Les Banshees irlandaises et le monde souterrain des Tuatha De Danann
IRISH BANSHEES AND TUATHA DE DANANNS’ UNDERWORLD

Summary/Abstract: In Irish and in Scottish folklore, banshees are spirits or fairies that are omens of death and that wail and lament people about to die. In Christian mythology they are associated with demons and magic. However, the name, bean sidhe, women of the side (or women of the fairy mounds), suggests a pre-Christian origin, going back to pagan, Celtic mythology. The sidhe and the cairns, inherited by the Indo-European Gaels from the Neolithic civilization of the megaliths, are gates and portals to the Otherworld, inhabited by the magical people Tuatha De Danann. Mythical divinities of prehistoric Ireland, these “sons of Danu” are daimonic ancestors of the Gaelic people. Their women and daughters, seen as fairies, are land divinities or moiras. Their appearance, whether terrifying, ugly and old, or young, charming and convivial, depends on the quality of the hero who, be they of good or ill omen, has to engage in dealings with them.

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