Bean Sidhe & Nighe {Folklore of the Week}

[Agaliha]

In Irish folklore, the Bean Sidhe (woman of the hills) is a spirit or fairy who presage a death by wailing. She is popularly known as the Banshee. She visits a household and by wailing she warns them that a member of their family is about to die. When a Banshee is caught, she is obliged to tell the name of the doomed.
The antiquity of this concept is vouched for by the fact that the Morrigan, in a poem from the 8th century, is described as washing spoils and entrails. It was believed in County Clare that Richard the Clare, the Norman leader of the 12th century, had met a horrible beldame, washing armor and rich robes "until the red gore churned in her hands", who warned him of the destruction of his host.
The Bean Sidhe has long streaming hair and is dressed in a gray cloak over a green dress. Her eyes are fiery red from the constant weeping. When multiple Banshees wail together, it will herald the death of someone very great or holy. The Scottish version of the Banshee is the Bean Nighe. Aiobhill is the banshee of the Dalcassians of North Munster, and Cliodna is the banshee of the MacCarthys and other families of South Munster.
FROM: Here (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/bean_sidhe.html)


The Bean Nighe, the Washer at the Fords, is the Scottish version of the Irish Bean Sidhe (Banshee). She wanders near deserted streams where she washes the blood from the grave-clothes of those who are about to die. It is said that Bean Nighe are the spirits of women who died giving birth and are doomed to do this work until the day their lives would have normally ended. A Bean Nighe is thought to have one nostril, one big protruding tooth, webbed feet and long hanging breasts. A mortal who is bold enough to sneak up to her while she is washing and suck her breast can claim to be her foster-child. The mortal can then gain a wish from her. The Washer of the Fords is sometimes known under the generic name of ban nighechain (little washerwoman) or nigheag na h-ath (little washer at the ford).
FROM: here (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/bean_nighe.html)

Also see:
Bean Nighe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkyg6PnRGLRUAJItXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE5ZmV2YzRtBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA3cEdnRpZANNQVAwMDRfMTE3B GwDV1Mx/SIG=11rcssihu/EXP=1182109626/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_Nighe)
Bean Nighe (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkklTPnRGOEUBHw1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE5cHBqOHY1BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDOQRjb2xvA3cEdnRpZANNQVAwMDRfMTE3B GwDV1Mx/SIG=12eodqb0u/EXP=1182109651/**http%3a//home.swipnet.se/heathen/mythology/b/bean_nighe.html)
Banshee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkwZ2PnRGGm8ByR5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhcGh1dTRpBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMTIEY29sbwN3BHZ0aWQDTUFQMDA0XzExN wRsA1dTMQ--/SIG=11o7usgrd/EXP=1182109686/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banshee)
Bean Sídhe (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkwZ2PnRGGm8B0h5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhMzJwMnNiBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMTQEY29sbwN3BHZ0aWQDTUFQMDA0XzExN wRsA1dTMQ--/SIG=11ueommv8/EXP=1182109686/**http%3a//www.maryjones.us/jce/beansidhe.html)
The Banshee (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkwZ2PnRGGm8B2B5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhN2ltZHI0BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMTYEY29sbwN3BHZ0aWQDTUFQMDA0XzExN wRsA1dTMQ--/SIG=1249cnvud/EXP=1182109686/**http%3a//merganser.math.gvsu.edu/myth/banshee.html)
Christine's Faery List: Bean Sí (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkkOfPnRGkykAHCZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhNHFmcHQ3BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMjgEY29sbwN3BHZ0aWQDTUFQMDA0XzExN wRsA1dTMQ--/SIG=120rmm1kg/EXP=1182109727/**http%3a//www.tartanplace.com/faery/death2.html)
Endicott Studio: Sacred Springs and Other Water Lore (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkkOfPnRGkykAIiZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhNzNmMTQ4BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMzAEY29sbwN3BHZ0aWQDTUFQMDA0XzExN wRsA1dTMQ--/SIG=125g86s7e/EXP=1182109727/**http%3a//www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forwatr3.html) (mentioned)
The Legend of the Banshee (http://www.movilleinishowen.com/history/mythology/legend_of_the_banshee.htm)
The Banshee (http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ACalend/CreepyCreatures.html)

[Morr]

Beautiful thread! Thank you fo rall the resources!

I love Banshee lore!

I myself have encountered one. She came to me in my dream the night my grandmother died. Very horrific and unpleasant experience though. Ya know it's bad news when you encounter one.

At the time I didn't realize it was a Banshee, but it made sense a little while after I woke up to the news of my grandmother's death. It was so clear. Made sense.

Thanks again for this thread!

[Shawn Blackwolf]

I work with olde faery tongue...I know it is not what is known as modern , or even known spelling , yet it is so...


Be-An Shi ( I am very aware sidhe , is modernly pronounced this way )


Be-An Shi , has a number value : 348


Spiret = 347

Death Energy = 348


Be-An Shis = 408


Holy Ones = 409


Just a Thought...

[David19]

Thanks for the info, Agaliha, I've never met one, but my dad said when he was younger, he and his brothers heard a banshee shreak (or whatever the sound they make is).

[skilly-nilly]

Thanks for the info, Agaliha, I've never met one, but my dad said when he was younger, he and his brothers heard a banshee shreak (or whatever the sound they make is).

keen

No, that sounds like I'm saying 'neat-o' but the sound the Banshees make is called keening.

[David19]

keen

No, that sounds like I'm saying 'neat-o' but the sound the Banshees make is called keening.

Thanks for telling me.

[Faol-chù]

caoin; caoineadh (participle) -weep, wail, deplore; howl; regret.


caoineadh - weeping, crying, lamentation; wailing, howling.

And then there's caoineag - Naiad who fortells the death of, and weeps for those slain in battle.

[Faol-chù]

First, a bit about


Names Given to Fairies, page 2:

The names by which these dwellers underground are known are mostly derivative of the word sith (pronounced shee). As a substantive (in which sense it is ordinarily used) sith means 'peace', and as an adjective, is applied solely to objects of the supernatural world, particularly to the Fairies and whatever belongs to them. Sound is a natural adjuncts of the motions of men, and its entire absence is unearthly, unnatural, not human. The name sith without a doubt refers to the 'peace' or silence and actions of men. The German 'still folk' is a name of corresponding import. The Fairies come and go with noiseless steps, and their thefts or abductions are done wilently and unawares to men. The wayfarer resting beside a stream, on raising his eyes, sees the Fairy woman, unheard in her approach, standing on the opposite bank. Men know the Fairies have visited their houses only by the mysterious disappearance of the substance of their goods, or the sudden and unaccountable death of any of the inmates or of the cattle. Sometimes the Elves are seen entering the house, gliding silently around the room, and going out again as noiselessly as they entered. When driven away they do not go off with tramp and noise and sounds of walking (such as men make) or melt into thin air (as spirits do) but fly away noiselessly like birds or hunted deer. They seem to glide or float along rather than to walk. Hence the name sithche and its synonyms are often applied contemptuously to a person who sneaks about or makes his approach without warning.

Sometimes indeed the Elves make a rustling noise like that of a gust of wind, or a silk gown, or a sword drawn sharply through the air, and their coming and going has ben even indicated by frightful and unearthly shrieks, a patterin as of a flock of sheep, or the louder trampling of a troop or horse. Generally, however the presence is indicated at most by the cloud of dust raised by the eddy wind, or by some other curious natural phenomenon, by the illumination of their dwellings, the sound of their musical instruments, songs, or speech.

For the same reason, sith is applied not merely to what is Fairy, but to whatever is Fairlylike, unearthly, not of this world.
<snip>
Daoine sith (plural daoine sith), 'a man of peace, a noiselessly moving person, a Fairy, an Elf'; feminine bean shith (genetive mna sith, plural mnathan sith, genitive plural with the article nam ban shith), 'a woman of peace, an Elle woman' are names that include the whole Fairy race. Bean shith has become naturalised in English under the form 'banshi'. The term was introduced from Ireland, but there appears no reason to suppose the Irish belief different from that of the Scottish Highlands. Any seeming difference has arisen since the introduction of the banshi to the literary world, and from the too free exercise of imagination by book-writers on an imperfectly understood tradition.





The Bean Nighe or Washing Woman, page 22

At times, the Fairy woman (bean shith) is seen in lonely places, beside a pool or stream, washing the linen of those soon to die, and folding and beating it with her hands on a stone in the middle of the water. She is then known as the bean nighe or washing woman, and her being seen is a sure sign that death is near.

In Mull and Tiree she is said to have praeternaturally long breasts, which are in the way as she stoops at her washing. She throws them over her shoulders, and they hand down her back. Whoever sees her must not turn away, but steal up behind and endeavor to approach her unawares. When he is near enough he is to catch one of her breasts, and putting itto his mouth, call herself to witness that she is his first nursing- or foster-mother (muime ciche). She answers that he has need of that being the case, and will then communicate whatever knowledge he desires. If she says the shirt she is washing os that of an enemy he allows the washing to go on, and that man's death follows; if it be that of her captor or any of his friends, she is put a stop to.

In Skye the bean nighe is said to be squat in figure (tiugh iosal), or not unlike a 'small pitiful child' (paiste beag bronach). If a person caught her she told all that would befall him in after life. She answered all his questions, buthe must answer hers. Men did not like to tell what she said. Women dying in childbed were looked upon as dying permaturely, and it was believed that unless all the clothes left by them were washed they would have to wash them themselves until the natural period of their death. It was somen 'dreeing this weird' who were thewashing women. If the person hearing them at work beating their clothes (slacartaich) caught them before being observed, he could not be heard by them; but if they saw hime first, he lost the power of his limbs (lugh).

In the Highlands of Perthsire the washing woman is represented as small and round, and dressed in pretty green. She spreads by moonlight the linen winding sheets of those soon to die, and is caught by getting between her and the stream.

She can also be caught and mastered and made to communicate her information at the pointof the sword. Oscar, son of the poet Ossian, met her on his way to Cairbre's feast, at which the dispute arose which led to his death. She was encountered by Hugh of the Little Head on the evening before hislast battle, and left im as her parting gift (fagail) that he should bdcome the frightful apparition he did after death, the most celebrated in the West Highlands.

Song

The song of the Fairy woman foreboded great calamity, and men did not like to hear it. Scott calls it 'the fatal Banshi's boding scream', but it was not a scream, only a wailing murmer (torman mulaid) of unearthly sweetness and melancholy.

Glaistig

The banshi is sometimes confounded with the glaistig, the apparition of a woman acting as tutelary guardian of the site to which she is attached. Many people use banshi and glaistig as convertible terms, and the confusion thence arising extends largely to books.

The true glaistig is a woman of human race who has been put under enchantments and to whom Fairy nature has been given. She wears a green dress, like Fairy women, but her face is wan and grey, whence her name glaistig, from glas, grey. She differs also in haunting castles and folks of the cattle, and confining herself to servants' work.


In a discussion of bean sithean and bean nighean, it may be of interest that
there was, within the last couple of hundred years in Gaelic Scotland, a custom wherein a designated person in the community would walk with coffins (either carried or pulled by horses) , and caoin (keen). It is most often recorded as being a man doing the caoineadh, but apparently it was previously a specifically female role.

It may also be of note that it was recorded by Roman writers occupying Britain that when a person would die, there was a designated woman who would strip down naked and paint herself blue as she sung at a body of water...an apparent early example of caoineadh.

[Faol-chù]

I work with olde faery tongue...I know it is not what is known as modern , or even known spelling , yet it is so...


I have to ask...

Where, exactly, does one learn this language?

Thanks in advance!

[Shawn Blackwolf]

Faol - Chu : Hello , my friend...

I am not sure if I am allowed to do this , and if I am not ,
by the laws of Mysticwicks , I apologize , yet , as you have
asked...The new sub-forum , in Magick and Ritual...

Look there...Enuff said...

By the way...Wonderful postings , by you , and those before you...

Bright Blessings of the Faery , Upon Thee ...

[Faol-chù]

Hello, Shawn...

Thanks for the information...:)

Le meas,