Banshee's

magnumlady

Hi all, this is a bit of a strange question but has anyone ever heard a banshee?
We heard something very stragne a few weeks ago, like a cross between a woman screaming and a bird crowing. It was around 1.00am and it didn't sound like anything we'd ever heard before. Friends have suggested it could have been an animal but it really didn't sound like anything 'normal'. Also as we opened the window it got louder and nearer and I would guess if it was an animal we were making such a racket that it would have run away.

solas

did anyone die?
The banshee is associated with particular Irish families and who is usually only seen or heard as a warning or omen before a death.

[Jackass]

well i wouldn't want to poor water on any theroy of what it could be, but i live close to the city center, and often here the screams of foxes, which is very simular to what you have described, a cross between a female screech and a type of crow, was it in small bursts a few seconds/minutes apart as apposed to a lengthy scream or in rapid sucsessions? Could be anything to be honest, but that would be my guess...i only started to notice the noise about 2 years ago, and it freaked me out! Sounded like a woman being attacked or something! When i said it to my Dad, he just told me it was foxes calling.

Zillah

Have you ever heard cats readying for a fight? it's the freakiest sound I've ever heard. Like a cross between a woman and a baby screaming horribly...shudder.

If no one died then it wasnt a banshee. Also, Banshee are known to circle the house of the one to die.

It should also be noted that they are merely a portent, they arent considered to be a cause of death, merely its harbinger.

solas

Not to have you worrying, as its been three weeks and all is well, I'd think it more likely to be a fox mating call.
<edit> she sounds more like christina aguilera when doing her warbly wuh-oh-oh's..apparantly.

projectmayhem

i remember as a kid in primary school we saw a steel hair-brush with lumps of hair lying there. we came to the conclusion there were banshee's around....

random

Zillah

solas wrote:

its been three weeks and all is well

I'm so confused. Your not the thread starter and it was only started yesterday evening...

I have no idea whats going on.

solas

phlematic wrote:

I'm so confused. Your not the thread starter and it was only started yesterday evening...

just working with the information thats already been given.

magnumlady wrote:

We heard something very stragne a few weeks ago,

Just realised now that I said three weeks ago, apologies for any confusion, I usually interpret "a few" to mean three..

magnumlady

Thanks for all your replies. Its not cats fighting, I have 2 and have heard them fighting many times.
Someone else said it could be a fox but wouldn't it have run away when we opened the window, not got nearer?
The noise went on for about 20 minutes, like a constant noise (a really creepy noise). No one belonging to me died, although I did read in a book that the banshee can also come to a house where a person used to live, and our house is over 100 years old.
Although now I come to think of it about a week later, there was a crash just passed our house and a lad died (wonder if its connected?)

solas

I don't think anyone here can tell you if what you heard was the banshee or not, all they can do is offer suggestions as to what they think it could be (and whether they believe in such things or not)
If you want to attach meaning to what you heard then thats really up to you at the end of the day.

Zillah

magnumlady wrote:

Although now I come to think of it about a week later, there was a crash just passed our house and a lad died (wonder if its connected?)

If you're willing to believe in the possibility of an Banshee then it was one. If not then a coincidence. Personally, I find it to be an...unlikely...coincidence.

magnumlady

I think you are probably right that it was a coincidence. I just hope I don't hear the noise again, if I do I'm going to record it.

bus77

projectmayhem wrote:

i remember as a kid in primary school we saw a steel hair-brush with lumps of hair lying there. we came to the conclusion there were banshee's around....

random

Story has it, if you bring home the banshee's hair brush. The banshee will come looking for it. The procedure for returning the brush, is to open the window and drop it out.



ohh yeah, I almost forgot. dont leave your hand out the window too long or the banshee will rip your arm off

Zillah

magnumlady wrote:

if I do I'm going to record it.

Excellent. This is a very good attitude.

stevenmu

magnumlady wrote:

Although now I come to think of it about a week later, there was a crash just passed our house and a lad died (wonder if its connected?)

I think that in terms of Banshee lore you only hear her if you're going to be personally affected, or possibly only if it's you yourself that is going to die, I'm not sure. So in theory you could walk past a house with someone inside who is dying and can hear the Banshee's wail but you wouldn't hear a thing.

<edit> altough there's so many different versions of Banshee storys that it's hard to know what's 'true' and what isn't </edit>

magnumlady

I always thought that if you heard the banshee then it was someone belonging to you that died. But then I got a book out of the library and read that there were so many different theories and that it could be connected with someone that used to live in the house.
Funny enough I woke up in the middle of the night and realised that the poor lad that died up the lane, his uncle used to live in our house. Probably just my mind working over time but strange at the same time.

Zillah

MagnumLady wrote:

Funny enough I woke up in the middle of the night and realised that the poor lad that died up the lane, his uncle used to live in our house.

Oh for the love of God. It's this sort of ridiculous coincidence* that causes folktales to begin in the first place!! That's uncanny.

*I hope

magnumlady

Its something to talk about though isn't it ;-)

Chinafoot

speaking of banshees.....i was up in my sisters house last week and her fiance was telling me a story about when he was younger. he said he was about 10 and he heard this horrible sound out the back garden. he looked out the window and he saw a really ugly old decrepit looking woman combing really lank grey hair. he said to his mam "who is that woman on the wall?" and his mam just grabbed him and pulled him away from the window. a few days later his uncle who was living with them at the time died.

he told me another story about a friend of his who was walking along the river bank in their town. theres this log that goes across the river and his mate who was 23 at the time was walking past it. he said he heard the horrible screming sound and when he looked there was an old woman sitting on the log combing her hair. when he looked at her she stopped combing and threw her comb at him (apparently legend has it that this means you are the one who will die)......the next day his twin brother died in a car crash. apparently this guys mother had also seen a banshee when she was younger and her fatehr died shortly afterwards. guess its in the family name.

my sisters fiance swears that this is all true and hes really a very cynical person when it comes to ghosts and stuff....but he believes that this was definitely a banshee. strange eh?

magnumlady

Wow that is spooky!

Shrimp

Lookily I'm half irish Also sometimes fox's make crazy noises....

Talliesin

phlematic wrote:

It's this sort of ridiculous coincidence* that causes folktales to begin in the first place!!

That and the washerwoman at the ford appearing before people and telling them how a battle is going to go

Nevyn

Folk lore and fairy tales while they made have been made more off and
gotten twisted over time they all hold a nugget of truth.

There are more death omens then just the Bean Sidhe, there is the dark/black
dog, the knock at the door, and the death coach.
Most are said to be attched to family with old royal irish blood.

parasite

invariably, it's the wind making the howling sound rather than a fox say :rolleyes:

Pink Bunny

I think that banshee's only visit the houses of certain Irish families. I read somewhere there was even a list of family names that the souls of the banshees are tied to and if they felt close to the ancestors then they would cry in sorrow, but if they hated your ancestors then they would scream in delight. So chances are, unless you are tied to a narrow list of familes, the banshee wouldn't bother much with you.

[Jackass]

peachypants wrote:

speaking of banshees.....i was up in my sisters house last week and her fiance was telling me a story about when he was younger. he said he was about 10 and he heard this horrible sound out the back garden. he looked out the window and he saw a really ugly old decrepit looking woman combing really lank grey hair. he said to his mam "who is that woman on the wall?" and his mam just grabbed him and pulled him away from the window. a few days later his uncle who was living with them at the time died.

he told me another story about a friend of his who was walking along the river bank in their town. theres this log that goes across the river and his mate who was 23 at the time was walking past it. he said he heard the horrible screming sound and when he looked there was an old woman sitting on the log combing her hair. when he looked at her she stopped combing and threw her comb at him (apparently legend has it that this means you are the one who will die)......the next day his twin brother died in a car crash. apparently this guys mother had also seen a banshee when she was younger and her fatehr died shortly afterwards. guess its in the family name.

my sisters fiance swears that this is all true and hes really a very cynical person when it comes to ghosts and stuff....but he believes that this was definitely a banshee. strange eh?

heh, that's a cool story (got goose bumps ), so they are ugly old women? i used to think they were a wolf type creature that walked on hinde legs, lol, don't know where i got that from! Intersting to also hear about Irish royal blood being the link to banshees. I also heard they only cry out to a familly member of someone who's going to die a violent/untimely death as opposed to a natural one?
If the weeping for familys they like story, and crying for joy at people who didn't is commonly believed...then who are the banshee's believed to be? Witches from somewhere in Ireland? please elaborate people...very interesting thread

Sorry for the spelling of the word banshee...i don't know the proper way.

Nevyn

Currently we use the word Benshee, but more correctly it should be
Ban Sidhe. It means Woman of the Sidhe , or the fairy folk or Thuatha De Dannan.

There are two school of tought on the pronoucation of Sidhe, if is is done
harshly like sHeee it is an insult to them and at one time using the
word Sidhe in it's self is seen as bad manners.
So it should be pronouced softly glossing over the d.

Talliesin

Thaed wrote:

There are two school of tought on the pronoucation of Sidhe, if is is done
harshly like sHeee it is an insult to them and at one time using the
word Sidhe in it's self is seen as bad manners.
So it should be pronouced softly glossing over the d.

I tend not to use the word Sidhe or Fairy at all, referring to them as the Gentry.

akari no ryu

Talliesin wrote:

I tend not to use the word Sidhe or Fairy at all, referring to them as the Gentry.

Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself
I tend to refer to them as blighters but how and ever.
There are far more than two ways of pronouncing the word Sidhe,
there is Sheed, Shee duh (very slender uh sound), Shee, Shee thu (which is the one I would use)
but regardless, it's merely the tuiseal ginneadach of si.

Talliesin

akari no ryu wrote:

Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself

I don't fear it, I'm just mindful of etiquette.

akari no ryu

Talliesin, I was quoting harry potter. I was not being serious.