bythegods:

Banshee

“Banshee” is the modern name for the bean sidhe, or “woman of the fairies,” the traditional fairy of the Irish countryside. Perhaps you recall some of the Tuatha De Danann we’ve discussed in the past? Well, after the arrival of the Milesians (the ancestors of the present-day Irish) from what is now Spain, the gods and goddesses that comprised the Tuatha De Danann disappeared underground to dwell in mounds. 

In the centuries that followed, the old gods were slowly transformed into fairies. As a Christian presence infringed and absorbed Ireland’s pagan past, the old gods of the Celts became folk legend and fairies in the woods and hidden nooks of the land. Banshees were the lady spirits that haunted the woods, and it was believed that the wail of a banshee foretold the approach of a human death. The land itself, riddled with the markers and ancient customs of Celtic mythology, still attributed great power and mystery to the spirits of the old religion.

(Source: bythegods)