Banshee

The banshee, from the Irish bean sí, 'woman of the fairy mound,' is a spirit woman whose mournful wail is said to foretell an imminent death in a family. She is usually a pale, sorrowful woman with long hair, dressed in grey or white, who appears or is heard near a house shortly before a death, particularly one tied to certain old Irish families. One of the earliest written references appears around 1350 in the medieval text 'Cathréim Thoirdhealbhaigh' (The Triumphs of Turlough), which describes fairy women keening for the dying. The tradition absorbed the very real custom of keening, the loud ritual lamentation performed by women at Irish wakes, which likely shaped how the banshee's cry was imagined over generations. It remained a vivid part of rural Irish storytelling well into the 20th century, often processing grief and giving warning-like meaning to sudden deaths. Sceptics attribute reports to nocturnal animal calls such as owls or foxes, wind through stone structures, and the tendency to retroactively interpret ordinary sounds as omens once a death has occurred.