Bean Sidhe

Magical Creature of Samhain — Bean Sidhe

Samhain is the night of the year when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is thinnest, fitting for the mythological creature of Samhain, the bean sidhe. The bean sidhe’s screeching cry is considered the omen of death. The name bean sidhe or banshee comes from the Gaelic words ban (bean) which means ‘woman’, and shee (sidhe) fairy, literally ‘woman of the fairy’. She is also known as ‘The Lady of Sorrow’. During the Middle Ages it was said that the bean sidhe would protect the souls of those of good heart and deed after they had passed on. The bean sidhe is also said to have a sister – the Lianhan Sidhe – who would win the love of mortal men and use it to destroy them.

The bean sidhe is an ancestral solitary fairy appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. The Celts did not believe the bean sidhe causes death, but merely warns of it. According to tradition, each of the five major Irish families had their own bean sidhe: the O’Neills, O’Briens, O’Connors, O’Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Some claim that any names starting in ‘Mc’, ‘Mac’ or ‘O’ are included in the list. Over time as families blended, it was said that most Irish families had their own bean sidhe. It is also said that the bean sidhes followed their families as they emigrated from Ireland to other places across the globe, though some stayed behind to grieve at the original family estate.

Accounts of banshee go back as far as 1380 with the publication of the Triumphs of Torlough. A bean sidhe’s wailing would be a family’s notice that one of their kin had died, even if the person was far away, and news of the death may take weeks to arrive. The wailing of the banshee was the first warning the household had of the death. When more than one banshee was present, and they wailed and sang in chorus, it is for the death of some holy or great one. An omen that sometimes accompanies the bean sidhe is an immense black coach, mounted by a coffin, and drawn by headless horses. The coach will go rumbling to the door, and if a hapless human should open the door, a basin of blood will be thrown in their face.

The bean sidhe appears mainly in one of three guises: a young beautiful woman, a stately matron, and a scary old hag. She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak over a green dress or the winding-sheet or burial shroud of the dead. Others claim that banshee are frequently dressed in white and often have long, fair hair which they brush with a silver comb. and this has led to an Irish superstition that finding a comb on the ground is considered bad luck. It is believed that a single bean sidhe can take on any of these forms and shift between them, much like other Celtic Goddesses.