A bumper sticker provides the title. An image search reveals that the owner of the car which bore the bumper sticker loves a Rock n' Roll band, or a type of ATV (all terrain vehicle), or a ghostly apparition from Irish folklore tradition which is actually not a ghost at all but rather a certain very specific kind of solitary faerie.
Well, when I saw this bumper sticker I immediately affirmed that I too love (heart) Banshees, assuming we are talking about the latter, and then it occurred to me that I had not yet written about that subject though it was dear to me.
Many are the misconceptions about the Ban-shee, or Bean-Sidhe, literally "Faerie Woman," or "Woman of the Sidhe, or faerie realm," the most common being that she is a ghost. But she does appear in a ghostly form in some other traditions.
For instance, in East Anglia, about as far from Ireland that you can get in the UK, there is a ghost known as "The White Lady," or "The Grey Lady" who foretells imminent death just as the Irish Banshee does. Some folklorists have placed this apparition in the Banshee category, and there is no doubt there is a relation - that "The White Lady" of East Anglia evolved from the Banshee story.
Banshees also make a rather sinister appearance in Japan. Isn't that interesting? But there's a large difference between the Irish faerie and the Japanese demon, and that difference may just be the subject of my post this morning - that is, there is a big difference between Evil and Innocence.
Innocence can be much more terrifying than Evil.
A cultural anthropologist might say that in the development of our Judeo-Christian parent culture the demonization of pagan dieties by ancient people embracing Christianity is the origin of many Western European boogeymen, or boogeypeople, known to us today. That may be the case. In other words, our most beloved spooks - like vampires and werewolves, and the like - may just be the descendants of ancient pagan gods of whom we know nothing or almost nothing today - gods who were transformed from god-like to merely spooky as a result of mass religious conversion over time.
If so, that demonization is really also a villification. In the Hellenistic sense anything which is not human but is endowed with human traits or characteristics is a demon, or a person who is not really a person. In this sense, anything personified is demonic. Daffy Duck is a demon - a personified animal. All the talking animals of Disney movies are demons, technically-speaking.
But we have added another layer of meaning to the word - a layer, or a connotation of Evil. This happened over time. Even though Saint Paul was quite specifically opposed to the idea of incorporating the pagan traditions of converts into the acceptance of Christianity - (Great is Diana) - that is not to say it didn't occur. History informs us that it did. The credit or blame for this is either laid at the feet of the Roman Church or ascribed to the natural inclination of people to understand whatever comes along in the context of their pre-existing traditions. Well, Duh.
(To this day the Catholic Church worldwide, though it has precisely seven Sacraments and no more, also practices literally thousands of Sacramentals, or faith tradition practices which are considered aids in practicing a holy Christian life - basically drawn from cultures. Some of these are rather mainstream - like the Holy Rosary - while others seem inscrutable, arcane, even cult-like, particularly to non-Catholics.)
So, a vampire may be a legend which originally arose somehow from a prehistoric diety and was transformed over time - mingled no doubt with many other influences, remembered events and stories both real imagined - to evolve ultimately into a very malevolent demon in the pure sense of the word. The vampire is evil. The vampire wants to drink your blood and discard the husk of your flesh like a banana peel. Or worse - the vampire wants to turn you into a thing like himself, a half person, an entity that is not human but has the appearance of being human, - a demon.
But innocence can be much more frightening than evil. When I was young I heard all the same stories about vampires and werewolves that you no doubt did. I saw the same Universal horror movies, those great Hammer films - all that. I noticed something watching these, and hearing the stories 'round the campfire, and reading Gothic literature, Bram Stoker, Sheridan LeFanu, et al. I wonder if you noticed it too? Evil always loses, in the end.
Evil always loses, in the end. The good always triumphs over evil. The vampire will meet its wooden stake, the werewolf his silver bullet. The Devil himself will be cast back into his lake of fire. The dragon will be slain.
Why is that? Because of Christ conquering death. Even the secular, the non-religious person deep in his heart has inherited as a cultural birthright this notion that good triumphs ultimately over evil. He may define these things differently, but the idea is written on his heart.
There is nothing evil about the Banshee, so the Banshee frightened me as a lad - and even today - far more than any boogeyman dreamt-of in all the campfire stories there are of spooky things. To me, the Banshee and things of her kind - Irish things - are much more frightening than the mythological creatures of any other folklore tradition precisely because of their innocence.
For instance, the Banshee never causes death to occur. She merely mourns the loss of a life. She does this in advance of the death so you might say she is foretelling it. What is frightening about her is the fear of death itself - not whatever she may do to you; she does nothing.
The Banshee is like the Scottish Brownie in that she is attached only to the ancient blood nobility - and therefore an honor to have around - except that she is concerned only with death itself, the primordial horror of humanity, and not its cause.
Stories of the Banshee are extremely eerie because she is inevitable and unstoppable, as is death itself. Imagine her appearance as it has been described: a woman who is not a woman, nor a ghost, nor a devil of any kind, who is entirely consumed with the expression of extreme sorrow. And who cannot be killed. And who cannot be driven away. Who cannot be excorcised and returned to Hell, or wherever she comes from, because she does not come from there. She means no harm. Like a rabbit she is innocent. Like the weather she is innocent. She is a reminder of mortality who appears at a fundamental level without the context of Good v. Evil, or its comforts.
Now, that same cultural anthropologist I mentioned earlier may tell us that the Banshee is the descendant of an ancient pagan goddess who was demonized in the process of religious conversion in Ireland but not villified by that process. That's possible. Why would that be?
Ireland was literally the 'last place God made,' according to the Roman missionaries whose job it was to propagate the faith throughout the known world. Its geographical isolation made it impregnable against many primitive forms of conquest, apart from the fact that few were inclined to try. To the center of the civilized world at the time of Saint Patrick, Ireland was still considered the farthest frontier and the most primitive backwater there was. Missionaries in Ireland were more 'on their own' than in most other places.
It has been suggested that these facts account for a unique condition to have occurred in Ireland, and that is her dieties remained benign; her ancient gods did not become personifications of evil. Legend would have it that the Faeries, though not converted, retreated into that same limbo of invincable ignorance where one may find Socrates and other grandfathers of our Western faith tradition who did not have the opportunity to know Christ. And like Socrates they exist in this limbo, this suspension of judgment - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Those of you who enjoy, as I do, the stories of J.R.R. Tolkein will recall that the elves of his fiction withdraw, or retire, in the end to a place which has been set aside for them. This happens in order that the Age of Men in his imagined but very well-imagined world may begin. They are consigned to a world where they may now exist only in memory, and while that boundary line may never again be crossed - the return trip may never be made - the world would be a boring place indeed if we could not speculate about what the results might be if that were not the case.
The Banshee is like that. And therefore the Banshee is more terrifying than any mythological creature that man, armed with the supernatural weapons of righteousness, can conquer.
