(originally posted on Readerlicious)
I overheard one of my coworkers talking about a banshee to our boss. Why? I have no idea. I work in an oil and gas company. We don’t typically have need to discuss banshees at work.
Not only did he talk about a banshee, he also compared himself to a banshee and explained that a banshee is like a ghost.
Umm. No.
First mistake he made: a banshee is a woman. My co-worker, not so much. Missing some key parts of the banshee anatomy.
Second, a banshee is not a ghost. They are singers of death. Women who sing to warn of the approach of death. Women who appear in multitudes when someone holy dies. Women who sing and scream when a place is full of sorrow and of pain.
In Irish legends, banshees are not spirits in the ghost sense.The word banshee comes from the Irish bean si, woman of the sidhe, or woman of the fairy mounds. These singers of death can be spirits of nature, deities, or fairy woman. They can appear as a young maiden, a well-off middle-aged woman, or an elderly woman.
There is also another form of a banshee. A bean sidhe, or washing woman, who washes the bloodstains of the dead out of their clothes. Creepy. And again, very not similar to my male, stereotypical businessman co-worker.
Banshees are typically seen brushing their long, fair hair with a silver comb. This silver comb, if picked up, can either spirit you away or it could just be a gift from a loved one. My advice: don’t pick up the comb. Though, this may be the one similarity between banshees and my co-worker.
They both love their hair.