There are many, many stories around the world about “The Woman in White”. Most of the current stories have occurred in the southern U.S. In these tales, the “Woman in White” is a ghostly figure who appears on rural roads and bridges, forcing drivers (usually male) to stop. When the driver allows this spectral woman into her car, the driver is found days later dead in a ditch or a river. (Yes, there are many plot holes in this story… but it is just a story).
But this idea of a ghostly woman in white dates back centuries, to the legends of Irish Banshees. In pagan Celtic folklore, the powerful pantheon of gods, known as Tuatha Dé Danann merged into the powerful mortal-looking beings known as Aos Si. Then, as Ireland became Christian, the Aos Si became less powerful, yet just as scary. By the 8th Century, as people became more and more educated about the world around them (scientifically, mathematically, etc), the Aos Si became simple fairies. Yet even within the lore of Irish Fairies, there were different types of fairy folk. Just like in the earlier versions of gods and powerful beings, some were good and some were super scary.
One of the more frightening types of common fairies were known as Banshees. The word Banshee comes from the Celtic word “bean-sidhe” aka “woman of the fairy.” In Celtic folklore, Banshees are harbingers of death. She always appears as a woman in white, with a ghostly complexion and white or red hair. She only shows herself to people who are unaware of their impending death. Sometimes you can see her wandering in the bloodstained clothing of the person marked for death. At other times, she appears as a wailing ghost whose voice can turn a person’s hair white and cause heart attacks. Some people believe that if you hear her scream, you are marked for death within the next 24 hours.
Unlike other Irish fairies that many, many people have recorded as seeing, there are very few written accounts of people actually seeing Banshees. The two most famous stories include a king and a noble woman. The first written account is about King James I of Scotland. One night in 1437, he was visited by a wailing woman in white who told him that the Earl of Atholl would lead an assassination attempt. A day after telling his personal advisor this story, James I was killed by the Earl of Atholl along with a bunch of other Scottish nobles.
The next story comes from an English noblewoman named Lady Ann Fanshawe in 1649. Lady Ann was married to Lord Richard Fanshawe who was the Secretary of War to Charles I (during the English Civi War 1642-1651). As a lady of the court, Ann followed her husband Richard all over Europe as he sought support for the Royalist cause. As she traveled, she studied languages, history and the law while giving birth to 14 children. Unfortunately, only 5 of their children survived to adulthood. Over the years, Ann became a “Woman of Letters”, meaning she published fiction and non-fiction books about her life during the Civil War. She wrote histories, cookbooks, and collected folktales from throughout Europe. But her most famous book is a memoir she wrote about her time in the court of King Charles.
Anyway, in the midst of the war, she ended up living temporarily in Cork, Ireland while her husband was on a diplomatic mission. They were staying at a friend’s estate when Cork rose up against the King and they had to retreat. They ended up at a castle owned by Lady Honara O’Brien. Anyway, one night at 1 a.m., a voice from the window awakened Lady Ann. When Lady Ann drew the bed curtains, she saw a woman leaning in from the window (they were on an upper floor). According to Ann’s written account, the woman was “… lit by the moon, wearing white, with red hair and a ghastly complexion. The woman called out loudly Ahone, Ahone, Ahone… and then with a sound more like wind than breath, she disappeared.” Lady Ann also said the woman’s body appeared “... more like a thick cloud than substance.”
Lady Ann was terrified and woke up her husband (who’d slept through the entire incident). Her husband actually believed he story because he’d been hearing stories like this as he traveled throughout Ireland. But then, later that morning, the couple discovered that one of the members of the household (a cousin of Lady Honara) had died around 2 a.m. Then, Lady Honara admitted that the guest room that Lady Ann and her husband were staying in had once been the bedroom of a woman who’d become pregnant by the man who’d previously owned the castle. When he found out about the pregnancy, he killed the woman and her unborn child. So, apparently, whenever anyone in the house was about to die, a Banshee (the ghost of the murdered pregnant woman) would appear to whoever was staying in that room to warn them of the impending death.
Of course Lady Ann and her husband left the castle as soon as they could. As the Fanshawes traveled to Spain, Lady Ann wrote down her experiences with the Banshee. She also learned that the cry of Ahone, Ahone, Ahone, is a phonetic recreation of an ancient Irish word ochón. Ochón can be loosely translated as “Alas”, a scream of despair.
Unfortunately, after her husband Richard died, Lady Ann and her children were left penniless (it was a tough political situation). To make money, Lady Ann published her and her husband’s memoirs as well as some of her other books. Her memoir gave a detailed account of her incident with the Banshee and became a bestseller at the time. There is still a modern edition of Memoir available for sale. Another interesting note is that her cookbooks, where she shared recipes she collected throughout Europe, included the first known written recipe for Ice Cream (derived from a description from an ancient Roman historian). Lady Ann’s recipe was even mentioned by the First Lady Dolly Madison, who served ice cream at the White House in 1790 for the very first time.
While Banshees are not the most common of Irish fairies, they are so terrifying that their stories are still told, still sold, and were even imported to the New World. So if you are ever driving on a rural road, late at night, and a woman in white appears in front of you, step on the gas and keep driving. Whatever you do, don’t stop. Because if you hear the wail of the Banshee, it might be the last sound you ever hear.
