Varla Ventura - Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night: Facts, Fictions, and First-Hand Accounts

First published in 2013 by Weiser Books, an imprint of

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Copyright 2013 by Weiser Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ventura, Varla, 1958

Banshees, werewolves, vampires, and other creatures of the night : facts, fictions, and first-hand accounts / Varla Ventura.

pages cm.

ISBN 978-1-57863-547-4 (pbk.)

1. Werewolves. 2. Vampires. 3. Banshees. I. Title.

GR830.W4V46 2013

398.2454dc23

2013022148

Cover design by Jim Warner

Interior by Dutton & Sherman Design

Typeset in Adobe Caslon text and Historical FellType display

Printed in Canada

MP

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

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For Wendy the Witch

5. The Banshee According to Yeats: Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by
W.B. Yeats

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

RALPH HODGSON

Many a lonesome night has been spent listening with trepidation to the howl of the wind. In spite of our rational minds and our sound judgment, there is nearly alwaysespecially in that passage of time between midnight and three in the morninga sound that simply cannot be explained away. Oh, but we try. To the rattle of the windowpane and the thump upon the porch we say, 'Tis only the wind! To the squeak of the floorboards and the bang on the roof we declare, This old house is settling! But deep inside, and we have all likely felt it at one time or another, there is an uneasy understanding that something very supernatural is afoot.

Ever since we could build huts or lay straw in caves, we've lived in awe and fear of the world outside the circle of the campfire's light. While some legends were born to keep children close or to explain not-yet-known diseases, others have no known origin, their stories as old and immortal as a vampire's glint.

About a year ago, my publisher asked me to start digging around in old volumes of forgotten lore to collect stories about magical creatures and the paranormal. These findings became the blueprint for this book (as well as my book Among the Mermaids). As I jumped from one dusty volume to another, reading ghost stories, vampire tales, and lycanthropic laments, I discovered many connections between the stories. Most of the works I found to be compelling were written around the same timein the late 19th and early 20th centuriesso it is not surprising that they have a certain number of similarities. For example, Elliott O'Donnell, author of several stories in this collection, quotes D.R. McAnally Jr., another author whom I found to be an expert in his field of banshees and ghosts. William Butler Yeats, known today not just as a poet but also a leading expert in Irish folklore, drew heavily upon the works of T. Crofton Croker and William Wirt Sikesboth of whom have found homes throughout this collection. And you will no doubt be as excited as I was to discover the connection between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the first vampire novel published in EnglishJohn William Polidori's The Vampyre, published some seventy years before Bram Stoker's Dracula. Oh yes, and you'll also enjoy a posthumously published story by Stoker himself. And these masters of folklore, amateur anthropologists, and sociologists all had one thing in common: they could not, beyond a shadow of all doubt, declare that the supernatural did not exist. Ultimately, they agree (as do I) that there are creatures out there that simply defy logic.

So as you are settling in with this book, dimming your lights a bit, perhaps stoking the fire, I would encourage you to remember the very good odds that what you are afraid of is likely justified. Is it a branch on the glass, or the claw of the werewolf? A neighboring dog, or a thundering beast that slipped beyond the moonlight at the meadow's edge? Vampires, ghosts, werewolves, bansheesthere are many, many things out there clawing in the night, snarling in the shadows. So lock your door, draw your curtains, and read on! I hope this book brings you terror and delight.

Varla Ventura
San Francisco, 2013

Banshees, whether good or bad, are just as individual as any member of the family they haunt.

ELLIOTT O'DONNELL

One of my favorite bands as a young, surly teen was Siouxsie and the Banshees, whose front woman Siouxsie Sioux was a gothic enchantress who howled like a mythological siren, luring you in with her tales of travel and woe. So when I came upon stories like Elliott O'Donnell's Malevolent Banshees and T. Soul Cages Crofton Croker's banshee legend, I simply had to dust off the old vinyl and paint on some heavy eyeliner so I could have a good ol' fashioned Banshee Bash.

Banshees are among the most feared creatures of the fairy kingdom, and this may be in part to the sympathies they invoke when you hear their wailing. You could easily be lured into the dark of night, hoping to help the pathetic creature who sounds as if she is in mourning. Some tales recount that banshees are the ghosts of women who have died in childbirth; others say they are the restless spirits of unrequited lovers. Most banshees are passed down from generation to generation within a family, though their presence can be brought on at any time.

One thing is certain: not all banshees are created equal. The more common sad and beautiful banshee is not the only type. There is another species of banshee known as the malevolent banshee. This is a banshee that screeches in a different pitch, and who will blow in on the wind and leave your kitchen upended and your heart nearly expired. If you are able to actually survive an encounter with one of these creatures, you will be left with shattered teacups, bulging eyes, and sickened nerves that you may never recover from.

In this first section, I'll share some of my favorite banshee facts and fictions, and perhaps you, too, will find yourself ready to howl, wail, and ultimately cower from the song of the banshee.