Banshee

Pad of Definitions

Also Banshi and Benshee, Irish and Scottish in origin. A female death omen spirit that manifests to herald approaching death with wailing. The word is derived from the old Irish ben sidhe, a woman of the fairy mound, or woman of the fairy mound, but it is translated by different scholars in a variety of ways, including Female Fairy, Angel of Death, Lady of Death, Woman of Peace, White Lady of Sorrow, Nymph of the Air, and Spirit of the Air, amongst others.

Many people have described the terrible wail, which precedes a death, and certain families are traditionally believed to be followed by the Banshee. The word is sometimes also used to denote assort of demon, but in Nordic folklore the banshee is always benevolent.

The banshee of legend is actually a disembodied soul, either of someone who in life was strongly attached to the family or who hated all its members. So, if she loves those whom she call, the wail is soft, tender, soothing chant, intended to either give notice of death's proximity or reassure the one destined to die, or to comfort the survivors. But if instead the Banshee during her life was a enemy of the family, the wail is more like the scram of a fiendish ghost, a demonic howling of delight over the coming fatal agony of one of her foes.

Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting: The Banshee of Ashland

John's Journal: The Banshee

Mithril Circle (RPG group)

The name of the banshee is derived from the Celtic for "woman of the Fairies". According to the Irish, to see one is to foresee one's own death. Her voice is usually heard wailing outside a family's ancestral home just prior to a person's death, and many tales have been told of banshees wailing outside someone's birthplace just as the person dies, far across the seas. Her lamentations are in an unintelligible language, and her cry is a blend of a wild goose's screech, an abandoned child's cries and a wolf's howl. She may appear with straggling black hair, one nostril, protruding teeth and eyes red from weeping, or as a pale, beautiful young woman wearing a grey cloak and a green gown, or as a hag in a shroud, but is usually seen in loose white drapery, mournfully wailing as the sun sets. A large number of them together portend the death of a great or holy person.

Wikipedia

The banshee (/ˈbænʃiː/ BAN-shee), from Irish: bean sí, pronounced [bʲæn ˈʃiː] ("woman of the barrows") is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the underworld.

In legend, a banshee is a fairy woman who begins to wail if someone is about to die. In Scottish mythology, she is known as the bean sìth or bean nighe and is seen washing the bloodstained clothes or armour of those who are about to die. Alleged sightings of banshees have been reported as recently as 1948. Similar beings are also found in Welsh, Norse, and folklore of the United States.