According to Irish legend, the banshee (bean-sidhe or ‘woman of the fairy mounds’) is a feminine ghostly spirit and harbinger from the Otherworld. She is said to give out a loud, eerie cry when death is close.
But what does the banshee look like? No one is quite sure. Some say that the banshee is the ghost of a young woman who was murdered and whose spirit wanders the Earth, crying out to warn of impending death. Others who claim to have seen the banshee tell of the mysterious figure of an old woman dressed in rags with long grey hair, bloody fingernails and sharp-pointed rotten teeth, and with eyes full of hatred and sorrow. Her mouth is permanently open, ready to give out her tortured scream of death. Then again, some claim the banshee is the Irish goddess of battle, the Morrigan, in earthly guise, appearing as a beautiful young woman, wearing a cloak and a funeral shroud. Finally, some claim to have seen the banshee in the form of the beannighe, an ancient hag washing the blood-stained clothes of those about to die.
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