Tonight’s visitor from the Otherworld is one of the most famous: the banshee. Her name in Irish is bean sí, the woman of the fairy mound. People say that she cries at night outside a house before someone in the family dies.
Myths of Ireland · Part 12 · Folk tales and the Otherworld · B1
The Banshee
Part 12 of Myths of Ireland: the banshee, the woman of the fairy mounds whose cry is heard at night before someone in certain old families dies. Reporting beliefs (people say that…, it is said that…), adverbs of frequency (usually, never, sometimes), verbs of sound (wail, keen, shriek, whisper), and the real tradition of keening, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
That’s terrifying. Does she hurt people?
SOPHIA
No, Demetria. She doesn’t cause the death; she only mourns it, like a woman of the family who knows before anyone else. And she is linked to something very real: the old Irish custom of keening, when women wailed and sang over the dead.
PHILO
We have mourning women too. The prophet Jeremiah called for them.
Before you read
Rural Ireland, in the folk tradition
In Irish folk belief, the banshee (bean sí, “woman of the sí”, the fairy mounds) is a spirit who announces a death in the family. People say she usually follows only the old Irish families, the ones whose names begin with O’ or Mac, such as the O’Neills, the O’Briens, the O’Connors and the O’Gradys. She is rarely seen, but often heard: a long, high, sad cry in the night, sometimes near a river or under a window.
She can appear in different forms: a young woman, a woman in a grey cloak, or an old woman with long white hair, which she combs with a silver comb. That is why, people say, you should never pick up a comb you find lying on the road. In Scotland, a similar figure, the bean nighe, is seen washing the clothes of those about to die, which reminds us of the washer at the ford and the Morrígan.
The banshee is linked to a real tradition: keening (caoineadh). Until the 19th and early 20th centuries, women in Ireland sang and wailed over the dead at wakes and funerals, improvising poems about the person who had died. The most famous keen, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (1773), was composed by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill for her murdered husband, and is one of the great poems of the Irish language. W. B. Yeats included stories of the banshee in his Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888).
Grief needs a voice, and every people has found one.
The story
Retold for this lesson from Irish folk tradition and the banshee accounts collected by W. B. Yeats and others.
Old Mrs Grady always told the same story by the fire on winter nights, and her grandchildren always begged to hear it again. “It was the winter I was twelve,” she would say, “and my grandfather was ill in the room upstairs. We knew he was very old, but nobody thought he would die that week.”
“One night, very late, I woke up. The moon was full and the house was silent. Then I heard it: a long, high, sad cry outside the window, rising and falling, like a woman weeping, but stranger than any woman’s voice. It went on and on. The dog under the table began to whimper, and the hair stood up on my arms. I crept to the window and looked out.”
“By the stream at the bottom of the garden, I saw a figure in a grey cloak, with long white hair blowing in the wind. She was sitting on a stone, combing her hair with something that shone silver in the moonlight. And she was keening, singing and crying at the same time, as the old women did at wakes. I couldn’t move. Then a cloud covered the moon, and when it passed, she was gone.”
“In the morning, my grandfather was dead. My mother told me not to be afraid. ‘That was the banshee,’ she said. ‘She has followed the Gradys for hundreds of years. She doesn’t bring death. She only cries for us, because she loves our family, and she knows before we do.’ And she made me promise that if I ever found a silver comb lying on the road, I would never, ever pick it up.”
Read: the cry in the night
PHILO
Read the story. What does “bean sí” mean? Which families does the banshee follow? Why should you never pick up a comb on the road? What is keening?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A.
Reporting beliefs
MARCOS
People say that the banshee cries at night. It is said that she combs her hair. Some people believe that she follows the O’Neills. According to the old stories, she never hurts anyone.
SOPHIA
We use these phrases to report what people believe without saying it is true: people say / it is said that…, some people believe…, according to…, the story goes that….
Adverbs of frequency
DEMETRIA
She usually appears at night. She is rarely seen. People often hear her near a river. You should never pick up the comb. She always cries before a death.
SOPHIA
always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never. They go before the main verb (she usually appears) but after the verb be (she is rarely seen).
Verbs of sound
PHILO
The banshee wails. The wind howls. The women keened over the dead. Someone shrieked. The leaves whispered. A dog whimpered.
SOPHIA
wail (a long, high, sad cry), keen (to cry and sing for the dead), shriek (a sudden high scream), howl, moan, whisper, sob. Ghost-story words: eerie, a chill, to shiver, a figure, a mist.
Sophia’s comparison: the mourning women, and Rachel weeping
PHILO
The prophet Jeremiah says: “Call for the mourning women, that they may come; send for the skilful women, that they may wail for us.” In our land, women who knew the songs of mourning were called to every funeral. And he says that Rachel, the mother of our people, is heard weeping in Ramah for her children, and refuses to be comforted.
SOPHIA
And we Greeks also have women who sing the thrênos, the lament, over the dead, as Andromache and Hecuba sang over Hector at the end of the Iliad. The banshee is the keening woman made immortal: the voice of grief that never stops.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| people say that / it is said that | reporting beliefs | People say that she cries at night. |
| according to / the story goes that | reporting stories | The story goes that she combs her hair. |
| always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never | adverbs of frequency | She is rarely seen. |
| wail, keen, shriek, howl, whisper | verbs of sound | The banshee wails. |
| eerie, a chill, to shiver, a figure | ghost-story words | An eerie cry in the night. |
Practice
Read the story for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · The story
Read the story and choose the best answer.
1. What does “bean sí” mean?
2. What does the banshee announce?
3. Which families does she usually follow?
4. Why should you never pick up a comb on the road?
5. What was keening?
6. Does the banshee cause the death?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. People say the banshee cries at night.
8. It is that she combs her hair.
9. She is seen. (almost never)
10. You should pick up the comb. (not ever)
11. The banshee . (a long, high, sad cry)
12. The women over the dead. (sang and cried)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “She appears usually at night.”
14. “It is said that she follows the old families.”
15. “She rarely is seen.”
16. “The wind howled all night.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Sound effects. In groups, write a short ghost story full of sound verbs, then read it aloud while the others make the sounds.
Discuss. 1. Why do you think people believed in a spirit who announces death? 2. How do people in your country mourn the dead? 3. Are there ghost stories that everyone in your town knows?
Write (80–100 words). A cry in the night. Write a short story in which someone hears the banshee. Use adverbs of frequency, reporting beliefs and sound verbs.
Now play the gamebook: a wailing in the night near the harbour, and a mystery with a very human answer.Play the gamebook →