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hannah-deactivated20220725 · 4 years

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Selkie Kween

My name is Maggie. My people all think that I am just a really odd human, but in all reality, I am a selkie.

For those that don’t know what a selkie is, it’s... well, the most well-known version of a selkie is a being that puts on a walrus skin to become a walrus. And takes it off to become human. They’re like sirens in that they dive with your body underwater and eat you.

Me, on the other hand... I carry a lion skin. That’s right. I turn into a lioness when I wear my skin.

But none of my people know this. They also don’t know how I turned against my original pride to become their queen... or the fact that the pride of lions that regularly attack their kingdom... is none other than my old pride.

I paced the corridors of my palace, went out to the balcony to stare down at my people... and immediately grimaced. I recognized the people that were approaching my people as if they were normal humans... it was my pride... they were using their human form to seem like just another set of people. But I knew better.

I ran all the way down to the gate and warned my people not to open it.

“Don’t you dare - for the sake of our people!” I warned them. They looked at me like I was crazy.

“But... they’re just some starving people!” My people argued, staring at me dumbfoundedly. I looked down at the people approaching the gate. Indeed, they did appear to be starving, but I knew this ruse. I glanced back at my people.

“Don’t open the gate,” I told them again, eyes gleaming in a warning. They stared at me.

“Is there something you need to tell us?” One of my men asked, holding his spear close, like he was ready to strike me with it.

“Stand down. I just know this trick,” I told him.

“You appeared out of nowhere,” he said, obviously still not believe in my innocence. “How, if you are innocent, do you know about this trick?” I held my breath for a moment before responding.

“I know because I’ve had some men accidentally killed by this same ruse.” We stared at each other for a minute, him defiantly and me nervously. “Please believe me. My men died because of people playing this game,” I insisted.

Thankfully, he believed me in the end... and they kept the gates closed.

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tellmewhatyouheardpodcast · 3 years

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Episode 1: The Banshee, pt 4

The Banshee, unlike the mermaid, is not a water-dwelling creature, but she is associated with water in some parts of Ireland. As I said earlier, in the Comb Legend, the banshee is sometimes seen washing clothing in a stream. And that’s not uncommon for Banshee stories; in fact, one of the Banshee stories from Yeats’s book, reported by John Todhunter, involves an old man encountering a Banshee on a bridge. The man, realizing what she is, crosses himself and begins to pray, which enrages her. She screams in anger, then simply leaves him be, walking down the steep bank to wade in the stream below the bridge.

There’s a strong correlation between water and otherworldly beings. The mermaid, merrow, and selkie are always seen IN water -- but many creatures are reported as being seen simply by or near running water, and by extension bridges. Trolls, for example, or as we’ll see soon, headless horsemen -- they love bridges. Why is this the case?

Certainly there’s an elemental mystique about water: it is very much of the earth, the way a tree is, and these earthly things were revered by ancient people as having supernatural importance. But, as Lysaght points out, in Ireland, a brook or a river might form the barrier between parishes, towns or farms. Therefore these waterways and the associated bridges are liminal spaces. A liminal space is defined as a place that is neither here nor there, neither one place or another, and the supernatural LOVE a liminal space. The Vanishing Hitchhiker, for example, appears along the side of the road which is neither on the road nor off. A crossroads, which is associated with the supernatural going all the way back to ancient Greece, is a liminal space; indeed, if you’ll remember, the Banshee of the Mac Carthys appears near the intersection of two roads.

But that’s not the only reason the Banshee is seen by water. I already mentioned the Celtic goddess called BIBE Badh, or the Badh, which is also one of the many names regionally ascribed to the Banshee. BIBE (soft B) Babh was a war goodness connected to strife, battle and death. To soldiers marching to battle, she would appear standing in a stream, washing the clothing or armor of the losing side. This idea of the female death omen appearing as a washer woman took deep root in Gaelic Scotland.

So, while the Banshee and her keen is the most visible and well known of the death messengers of the British Isles, let’s go a little more afield to discuss a few other Banshee-like creatures from some other Celtic nations.

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Scotland and Wales, it seems to me, took the Banshee and said, let’s put her in a stream and let’s give her a beetle to beat the hell out of some dirty clothes -- in other words, let’s put this woman to work! It’s not just Scotland and Wales with the washing women either -- in Brittany, which was also a Celtic nation, there are the mythical midnight washerwomen -- but I’m not gonna lie to you, I couldn’t do a lot of research about them because sources are all in French or Breton, neither of which I speak particularly well.

But in Scotland, at least, you’ve got a couple different kinds of supernatural wailing women. The quote-unquote highland banshee is known as the KEENAK, that’s C-A-O-I-N-E-A-G, which sounds a lot like the Irish KWEEN-UH, because it means the same thing. This spirit, according to the Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael, is seldom seen but often heard in glens, on hills, by lakes, streams and waterfalls. So the tie to water with this creature is very strong, stronger perhaps than that of the Irish Banshee. However, like the Irish Banshee, the KEENAK also presages death.

Now, the Scottish BEAN NYE (BEN N-I-G-H-E) is something different altogether. The “ben” in this word also means “woman”, but the NYE refers to -- you probably guessed it already -- washing. John Gregorson Campbell, in his book Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, tells us that the BEN NYE bean nighe is seen

“In lonely places, beside a pool or stream, washing the linen of those soon to die, and folding and beating it with her hands on a stone in the middle of the water. She is known as the BAN NYE bean-nighe or washing woman; and her being seen is a sure sign that death is near.”

Now, get a load of this. It’s said that the BEN NYE has long, pendulous breasts. They’re so long, in fact, that they dangle in the water when she bends over to wash, so she throws them over her shoulders. If you see her, you can catch one of these breasts and -- hang with me -- suckle on it, and, according to Campbell, “call her to witness that she is your nursing mother or foster mother.” She will then communicate “whatever knowledge he desires” or, in many stories, simply grant you wishes. There are stories going all the way back to early Scottish literature of the bean nighe granting wishes.

Last but certainly not least, is Wales. As a Celtic nation, Wales is host to its own unique folklore. However, as a Celtic nation, it also shares many creatures and motifs with places like Ireland and Scotland. Wales is home to the Banshee-like Cyhyraeth.

Elias Owen was a Welsh cleric and antiquarian, and in his 1896 book Welsh Folklore, he talks about the Cyhyraeth, which is not dissimilar creature from the Scottish keenak. Like the keenak, the cyhyraeth is only a sound, described as

plaintive, yet loud and terrible. It made the hair stand on end and the blood become cold; and a whole neighbourhood became depressed whenever the awful sound was heard. It was unlike all other voices, and it could not be mistaken. It took in its course the way the funeral procession was to go, starting from the house of the dead, and ending in the churchyard where the deceased was to be buried. It was supposed to announce a death the morning before it occurred, or, at most, a few days before.

But I’ve saved the best for last for you, because in my opinion, the coup de grace of Welsh supernatural death messengers is the Gwrach y Rhibyn or Hag of the Mist. In Wirt Sikes’s book British Goblins, the crowning distinction of the Gwrach is its “prodigious ugliness.”

The spectre is a hideous being with dishevelled hair, long black teeth, long, lank, withered arms, leathern wings, and a cadaverous appearance. In the stillness of night it comes and flaps its wings against the window, uttering at the same time a blood-curdling howl, and calling by name on the person who is to die. ... The effect of its shriek or howl is indescribably terrific, and its sight blasting to the eyes of the beholder.

The Gwrach y Rhibyn is like all of the previous death messengers bound up into one, plus a bit of vampire. Though she mostly appears as a hag, and is thus referred to with a feminine pronoun, according to Sykes the Gwrach “defies all rules by being a female which at times sees fit to be male.” See, the Gwrach is not always seen and heard at the house of the dying -- sometimes it’s out and about, in the mist of a mountain, at a crossroads, or splashing in a stream or pond. If the Gwrach takes the form of a male, it will call for its wife, and if seen as a woman, it will call for its children or husband. This is meant to be a trick and according to Sikes, there’s a story of a man who encountered the Gwrach on the road one night and, thinking it was a woman, made

wicked and improper overtures to it, with the result of having his soul nearly frightened out of his body in the horror of discovering his mistake. As he emphatically exclaimed, ‘Och, Dduw! it was the Gwrach y Rhibyn, and not a woman at all.’

#folklore #irish mythology #mytholog #celtic mythology #irish #irish history #banshee #cryptid #legend #lore #podcast

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