Melissa Barker-Simpson

A to Z Blogging Challege – Day 2: Fantasy Squad – Banshees

BOkay, so we’re only on day two and we’ve hit a slight snag. My brain keeps yelling at me that this is B – a friendly letter, one which should conjure a bounty of beautiful beasts. And there are indeed creatures we could discuss, Brownies for example, and I’m not talking Girl Guides, but few are represented within media. If you’re going to promise a theme, you’ve got to deliver. Am I right? So I settled on Banshee, despite the slim pickings, and decided we’d create our own fictional character to add to the Fantasy Squad.

First, let’s deal with Banshees in film and television. Cry of the Banshee, a 1970s horror staring Vincent Price, might seem to be a film about, well, banshees, but no banshee actually appears in the movie (though there was a fair amount of screeching, I suspect). I found no other references to these fantastical creatures in film until 2008, and the release of ‘Banshee!!!’  why the overkill on exclamation marks I’m not sure (perhaps its symbolic!). This particular beast had the ability to generate hallucinations through sound waves, a handy trick to lure and kill victims. Scream of the Banshee (2011) involved a creature who was able to kill with its bone-splitting scream. Hmm…

Created by belle333black

The only banshee I can actually talk about though, is Lydia Martin from Teen Wolf. I really like the character because she’s complex and interesting. She hides her genius behind sharp claws (metaphorically speaking), and can sense when someone is about to die through a frequency only she can hear – not just your average teenager then.

I know there are novels featuring banshees, but I’m not familiar with them, so unless you’ve got recommendations (which you can leave in the comments), we’ll move on to the creature creation!

So, according to Irish mythology, a banshee is a fairy whose scream was an omen of death. I like the fairy idea, so we could keep that. But we need to give her a special gift. Some legends involve song, and as a power the voice can be pretty hypnotic. She might be a harbinger of death, but what if she could prevent it? What does she look like – fiery hair and pale skin, or sun kissed complexion and dark locks? Should she have wings? Should this banshee be female? Why not a male? I’ll ponder on your suggestions and create a kick-ass banshee for the team!

Thanks for stopping by

Mel

31 responses to “A to Z Blogging Challege – Day 2: Fantasy Squad – Banshees”

  1. The Banshee, often portrayed as a sad creature. Not used enough in fiction I think. One of the unexploited paranormal entities. I love Lydia – she started off as somewhat annoying, but her character grew so well. Styles is my fav character and the way they interact is great :). I really must get round to watching the latest season – it’s all on my hard drive.
    My sister has written a book with a Banshee as the main character – in fact it’s free to members of our mailing list if you’re interested 🙂 Curse of A Banshee
    Tasha
    Tasha’s Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  2. When I think of “banshee”, I always think female and because of the Irish mythology, I picture a small, red-headed fairy type thing. You are right though, why couldn’t there be a male banshee. The only time I’ve dealt with banshee was in a King’s Quest computer game. They lived on an island. They would sing as I climbed ashore and then kill me. Frustrating creatures.

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    • Ouch! Lull you into a false sense of security and then – wham! In my fantasy novel I have sirens, so maybe I could play with that a little and incorporate a banshee. It should be fun 😀

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  4. I’m vaguely familiar with the idea of a banshee, largely from passing mentions of the examples you gave, but I don’t think I have any firsthand experience of one in any books, movies, etc.

    It’s a shame that something that sounds so interesting in terms of mythology hasn’t been explored as much as, let’s say, their vampire and werewolf cousins.

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  5. My first thought when I hear Banshee is the X-Men character, but that’s the way my mind dorks. Glad to learn more here 🙂

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  7. The only thing I’ve ever read/consumed about banshees is in the Fallen Star series. It’s a YA PNR, but I actually liked it for some reason hahah. I’m actually pretty intrigued by the idea of banshees as something more than just women screaming their heads off.

    Reply

    • Some interpretations are terrifying! And I’m totally with you – they definitely need more love 😉 Thanks for stopping by. I’d actually forgotten about X-Men and I’m still hanging my head in shame for not including Banshee yesterday!

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  10. Interesting. I always thought banshees were ghosts! Guess I was wrong. Regardless, this is a clearly underused character. Everyone go write a banshee book, right now! 😉

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    • The ghost myth rings a bell! You’re right though, we do need more banshee stories. Which reminds me – I’m late announcing this month’s writing prompt. A banshee theme…now there’s an idea!

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  12. I don’t know why, I really like the Banshee as a mythical creature. Maybe because I first heard about her in a book I really liked. Sadly. it was a lot of years ago and I don’t remember the title of the book 😦

    Seems like a shame that she has such a poor repprentation in medias.

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