Banshee

branie

anyone here hear her?

kleefarr

branie wrote: »

anyone here hear her?

Who?

rejkin

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055032447&highlight=banshee
Loads of stuff about the banshee there

Riamfada

On an investigation in Charleville once a long time ago I was out having a smoke and I heard a fox yelp and It scared the living pis2 out of me. Id say stories of the banshee stem from these kind of noises at night.

Sam Kade

Grimes wrote: »

On an investigation in Charleville once a long time ago I was out having a smoke and I heard a fox yelp and It scared the living pis2 out of me. Id say stories of the banshee stem from these kind of noises at night.

You don't get outdoor's much if the sound of a fox scares the piss out of you. By any chance are you a city slicker?

Zillah

Grimes wrote: »

On an investigation in Charleville once a long time ago I was out having a smoke and I heard a fox yelp and It scared the living pis2 out of me. Id say stories of the banshee stem from these kind of noises at night.

Not that I believe in the Banshee, but I think thats a rather simplistic explanation. The Banshee has been reported by people for centuries from rural locations, and I think people who have spent their whole lives living on a farm will be familiar with all the calls that animals in the area make.

Granted strange animals passing through might make sounds they're not familiar with, but something like a fox call is unlikely to make someone who's lived in the countryside their whole lives.

DANNY22XX

i think i married one:eek:

Riamfada

Sam Kade wrote: »

You don't get outdoor's much if the sound of a fox scares the piss out of you. By any chance are you a city slicker?

You better believe it ! Anglo - Irish pale boy Plus try not to forget the context. I was outside a "haunted" castle at 4am, alone on my very first investigation and I hear what sounds like a woman screaming from an abandonded stable yard. Its not as if I was falling out of a bar with my mates , heard a fox and held eachother

Re Zillah: Alot of these stories such as that of the Banshee have routes in pre-christian or early chrisitan rural society which was predominatly superstitious and religious especially before christianity with the pagan ties with the otherworld and how it mixes with our world . Im attempting to explain the origin of the figure not those who believe in her today. Would a farmer living in 300AD know the difference between a fox call and a spirit? Especially if he believed in the presence of spirits in his world more than the Pope believes in Christ

Im sure if I bothered looking I could find a book


edit* I bothered

Author Lysaght, Patricia.

Title The banshee : a study in beliefs and legends about the Irish supernatural death-messenger / [by] Patricia Lysaght.

MLE

My mam saw one years ago when she was in her early twenties. The experience scared the life out of her and she doesnt like to talk about it.

Don't blame her. I think Banshee's are to me the scariest entities Ive heard of.

hiorta

'Bean-sithe' - a female fairy.

Riamfada

"The aos sí ("people of the mounds", "people of peace") are variously believed to be the survivals of pre-Christian Gaelic deities, spirits of nature, or the ancestors. " - Wiki

People of the mounds (newgrange, loughcrew, bronze age barrows ect) . Neolithic and later burial mounds featured prominantly in the religious life of the late prehistoric and early chrisitan population. The banshee is one of these pre christian deities just like St. Bridgit or the Leprochaun. These folk tales survive into modernity but their origins do not and therefore the Banshee becomes a spirit.

Zillah

Grimes wrote: »

Would a farmer living in 300AD know the difference between a fox call and a spirit?

Er, well I'll say this much: I'd think a farmer from 300AD would most definately be able to effortlessly tell the difference between the call of a fox, badger, owl, cat, otter or whatever the hell else might live in the area. He could probably immitate them and tell them by sex and whether they're hunting or searching for a mate. You can't live in the countryside, working with the land, for your whole life and not learn these things. Its like proposing that you or I would mistake a street lamp for a flying saucer.

WindSock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCIbTF9FIGI

Riamfada

Zillah wrote: »

Er, well I'll say this much: I'd think a farmer from 300AD would most definately be able to effortlessly tell the difference between the call of a fox, badger, owl, cat, otter or whatever the hell else might live in the area. He could probably immitate them and tell them by sex and whether they're hunting or searching for a mate. You can't live in the countryside, working with the land, for your whole life and not learn these things. Its like proposing that you or I would mistake a street lamp for a flying saucer.

And what about the spiritual nature of prechristian ireland? But sure screw history 80 years of research into the area of celtic gods and goddess, its much more likely that the Banshee is a fairy :rolleyes:

GuanYin

Zillah wrote: »

Not that I believe in the Banshee, but I think thats a rather simplistic explanation. The Banshee has been reported by people for centuries from rural locations, and I think people who have spent their whole lives living on a farm will be familiar with all the calls that animals in the area make.

Granted strange animals passing through might make sounds they're not familiar with, but something like a fox call is unlikely to make someone who's lived in the countryside their whole lives.

Also, there are several versions of the Banshee mythology across different cultures.

tiny-nioclas

i believe i saw her twice, driving home from work on a tuesday night wednesday morning i saw her and again on the thursday?friday morning on the side of the road, she wasnt combing her hair but she was just standing there facing the ditch in the same place both nights,when i drove past she faced the opposite way so i couldnt see her face, she wore old type clothes,typical old irish country woman style, black shawl over her head,long black dress and the shawl covered her top body also, i saw her very clearly, this was no crazy woman out in the middle of nowhere, the second time i saw her it creeped me out as ive heard many stories of her, but i turned around and went back 100yards up the road to see was she there, and if she was a person was she ok, but she was gone,and there was nowhere for her to go,not even a break in the ditch into a field, and two weeks later there was a death in the family, i had told everyone i saw her when i saw her and to hear about the death shortly after really scared some people in my family, i hope no one thinks im a nut! im usually a bit of a sceptic, im even an athiest but i just cannot explain this, maybe it was some crazy old person but it just doesnt add up. i dunno!

Ziycon

MLE wrote: »

I think Banshee's are to me the scariest entities Ive heard of.

I have to say i personally have more of a problem with elementals!:eek:

BubbleWrap85

Just as a quick note, my neighbour had a dream that there were people standing outside her house crying. 2 weeks later, both her daughters that lived with her were killed in a horrific car accident. When my granny was young, she was staying at her friends house next door. They both woke in the middle of the night to hear the buckets rattling at the door [they were hung up for milking the cows]. A bare footed monk wearing a brown robe came in and put his thumb and index finger around her throat. Then he knelt at the foot of the bed, facing the fire, with his hands over his face. This house was just across a site of an old monastery. Tellin ya, freaks the hell outta me cuz that's where my home house is, just across from this field/site also! I've never seen anything though thankfully. My Dad has also seen a few odd things. Like a really tall man wearing a black suit of some sort and long jacket that stood in the ditch when he passed by. Or a car that seemed to float over the ditch. Or a teenage girl wearing a red jumper that came up the driveway of the shed when he was waiting for my grandad to come for hay, and the girl walked into the shed. He followed her wondering where the hell this girl was going and she wasn't in there. Only one door into the shed.....And my Mum once heard footsteps passing along the road when she was getting turf like old wellingtons being dragged along, but nobody passed. Argh. Lots of freaky things. Also when my Mum had this dog when she was little, but it bit off her ear so they gave it away. My grandad died and it turned out that the people my Nanna had given the dog to, had said the dog went crazy on that particular night [my nanna later rang up to see how the dog was doing], and they had to get the dog put down. Coincidence??

Zillah

Grimes wrote: »

And what about the spiritual nature of prechristian ireland? But sure screw history 80 years of research into the area of celtic gods and goddess, its much more likely that the Banshee is a fairy :rolleyes:

Er, what?

twanda

When my mother was still living in her parents house, she came down to breakfast one morning and saw that the old ash tree in the garden had been cut down. She asked my grandmother why the tree had been cut down and she told her that her father did it because he had seen the banshee standing under it, the night before. She said it scared the bejaysus out of him.
The tree came down as soon as it was dawn.

My brother and his gfriend were convinced they heard the banshee one night, where we used to live. Now this wasn't your typical country setting or anything, it was a housing estate in Co.Dublin. He and his gfriend both heard it and called for my mother. She tried to tell them it was the neighbours cats but he was having none of it, because in fairness we grew up with the cats wailing outside and he said it was nothing like that, it was definitely a woman. He wanted to look out the curtains but his gfriend wouldn't let him - said it was bad luck to look... anyway my uncle died shortly after, so who knows..

xzanti

I was talking to my aunt on the phone one evening and I heard 3 knocks on her front door down the phone, and she answered it while talking to me and when she opened it (within seconds of the knocks) there was nobody there, the following week she was diagnosed with cancer and in 6 weeks she was dead...