuck
it apears that 'To see or even hear the phantom hound was a foreboding of misfortune, madness or death.' (cambridgeparanormal.co.uk)
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Anonymous
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Hello, I'm completely new, I have been lurking for only a couple of weeks.
I'm half-Irish and I live in Dublin, and I'm convinced I heard the bean sidhe this February, about a week before my grandfather died in Germany. It was pretty late at night and I was in the middle of an insomnia cycle, but pretty wide awake, and I heard two spine-chilling cries which truly freaked me out. I live in the middle of the city, and while we do have foxes here, I've never heard one; besides which the cries didn't sound as though they came from street level. Maybe it was a bird, but I have definitely never heard a bird like that before, and I hope I never do again!
What I found odd about it was that the cries scared me. Living in the city you hear a lot of funny noises at night, and you get used to it and even become apathetic about hearing people shout and scream. These sounds freaked me out big-time, and the feeling stayed for days. And then my grandfather kicked the bucket!
I'm half-Irish and I live in Dublin, and I'm convinced I heard the bean sidhe this February, about a week before my grandfather died in Germany. It was pretty late at night and I was in the middle of an insomnia cycle, but pretty wide awake, and I heard two spine-chilling cries which truly freaked me out. I live in the middle of the city, and while we do have foxes here, I've never heard one; besides which the cries didn't sound as though they came from street level. Maybe it was a bird, but I have definitely never heard a bird like that before, and I hope I never do again!
What I found odd about it was that the cries scared me. Living in the city you hear a lot of funny noises at night, and you get used to it and even become apathetic about hearing people shout and scream. These sounds freaked me out big-time, and the feeling stayed for days. And then my grandfather kicked the bucket!
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Anonymous
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and on wish hounds...
this site:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe056.htm
claims that 'If dogs hear the cry of the wish hounds they all die.' It also claims that the name 'wish hound' may come from 'the west-country word "whist," meaning more than ordinary melancholy, a sorrow which has something weird surrounding it?' (I could find nothing about them in Scotland.)
This site:
http://www.sacredspiral.com/beastiary/B/devdog.html
claims that 'When they came across a living person they would either carry that person across the land with them or tear him to bits.' wich is rather difrent from the above discription.
It's plain that both these legends are similer to Banshees but both cause death rather than proclaim it.
this site:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe056.htm
claims that 'If dogs hear the cry of the wish hounds they all die.' It also claims that the name 'wish hound' may come from 'the west-country word "whist," meaning more than ordinary melancholy, a sorrow which has something weird surrounding it?' (I could find nothing about them in Scotland.)
This site:
http://www.sacredspiral.com/beastiary/B/devdog.html
claims that 'When they came across a living person they would either carry that person across the land with them or tear him to bits.' wich is rather difrent from the above discription.
It's plain that both these legends are similer to Banshees but both cause death rather than proclaim it.
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Anonymous
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I think Whisht Hounds are different to Shuck. But then this is from memory, because I haven't looked at the sites yet.
Whisht Hounds were the ones that attended the Wild Hunt, I thought. Weren't they usually white with red ears? Also known as Ratchetts. Black Shuck (other than being a song by The Darkness ) were your typical black dog. Some stories have them causing death, such as the Moddhy Dhoo (sp?) on the Isle of Man; some are portends of death, and I remember one story of a woman who owed her life to a mysterious black hound.
The Ratchetts would go around in packs; black shuck was a loner. Ratchetts would tear people apart; Shucks would just look menacing usually. Big heavy dogs with no visible breath sort of thing.
Bugger. I've run out of Baileys.
Whisht Hounds were the ones that attended the Wild Hunt, I thought. Weren't they usually white with red ears? Also known as Ratchetts. Black Shuck (other than being a song by The Darkness
) were your typical black dog. Some stories have them causing death, such as the Moddhy Dhoo (sp?) on the Isle of Man; some are portends of death, and I remember one story of a woman who owed her life to a mysterious black hound.The Ratchetts would go around in packs; black shuck was a loner. Ratchetts would tear people apart; Shucks would just look menacing usually. Big heavy dogs with no visible breath sort of thing.
Bugger. I've run out of Baileys.
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Anonymous
Guest
Helen said:I think Whisht Hounds are different to Shuck. But then this is from memory, because I haven't looked at the sites yet.
Whisht Hounds were the ones that attended the Wild Hunt, I thought. Weren't they usually white with red ears? Also known as Ratchetts. Black Shuck (other than being a song by The Darkness
The Ratchetts would go around in packs; black shuck was a loner. Ratchetts would tear people apart; Shucks would just look menacing usually. Big heavy dogs with no visible breath sort of thing.
Bugger. I've run out of Baileys.
Some of those difrences are shown in the atricals I qouted from. The two are seperate but possibly staem from the same sourse?
Sufice to say they are instrements of death rather than fortelers of the same.
Go get more baileys!
Zoot said:
Firstly, hi to you Zoot, I lurked around a long time before I took the plunge.
I am of Irish descent but my personal belief is that the bean sidhe is the cry of foxes and associated deaths are just a coincidence.
I live in the city and sometimes here foxes and by God, they always scare the crap out of me when I hear them. I have never heard an animal or bird make a noise such as the dear old fox makes. Even though I know the wails are foxes it still makes my heart thud, especially if they wake me up! :eek!!!!:
Still an unnerving experience though.
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Anonymous
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I'm not so sure about the fox crying idea.
I don't have any personal experence of the bean sidhe as all my friends of Irish extraction (and my own family) are of a, shall we say, lower class and the bean sidhe is defenatly linked to higher class families.
However to claim that people who would have known what a fox cry sounded like mistook it for something supernatural seems to be stretching credulity a little bit.
I don't have any personal experence of the bean sidhe as all my friends of Irish extraction (and my own family) are of a, shall we say, lower class and the bean sidhe is defenatly linked to higher class families.
However to claim that people who would have known what a fox cry sounded like mistook it for something supernatural seems to be stretching credulity a little bit.
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Anonymous
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Oh and hello Zoot
The Virgin Queen said:
The first time I heard it didn't know what it was and was terrified out of my wits. I am a city gal and had never heard anything like it before (although that makes me sound like a simpleton
). It still gives me the creeps when I hear them at night even now. Just a thought, I am descended from a family with O' before the surname but the O was dropped about 70 years ago. Does that mean we lost our bean sidhe as well?
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Anonymous
Guest
Ever heard a frog scream? :eek!!!!:
The Bean Sidhe doesn't necessarily weep and wail. It may just be the figure of a woman with long, bedraggled hair.
I still have no Baileys! I may break into the Cabernet Sauvignon. Which is best for people on a diet? I'm guessing the wine, given the cream content of Baileys.
The Bean Sidhe doesn't necessarily weep and wail. It may just be the figure of a woman with long, bedraggled hair.
I still have no Baileys! I may break into the Cabernet Sauvignon. Which is best for people on a diet? I'm guessing the wine, given the cream content of Baileys.
Sorry to wake an old thread, but JEEEEZUSS fox cries are absolutely terrifying, they sound exactly like wailing. I'm with Helen and Elffriend on this, I imagine a large number of possible banshees can be put down to foxes.
We had a fox right outside our window wailing and screaming at 4 in the morning, it was indescribable - you cannot imagine. Although I'm assuming it was a fox - perhaps it really was a banshee... but... no-one died
We had a fox right outside our window wailing and screaming at 4 in the morning, it was indescribable - you cannot imagine. Although I'm assuming it was a fox - perhaps it really was a banshee...
but... no-one died
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Anonymous
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Re: Banshee
Hey! That was my job! Didn't we do this?!?
Photograph a banshee instead!
On the point of Banshees and the combing of there hair! It was also rumoured along with everything else here, the wailing, the fortellers of a death in a family by the names proceeded by an O' or a Mac, or a Ní, that if your name has O or Mac, it's best not to carry a comb about with you, incase you loose it ot drop it, for the moment you do the banshee will claim the comb for her own use and well well sure you'll pop your clogs there and ten!... I think...
espirit said:
Hey! That was my job! Didn't we do this?!?
Photograph a banshee instead!
On the point of Banshees and the combing of there hair! It was also rumoured along with everything else here, the wailing, the fortellers of a death in a family by the names proceeded by an O' or a Mac, or a Ní, that if your name has O or Mac, it's best not to carry a comb about with you, incase you loose it ot drop it, for the moment you do the banshee will claim the comb for her own use and well well sure you'll pop your clogs there and ten!... I think...
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Anonymous
Guest
All Irish surnames begin with O' or Mac/Mc (both 'son of') or Ní ('daughter of'), it was only when English pronunciations and spellings were put on the old Irish names that most of them lost the prefixes.
Personally I think the banshee legends stem from people hearing fighting or mating cats.
Personally I think the banshee legends stem from people hearing fighting or mating cats.
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Anonymous
Guest
I'd have thought that the sound of cat's fighting or mating would be recognisable as the sound of cats fighting and mating, and not relaly a rare sound, although the fox wail is an interesting theory.
There are a lot of stories of the Ban sith that I've heard in the highlands of Scotland. I'll try to get my nan to tell some stories, as apparently the MacFarlane clan were followed around by Ban Sith when Banished from the mainlands for cattle rustling and other such mischief. I've heard quite a lot of folklore associated with the MacFarlane clan before from her, I'm sure I can get her to recount something vaguely Bansheeish.
And as for the English not really having any real banshee folklore, is there any in Saxon or Angle mythology? Baba Yaga (sp?) in Russian and Eastern European Folklore is pretty similar, anything in any other cultures?
There are a lot of stories of the Ban sith that I've heard in the highlands of Scotland. I'll try to get my nan to tell some stories, as apparently the MacFarlane clan were followed around by Ban Sith when Banished from the mainlands for cattle rustling and other such mischief. I've heard quite a lot of folklore associated with the MacFarlane clan before from her, I'm sure I can get her to recount something vaguely Bansheeish.
And as for the English not really having any real banshee folklore, is there any in Saxon or Angle mythology? Baba Yaga (sp?) in Russian and Eastern European Folklore is pretty similar, anything in any other cultures?