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The banshee is the legendary herald of death in Ireland. This book explores the social contexts and functions of belief pertaining to this remarkable creature of the folk imagination. Through a thorough analysis of folklore sources, a comprehensive picture of the banshee emerges. Many issues associated with attitudes towards life and death are expressed by way of the banshee tradition, and changes in such attitudes down through the ages are also revealed in shifting beliefs about the banshee’s presence and activity.
This searching volume unravels that network of beliefs, drawing on a large body of written and oral sources, including literary accounts from the Old Irish period to contemporary times, as well as folklore material collected over more than sixty years. Extensive fieldwork by the author broadens the source material to show banshee-related beliefs persisting into the third millennium.
This updated edition of a classic folklore study brings a wealth of archival research to a new readership. It will be of use to folklorists, historians, ethnologists, sociologists and also the general reader interested in supernatural beliefs. Extensive appendices containing the detailed source information, including the original field research by the author, is a valuable resource for researchers.
Patricia Lysaght is Professor Emerita of European Ethnology at the School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, University College Dublin. She is an elected member of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture, Uppsala, which awarded her the Torsten Janckes Minnesfond Prize in 2012 for an outstanding contribution to international scholarship. She is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, and an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Ethnographical Society, Budapest. She was President of the Folklore Society, London (2017–2020) and editor of the Society’s journal, Folklore (2004–2012). In 2013, the Folklore Society awarded her the Coote-Lake Medal for outstanding research and scholarship in the field of folkloristics.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Names
Chapter 2: Folk Views of the Origin of the Supernatural Death-Messenger
Chapter 3: The Death-Messenger's Connection with Families
Chapter 4: Aural Manifestations
Chapter 5: Visual Manifestations
Chapter 6: The Manifestation Situations – Time and Place
Chapter 7: The Experiencers
Chapter 8: Folk Beliefs about the Insulted Death-Messenger
Chapter 9: Interference Legends 1 – The Comb Legend
Chapter 10: Interference Legends 2 – The Imprint of the Banshee's Five Fingers
Chapter 11: Interference Legends 3 – The Shirt Legend
Chapter 12: Origin of the Supernatural Death-Messenger Belief and Other Related Questions
Chapter 13: Continuity and Change in the Death-Messenger Tradition in the Twentieth Century
List of Abbreviations
Appendices
Notes and References
Bibliography