The Banshee · The One Who Cries Outside the Window

The oldest figure in Irish folklore is the banshee. She follows certain families down the generations, and wails outside the house on the night before someone dies, sometimes washing clothes, sometimes combing her hair.

Those who see her are said to have no need to fear her: she does not come to take anyone, but to bring word, and it is the family itself that is being watched. Some families were still keeping the story in the twentieth century.

Irish people speak of her the way they speak of a distant relative: she has come many times, and has never come inside.

Folklore / Donegal · Ireland / Time immemorial