Banshee Research Paper

Banshees, the messengers of death, the walers of doom, and the haunting shriekers of the damned. Throughout history and across cultures there are stories and myths of beings that forewarn of human death. Who are these mysterious creatures? Where do they come from? Most would tell you that these ghost have come to warn of death but behind these chilling stories there is a simple explanation to this Irish folk tale that most would never expect.
In Scotland, the banshee or washing woman is seen by travelers around ponds or in mist woods washing the shrouds of those who are about to die, singing or crying.The banshee is thought to be the ghost of a woman who died in childbirth and is described as a small woman with long white, blond or even auburn hair who appears in the vicinity of the birthplace of the soon to be deceased. When seen, she is wearing the clothes of a country woman, usually white, but sometimes grey, brown or red. The former hues represent the colors of mourning while red is associated with magic, fairies and the
The gaelic terms used most frequently to describe the banshee are the "bean-si" (a female dweller of a sidhe, or fairy mound), the "bean chaointe" (a female keener, a term found in east Munster and Connaught) and the "badhb" (referring to a more dangerous, frightening bogey). Although "bean-si" implies an otherworldly or fairy being, the banshee is a solitary creature who don’t have the same community and friendship other fairy beings may have. Speculation also links the banshee with the mystical race Tuatha De'Dannan, from whence the fairy folk are descended how unlike the Christian explanations that the banshee is a devil who wails for the souls that are lost to her as they ascend to heaven, or that they are familial guardian angels or souls of unbaptized children or even the souls of women who committed the sin of pride in life the thought of faerie folk has less