Can Banshees attack people and how?

Answer 1

In most stories, banshees are fairy spirits. The original spelling varies, such as bean shee, bean shith, and baoin sidhe. Most translate the phrase as woman of the mounds. Mounds in fairy lore were where fairy kingdoms could be found, especially if topped by oak, yew, ash, and especially rowan trees.

Descriptions of banshees vary, but typically, to see them is an omen of death. They are typically seen washing laundry at a river, trying to remove bloodstains of the fallen. To hear the wail of a banshee is supposed to be fatal to the listener.

Some describe the banshee as looking elven, with webbed feet, betraying their fairy origin. Others say they appear as beautiful elven women. A few later stories depict the banshee as the ghost of a woman who died either in childbirth, or from a great wrong committed by someone in the family who sees her.

One story says to avoid hearing the death wail, one needs to approach the banshee quickly, suck her breast and then claim to be a lost child. In Celtic and other traditions, kinslaying, that is, causing the death of someone related to you, was considered a very serious crime, and could result in being cursed and dying really horribly, and might even cause you to become a ghost. To avoid killing the mortal, the banshee would then treat that person well, and might even grant a magical gift to their "lost child."

The role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons describes banshees as undead evil female elf spirits, but that is false. Seeing portents and omens are a large part of Celtic tradition (Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Manx or from the Isle of Man). Another popular depiction of a banshee, though quite old now, is the Disney movie, "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." Wikipedia also has entries on this topic, as do many sites devoted to Celtic traditions and folklore. Kathryn Briggs was one of the foremost folklore researchers of recent times, and going to a library to find one of books on fairies is sure to be rewarding.

Answer 2

In folklore, banshees are usually seen as harbingers of death rather than aggressive attackers. They are spirits believed to wail and keen around a house to foretell a death in the family. They are more associated with warning of impending doom rather than causing harm directly.