INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m back doing the intros, just to finish off the month of July - and what a crazy month it’s been - we hit 100 followers on Spotify, 300 on Twitter and TikTok, and I’ve had some really brilliant guest stars this month - so thank you as always for your support. Bearing in mind the intense heat, at least in the UK at the moment, I appreciate you all listening in whilst sunning yourselves outside I hope.

DESCRIPTION:

In today’s episode we are heading back over here to the UK to commemorate midsummer, we’re looking at the complete opposite, that of a figure of death in Celtic and Irish mythology - the Banshee.

The Banshee is a real legendary creature with roots embedded in storytelling and folklore within the UK since the 14th Century in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They are usually depicted as ghostly women, and they are always women - with flowing red hair, a grief-stricken facial expression, eerily tall, long green or white dresses with redded teary eyes. I think this description is hilarious because if you don’t know what I look like, which I wouldn’t be surprised about - you would know that I am LITERALLY ALL THOSE THINGS, especially when I have hayfever. 

That’s the traditional image at least - a very pure looking maiden who is very upset. Another depiction is that of an old crone, sitting by river banks or earth mounds, hunched over and possibly cleaning bloody clothing or combing her hair with a silver comb. Now these are important, because finding a comb in Irish folklore was a sign of incredibly bad luck and the clothes that the Banshee would be washing would be of a very unlucky person with a very short time of existence left on the mortal coil. The banshee can also appear in other forms as animals including a crow, stoat, hare or a weasel - all of these animals are associated in Ireland with witchcraft.

This leads us on nicely to my next point, which is that most people know of Banshee’s from the saying ‘screaming or wailing like a Banshee’ this is because the most important thing about this monster is she likes to scream. And not for no reason, she will only scream or even appear before you if she is foretelling your death or someone in your family’s death.

I will also just say that some families didn’t have the ‘privilege’ of having a Banshee to warn them of an upcoming passing. Banshees were only considered to appear before true Irish families, those of ancient and magical birthright. I’ll get into this more later.

Although I did call her a ghost earlier, they are actually considered fairies - and are not inherently harmful to people, they are only foretelling death to the listeners rather than causing it - acting more like a very scary and unnecessary alarm system.

Importantly, this scream isn’t always referred to as a scream or a cry - Banshee’s are actually keening, which is an old Gaelic word for ‘to cry or weep’. There were and still are many Irish traditions who keen, especially women. Keening takes place over the body during the funeral, at the burial and the night before the burial. It is thought that keening was originally to sort out all of the deceased person's estate - including the geneology, thoughts and prayers and mourning for the people left behind. It would usually be carried out by one or lots of women, and they would kneel, rock back and forth, clap and cry alongside the keening woman.

Also, keeners were sometimes hired, as I said earlier - were paid with alcohol which was massively frowned upon by the church, as you should think of the religious thing here too as Irish is very Christian, both Catholic and Protestant. So they believed that the keeners would be punished and forced to be banshees in another life.

The scream of the Banshee is designed to deafen - and there are loads of references in the media of this because of this famous trait - which as you know, we’ll get to towards the end. Sometimes they’re able to shatter glass, but mostly it just really spooks people.

ORIGIN:

Now onto my favourite part, etymology - the word Banshee comes from the Gaelic term Bean Si, which is literally spelt Bean Si, which means ‘woman of the fairy mound’ or fairy woman. Note too that Banshees are primarily Irish Gaelic, but they were also seen in Scotland and Wales - called Bean-nighe and Cyhyraeth respectively. The Bean Nighe is said to be the ghost of a woman who died during childbirth and the Cyhyraeth is a moaning voice that sounds before a person's death.

Now there isn’t a specific point of where the stories of Banshees started, however, they can be traced back as far as the 8th century - which is a very long time ago. However, there are accounts of Banshees as close as the 1940’s - but if you do manage to see one, it will disappear into a mist in front of your eyes with the crowing and flapping of birds wings disguising its fleeing wisps.

Now going back to the point I made about Banshees only appearing to certain people. Now they would only appear to one of Ireland’s five major families: the O’Grady’s, the O’Neills, the O’Briens, the O’Connors or the Kavanaghs. Now some of these families mixed and it turns out that each family has its own banshee, and even followed them when they migrated across the world! Although during the Middle Ages, Banshees were said to follow people with a good heart who committed great deeds. 

Now following this, there are stories of banshees that are found across the pond - across in the States, Banshees are referenced in American myth from the late 18th century. The most prevalent story is from Edgecombe County in North Carolina. But in this story, the banshee is not really a banshee, but is just a ghoul and doesn’t really foretell death, but is just kind of spooky. There’s also another story in South Dakota, but again, they’re not really linked to death - but I do love the way it got across the pond!

In addition to this, there would be loads of Banshees who would turn up when a revered or holy figure would be due to die. The most famous example of this was King James I of Scotland, who was murdered after he reported being approached by a weird Irish seer.

Apparently, The Banshee has a sister which is called the Lianhan Sidhe, who was more of a succubus type temptress who would try and win over men and then use it to kill them. 

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Over to cultural significance, with art this week there’s a really great drawing of the Bunworth Banshee by Thomas Crofton Croker, from 1825. But otherwise, check out some independent artists from across the world. 

For movies and TV - we have a multitude of things this week. Films include the Monster High film, Scooby-Doo, Star Wars Clone Wars and Rebels. For TV, Banshees are in Xena Warrior Princess, Teen Wolf, Charmed where they had a massive part to play, Supernatural where they too are the feature of a whole episode, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (the new one, not the original) and Legacies.

Now video games this week are pretty immense actually - they are in Mass Effect 3, Runescape, Phasmophobia, Fable, Warframe, God of War, Dragon’s Dogma and the biggest thing that I love here is World of Warcraft, where one of the current main characters and antagonists is Sylvanas Windrunner, who is called the Banshee Queen and leader of the undead faction.

Also there’s a few comic references with Banshees too - there’s a Marvel X-Man called Banshee, who has super sonic sound powers. In the 90’s Fox Kids show X-Men with that banging theme song, he was very Irish and had quite a ridiculous costume, but cool powers. There’s also a DC superhero called Banshee who was in the Superman comics, with the same kind of powers and same name - better costume though. 

My book recommendation this week is Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis, where you can read up all about the Irish fairy tales that live within Celtic folklore.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

You know what, I think I’m actually going to say yes to this one. And you know why, because I feel like it could be something that exists. Hear me out, I grew up learning about Banshees and alot about Irish and Celtic mythology as obviously I am from the same kind of region. 

Considering Irish myth, it is a very superstitious place with local legends - and I can see how a myth like this can carry with families and with foretelling death. However, the other hand of this is that it could have been owls, as they would screech whenever an army was approaching, which would warn the defending army of their arrival. 

But I tell you what I do love them as a monster, I think a monster that forewarns death is very poetic and mournful and I like the idea of the family set Banshee that just follows you around when a relative is near death. Like some spooky siren - and this time I mean nee naw. I love even more that actually the depiction of them now apparently sounds like me, I hope I don’t make anyone think that I’m warning anyone of death - I’m definitely not trying to do that, I swear!

OUTRO: 

Banshees are actually some of my favourite myth monsters, as I said I grew up learning about Irish myths as my Grandad has a fantastic knowledge bank of information on anything Irish in his head as we have some Irish ancestry somewhere. But I just generally love the spooky ones, and honestly I do think this one might be the real deal you know!

Next week we’re going over to Japan again, and looking at the weird little turtle Kappa, who keeps a constant pool of water on top of his noggin. Come paddling in next Thursday to find out more!

For now thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - the shiny new website!

So come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.