The Noir Players - The Banshee

The latest from The Noir Players is a piece about the ancient Celtic legend of The Banshee.  The Irish legend says for the most part that it is a female spirit that wails and cries at the death of a family member. There are numerous regional differences in its appearance and behavior, and the term Banshee comes from Old Irish and roughly translates as 'fairy woman'. 

There have been many depictions of the Banshee in the arts, with a particularly vivid portrayal in  the 1959 Disney movie Darby O'Gill And The Little People. Some of our associates have seen the movie, with one of them being old enough to have seen it when it premiered! Disney himself went to Ireland twice and did research in Gaelic folklore as well as interviewing Irish Storytellers. Besides portrayals of Leprechauns , a Banshee appears amongst the ruins on top of a mountain

Compared to modern special effects, this might seem a little tame, but to a boy of 7 (our associate) that has a very clear memory of seeing it +60 years ago, it was terrifying! 

The Noir Players piece is short and atmospheric, and the group very seldom creates music of the atonal or of ultra dissonance the way this could be portrayed. 

In misty moors she wails 

A cry so cold it chills 

Ghostly sound whispers woe 

Wherever she roams 

 

 In fog her shadow nears 

The world of unseen fears 

Voice that cuts through the veil

 Of the fog strewn night 

 

 The banshee’s song on the breeze 

Makes brave men freeze 

With every note a death forms 

In a ghostly, misty form 

 

She glides beneath ancient trees 

Haunting a world few can see 

Fields soaked in sorrow's lore

 Her scream's been heard before 

 

Celtic stars so bright 

In the dead of night 

Through the glens 

To souls their ends 

 

The banshee’s song on the breeze 

Makes brave men freeze 

With every note a death forms 

In a ghostly, misty form