Banshee

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The banshee is featured in Irish, Scottish, and Manx folklore. The word banshee comes from ban or bean, a woman and shee or sidhe a fairy. The word banshee is spelt in many different ways. In Irish it is spelt banshie, bean sidhe, and ben side. In Scottish it is spelt ban-sith, bean-shith, and bean sith. In Manx it is spelt ben shee.  According to Jim Joe of Timeless Myths, the Banshee of Irish folklore and Scottish folklore "was tied to a person of family, sort of like an attendant fairy." This Banshee was a female spirit that foretold the death of a person in a household. In Irish folklore the banshee was a young, fair woman. In Scottish folklore the banshee was an old hag. In both traditions the banshee had long, unbound hair and dressed in white. The banshee was also heard crying because of this her eyes were always red. William Butler Yeats tells about an omen where the  banshee is accompanied by the coach-a-bower, a black coach, mounted by a coffin and drawn by headless horses driven by a Dullahan.

Joe, Jim. "Faeries." Timeless Myths. 1999. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. 

         <http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/faeries.html>.

Yeats, William B. The Solitary Fairies. Irish Fairy and Folk Tales. Digireads.com, 2010. 73. Web.   
         14 Nov. 2010. <http://books.google.com/books?id=mNNi4dzumgC&dq=Irish+poet+Yeats
         ,+banshee&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.