Latest / Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast / Samhain E1: The Banshee

Transcript

Samhain E1: The Banshee · Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Wild Kin, where we reconnect to Celtic myths one story at a time.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jess,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm so excited to share the origin of the ethereal beings known as Banshees.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: When we think of the Banshee today, we often imagine a ghostly woman shrieking in the night.
• 0:55
  He died protecting the village from raiders,
• 0:56
  the stab to his thigh bleeding out too quickly to prolong his suffering.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: His pregnant wife wept at his bedside,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: begging him to stay until the moment his eyes finally faded.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now it was time to prepare, to send for the keeners.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: As the heat of the day begins to fade,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Women surround him,
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: tears mixed with water as his hair is combed,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: body washed,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: and tunic smoothed.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: By dusk, the roundhouse begins to fill.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Tears quietly fall as each person holds the warrior's hand,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: gazing into his face for the last time.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: As people pass through, the keeners stand behind his body like sentinels.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: They stay all night, bearing the grief of all.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: When soft light begins to fill the room, they know it's time.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Brothers arrive to move the body onto a wooden stretcher,
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: lifting it onto their shoulders as they carry the fallen warrior outside into the
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: cool air.
• 2:40
  Families step out from their warm peat fires,
• 2:41
  coming together as the procession quietly walks toward the pyre,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: now ready to receive its offering.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: At the back of the crowd stand the Keeners.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Together, they now begin to sing.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Their words fall into step with the steady beat of drums,
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: building into cries of the warrior's strength,
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: his kindness,
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: his sacrifice.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: How he will be remembered by the gods for this act of service to his people.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: They recite his lineage, his forefathers and mothers, as an ancestry to be proud of.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: When the crowd reaches the pyre,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: the warrior is gently lifted to the top as torches are ignited around him.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: All fall silent, chests heaving in rhythm.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: As dawn breaks the keeners nod,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: each torch placed on the freshly cut wood,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: and the fire begins to spread.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The keeners dig their toes into the earth as they find their deepest source of power.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's up to them to ensure he can cross over, for only their voices hold this skill.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: They are the embodiment of the village's grief.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's their sacred duty to help their warrior's soul pass from this realm into the next world.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: As the crackling of sparks grow and spread, their cries split the air.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Bodies stiffen at the sound, the shock hitting their core.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Children cling to their parents, eyes wide at the terrible, awe-inspiring sound.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: It is terrifying, but the only way to create a bridge between worlds...
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: They keen for the utter irrevocable loss for his wife,
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: his unborn child,
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: of a heart being ripped apart.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Others join,
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: his brothers,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: fellow warriors,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: and elders who helped raise him since he was brought into the world and now sent
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: back again into the ether.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Their mourning pours from their bodies into the air,
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: an utter release as the fire blazes into the sky above.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: His wife's cries are strongest of all.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: As the sun crests the horizon,
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: the keeners drop their hands,
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: sobs transforming back into deep,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: heaving breaths.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: They know it is done, that he has passed to the other world and now can guide them in spirit.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he will return one day, in another body, another life.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Death and the Otherworld.
• 5:58
  In Celtic society,
• 5:58
  grief was taken very seriously,
• 5:59
  and these women became the voice for their communities as they helped them honor
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: the dead.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Keeners would be tasked with tracing the deceased's lineage,
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: praising their honor,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: and ensuring the reputation lived on,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: creating verses as the memory keepers for their villages.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: This aligns with other Celtic traditions where the women were the powerful force
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: between thresholds.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Be it the keepers of prophecy,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: bestowing sovereignty,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: or determining fate,
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: women held the key in both practice and myth.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And although many of these traditions and beliefs have been lost,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: keening has carried on throughout history,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: eventually transforming into the ever-feared banshee.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: We know this from Brehon Laws,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: a native legal system used in early Ireland that was carried on until the 17th
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: century.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was a set of codes written down and carried by many of the practices deeply
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: embedded in pre-Christian culture of the region.
• 6:58
  Keening was included in this set of codes,
• 6:59
  calling out that women could be hired to perform rituals at funerals and that
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: payment was expected,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: implying hiring a keener in itself was a mark of wealth and rank.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Talented keeners could even improvise verses on the spot and raise their prices accordingly.
• 7:16
  The better the lament,
• 7:17
  the more solidified the dead's legacy and an assurance to those left behind that
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: they would pass over with dignity.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: The mystery of it all is we don't actually know what keening might have sounded like.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Descriptions suggest piercing cries, sobbing, wailing, and sung verses.
• 7:36
  Though we might not know what it sounded like,
• 7:38
  this deep,
• 7:38
  felt grief is so embedded into the ancestral memory as Celtic tradition is filled
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: with women whose cries or laments foretell death.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Morrígan, a war and sovereignty goddess, appears on battlefields with her prophecies.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: She can be seen shrieking,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: crying,
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: or washing bloody clothes at the fords before battle,
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: all ominous portents of death.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's also the washerwoman from Scottish myths,
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: often seen as a hag washing the clothes of those soon to die.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier medieval stories from the 8th through the 12th centuries also describe
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: mysterious women who could specifically foretell the death of kings.
• 8:19
  A deity named Clídna has her earliest origins as a goddess of the other world,
• 8:21
  whose wails would crash against the shores with her wave as a portent of the
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: king's death.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, all of these beings were feared, but they were deeply respected too.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: as with their mortal counterparts and keening women,
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: they stood at the threshold between our world and the next.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Keening itself was still practiced, but unsurprisingly, the church saw this as disruptive,
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: pagan,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: and borderline magical.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: By the Middle Ages, it was silenced.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: In 1631,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: the howling of women was banned at wakes and funerals,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: but this absence was clearly felt as legends of wailing women began to fill the
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: void.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: By the later medieval period, tales of banshees began to surface as messengers of death.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Banshee translates to "Woman of the Mound,"
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: implying a mystical being tied to the fairy mounds that were gateways to the other
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: world.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just as having a professional keening woman implied status,
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Banshees evolved to become the death messengers for specific families.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: That same goddess named Clídna was so deeply embedded in the region of Munster that
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: throughout the ages,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: her tale evolved into becoming the queen of the Banshees.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: She was connected to noble lineages like the O'Donovans and MacCarthys tying their
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: bloodlines directly to her.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the perk of having your own Banshee was the ability to hear her laments outside
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: your home,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: telling you someone in the family was soon to die.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: By the Victorian era,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: there was a revival in Celtic folklore and banshees were naturally woven into these
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: gothic tales of eerie nights and magic.
• 10:01
  Not only were they enticing mystical figures,
• 10:02
  but they seemed to have embodied the sentiment of aristocratic decay as ancient
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Irish lineages were starting to fall by the wayside.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: By this point,
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: keening as a cultural practice had been suppressed for centuries,
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: dismissed as unchristian and superstitious,
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: and funerals instead had transitioned into very stoic affairs.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Quiet mourning was the only respectable way to grieve.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: But somehow, keening still seems to have persisted.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1820s, folklorists began to document old Irish customs, including keening.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: They framed it as a wild,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: unearthly cry at Irish wakes,
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: and they documented women continuing to create poetic verses for the dead.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Ethnographers started to transcribe these verses,
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: highlighting the same ancient sentiments of bereavement,
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: memory,
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: and legacy.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: By the 40s and 50s, folklorists even recorded Keening on tape.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'll link the audio recording in the show notes,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: as they are as ethereal and haunting as you'd expect.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which just highlights how,
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: through all of the suppression and cultural changes,
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: women continue this heritage through generations.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now Keening is being revived as a sacred act again.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Irish musicians are weaving laments into their songs,
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: and there are groups gathering to learn about its history and practices.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is Keening significant,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: but perhaps even more,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: it's an outlet that doesn't really exist in the modern Anglican world.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: They found that more traditional Irish rituals actually help people cope better
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: with processing their grief,
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: possibly even avoiding the effects of prolonged mourning.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Which is interesting to consider if modern society's stoic views of death could
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: actually harm the ability to acknowledge someone's passing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: When a loved one passes on, emotions are high and the pain can be unbearable.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: But so often people are expected to suppress this and cope with their emotions alone.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: sorrow,
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: a place to truly grieve.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Keening women were the memory keepers and makers of prophecy,
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: a bridge between their communities and the divine.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Though their voices were suppressed, now we have the opportunity to reclaim them.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: These stories show how women have always been a part of shaping the narrative.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: We just have to remember that our voices have the power to shift fate.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Wild Kin.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to explore more Celtic-inspired stories and seasonal resources,
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: you can find me at the Artio Journal on Substack.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: The link is in the show notes.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So glad you could join me by the fire, and we'll meet again soon.