The Bean Sí's Comb (Banshee): Why You Should Never Pick One Up
Are you familiar with the folklore around the Bean Sí's comb?
I came across this particular piece of banshee folklore a few years ago and it inspired my latest drawing.
In a nutshell, if you find a comb lying on the ground, don't pick it up. It might belong to the Bean Sí. And you really don't want the consequences of her coming after you to get it.
Fág ansin é, leave it there.
Who is the Bean Sí?
You probably already know who the Bean Sí is. The banshee. The woman whose cry means someone you know is going to die.
Her name in Irish means "woman of the Sí," the Sí, sometimes written as Sidhe, being the otherfolk or the faeries. But they don't like being called faeries, so it's best to call them the good folk.
She's not evil exactly. She's a messenger. A herald of death rather than a cause of it. This is why people are scared of her.
She can be young or old but she always has long flowing hair. And she is very often seen combing it.
The Bean Sí isn't part of Irish mythology in the way you might think. She doesn't appear in the great sagas like the Ulster Cycle or the stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She belongs to Irish folklore, the beliefs and stories that were part of everyday life rather than the epic tales of gods and heroes.
Which brings us to the comb…
The Bean Sí's Comb in Irish Folklore: Stories from Dúchas
So I found loads of stories about this on Dúchas.ie. If you haven't come across it before, it's an archive of Irish folklore collected by schoolchildren in the 1930s. They were sent home to write down the stories their parents, grandparents and older neighbours had. It's a wonderful resource and I keep falling down rabbit holes in it.
There are many accounts in there about the Bean Sí's (or Banshee’s) comb and a lot of them follow a similar pattern.
Someone comes across a comb, maybe on a ditch, beside a stream or left behind after a sighting, and they bring it home.
That night, she comes crying at the window for it.
One account tells of a man who spotted her combing her long golden hair near where he lived. When she saw him, she disappeared, leaving a white comb behind on the ditch.
He brought it home and left it on the dresser.
That night at midnight she came crying for it.
Another tells of a man who just snatched it straight from her hands.
Very brave but a very stupid thing to do.
And then there's the story of two men who took it together and ran home with her chasing after them.
Story of a Bean Sí from Dúchas.ie Schools’ Collection
The Iron Tongs
In two of these accounts the person ends up going to the priest to ask what to do. I find this really interesting in itself. It shows you how Catholic practice and older folk belief just existed together in everyday life rather than being in conflict with each other.
And the priest's advice is always the same - use tongs.
This is because iron was believed to give protection from the Sí, the otherfolk. So the person would take the comb in the tongs and pass it out through the window to her.
She'd take it, but the tongs always came back damaged. Twisted to bits in one story. The top broken clean off in another.
Those damaged tongs were a reminder of how close it had come to being so much worse.
What Can Happen If You Take It
The story of the two men, seen in the text from Dúchas.ie above, has an extra bit to it that clearly spells out the kind of danger that you risk when messing with the Bean Sí.
Even after she got her comb back, the next morning their seven pigs were dead. Seven fine fat pigs they were bringing to the fair were all gone.
And all the feathers were off the hens. So they had to make the hens' little jackets. That bit did make me smile.
She got her comb back and she still wasn't done with them. I love how specific it is. You can just picture whoever told that story absolutely delighting in that detail.
Why Irish Folklore Feels So Real
I love that these Irish folklore stories don't sound like some far-off fairy tale. They sound 'real'.
They sound like something that happened to someone down the road. The white comb on the dresser. The midnight crying at the window. The bent tongs. All very normal… odd, but normal.
I think people told these stories because they genuinely believed them and thought they needed to be passed on. But I'd say they were also just great fun to tell when everyone was gathered together.
I remember many a party or family gathering where we'd start telling ghost stories and strange happenings we'd heard about. It was great fun, albeit scary too!
So after all of this, would you pick up a stray comb? I know I wouldn't.
The stories in this post come from Dúchas.ie, a wonderful archive of Irish folklore collected by schoolchildren in the 1930s. If you ever want to fall down a rabbit hole, it's well worth a visit. And it’s very easy to search too.
This Bean Sí comb drawing was inspired by reading these kinds of stories. I'd been mulling it over for a good while before I started it. If you look closely there's quite a bit hidden in it. I'll tell you all about that in a separate post.
And if you enjoy this kind of thing, you might like my free Fite Fuaite bundle. It's a collection of printable Irish art I put together for people who love this kind of thing: an art print, bookmarks with Irish phrases, and a colouring page, all free when you join my newsletter.
You can grab it here: subscribepage.io/failte
