Mystical systems
Banshee
Direct answer
Banshee: The banshee is a female spirit of Irish tradition whose cry is heard before a death in the families she follows; she announces the death and does not cause it.
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At a glance
- Also called
- bean si, bean sidhe
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Fairy, Ghost, Omen, Ancestor Veneration
The banshee is a female spirit of Irish tradition whose cry is heard before a death in the families she follows; she announces the death and does not cause it.
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What does a banshee do?
Banshee is the English spelling of the Irish bean sí, woman of the fairy mound. In the tradition she is heard far more often than seen: a wail or keening outside the house at night, shortly before a member of the family dies, sometimes when that person is far away. Where she is seen she is a small old woman or a pale young one, often combing long hair.
She is attached to families, not to places, and by custom to the old Gaelic lines, those with O or Mac in the name. She does no harm and gives no warning that could change the outcome. Her cry is closest to that of the keening women who once lamented at Irish funerals, and some accounts treat her as a family's own otherworld mourner.
On the tree of the hidden arts: The spirit realm.
What sets Banshee apart
Two rules define her. She follows blood, not buildings: the cry is heard for a family member wherever that person dies, and accounts tell of it reaching relatives overseas. And she only laments. She gives no message in words, asks nothing and cannot be bargained with. In parts of Ireland she is named differently, as the badhbh in the south-east, which ties her to the war goddess of the old sagas who appeared before a death in battle.
- Irish name: bean sí, older spelling bean sídhe, woman of the fairy mound
- Sign: a wail or keen heard at night before a death
- Families: by custom the old Gaelic lines, names with O or Mac
- Early account: Lady Fanshawe's memoirs (1676), of a night in Ireland in 1649
- Standard study: Patricia Lysaght, The Banshee, 1986
Often mistaken for something else: The Scottish bean nighe is seen washing the shrouds of those about to die and can be questioned; the Irish banshee is heard crying and answers no one.
The story behind Banshee
The figure grows out of medieval Irish literature, where otherworld women foretell the deaths of kings. Lady Ann Fanshawe's memoirs, written in 1676, describe a wailing apparition she saw at an Irish house in 1649 on a night when a member of the family died. Thomas Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends (1825) spread the banshee in English. The standard study is Patricia Lysaght's The Banshee (1986), built on Irish Folklore Commission records.
Why Banshee matters
She is the best recorded European example of a death messenger, a spirit whose whole office is to announce and to mourn.
How to read Banshee
Folklorists use the accounts to study how families told of deaths and belonging; in everyday Irish speech her name still marks a loud, piercing cry.
Banshee in practice: an example
In a typical account, neighbours hear crying along the lane at night, and in the morning word comes that the old man of the house has died.
Where readings of Banshee go wrong
Film and games have made her a monster that kills with a scream, which the folklore does not support.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- banshee meaning, bean si, bean sidhe, irish banshee, what is a banshee, banshee wail
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does a banshee do?
In Irish tradition she cries or keens before a death in a family she is attached to. She is a messenger and a mourner; the folklore does not say she brings about the death.
What does the word banshee mean?
It comes from the Irish bean sí, meaning woman of the sí, the fairy mounds or otherworld dwellings. The older spelling is bean sídhe.
Is the banshee evil?
Not in the tradition. Collected accounts describe her as sorrowful and tied to the family she laments. The hostile, attacking banshee is an invention of modern fiction.
