Some say Banshees are the hounds of Death, baying to herd their prey into the arms of their master.
Many have heard the beginning of its low, sustained shriek but few the end.
"The Wailing Woman. A banshee right before my eyes. Such a shame that I have to kill you."
— Jennifer Blake, Teen Wolf
Her fleeting shadow in female guise cloaked in darkness and mystery
With wind tossed hair and sparkling eyes, she cries out in misery
Watching
With eyes that are full of tears
And a cry that rips your soul apart and heralds death is near!
It's the cry of the Banshee!
With wind tossed hair and sparkling eyes, she cries out in misery
Watching
With eyes that are full of tears
And a cry that rips your soul apart and heralds death is near!
It's the cry of the Banshee!
— Pagan Altar, "Cry of the Banshee"
"Enough! My voice can seduce or mesmerize or bring pain beyond imagining. If you will not give me truth willingly, I will take it by force! Tell me now what Oberon plans for me! You will suffer for your slowness to obey! And the human might do more than suffer! For when the Banshee keens... MEN! DIE!"
— The Banshee, "The Hound of Ulster", Gargoyles.
A banshee does appear to us, a harbinger of death.
A warning that soon one of us will draw their final breath.
It was a dark and stormy night, no moon to light the sky,
I wasn't more than four or five, when first I heard her cry.
A wailing lamentation that filled me with affright
And in the morning I was told, "your granddad died last night".
Perhaps it's just the wind that's whistling round the window pane,
Or maybe it was thunder, or the rhythm of the rain.
The old ones say "an omen, and death won't be denied".
The devil's out a'hunting, when you hear the banshee's cry.
She comes to warn the family that death is creeping near.
Her eyes are red from crying, as she sheds her bitter tears.
A woman of the fairy folk, she sings in mornful tones,
and if you hear her caoin* , it'll chill you to the bone.
A warning that soon one of us will draw their final breath.
It was a dark and stormy night, no moon to light the sky,
I wasn't more than four or five, when first I heard her cry.
A wailing lamentation that filled me with affright
And in the morning I was told, "your granddad died last night".
Perhaps it's just the wind that's whistling round the window pane,
Or maybe it was thunder, or the rhythm of the rain.
The old ones say "an omen, and death won't be denied".
The devil's out a'hunting, when you hear the banshee's cry.
She comes to warn the family that death is creeping near.
Her eyes are red from crying, as she sheds her bitter tears.
A woman of the fairy folk, she sings in mornful tones,
and if you hear her caoin* , it'll chill you to the bone.
— The Irish Rovers, "The Banshee's Cry"
"Mutating people to turn them into living weapons is one thing, but the yelling? Why make them yell?! That's totally uncalled for!"
— Joker, Mass Effect 3
''"The [Silver] Banshee is supernatural in nature. She has a sonic scream that's loud enough to hurt even me, and if she says your name— your true name— you die.
"Oh, there's one of them lives in our woods. She don't harm nobody, unless it's your time to die of course. She appeared to that mad old Marienburger, Frans, who used to live at the village. Saw her washing bloody clothes at the ford he did. She took one look at him and opened her mouth to wail, that's the way he told it. Then she carried on washing. He came back to the village and all his hair had turned white, petrified with shock he was. He said he knew it had been an omen — that once she'd laid her eye on him and given that wail, he knew his time was up. He took to his bed that same day and never got up again. Yes, he died in that same bed, five years later. I said he started out a little mad — eccentric, you might say, if he'd been slightly richer — well, once he'd seen her, he was as mad as can be. There was no going back for him from that moment on. He knew he was going to die, and he just laid in bed for the rest of his life waiting for the end."
—Fritz Bodger, Forester, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World Bestiary — A Compendium of Creatures Fair and Foul
