Banshee

From the Pad of Definitions

From 1.01 Pilot (episode)

Also Banshi and Benshee , Irish and Scottish in origin. A female death omen spirit that manifests to herald approaching death with wailing. The word is derived from the Old Irish ben sidhe , a woman of the fairy mound , or woman of the fairy mound, but it is translated by different scholars in a variety of ways, including Female Fairy, Angel of Death, Lady of Death, Woman of Peace, White Lady of Sorrow, Nymph of the Air, and Spirit of the Air, amongst others.

Many people have described the terrible wail , which precedes a death, and certain families are traditionally believed to be followed by the Banshee. The word is sometimes also used to denote assort of demon, but in Nordic folklore the Banshee is always benevolent.

The Banshee of legend is actually a disembodied soul, either of someone who in life was strongly attached to the family or who hated all its members. So, if she loves those whom she call, the wail is soft, tender, soothing chant, intended to either give notice of death's proximity or reassure the one destined to die, or to comfort the survivors. But if instead the Banshee during her life was a enemy of the family, the wail is more like the scram of a fiendish ghost, a demonic howling of delight over the coming fatal agony of one of her foes.