Banshee

Origin and myth

The banshee - in Irish "bean sidhe", the woman of the fairy mounds - is a death messenger from Gaelic folklore. Her cry, heard at night near a house, means that someone of the family will soon die. She does not cause the death and does not attack; she mourns in advance. Mentions of a wailing fairy woman go back to early medieval Irish literature, and later the banshee attached herself to specific noble families, following them even into exile.

The Scottish Highlands have a parallel figure, the "bean nighe" or washer at the ford, a spectral woman seen at a stream washing the bloodstained clothes of those about to die. All grow from the ancient Celtic custom of keening - ritual lament by women at a wake - projected onto the supernatural.

Descriptions vary by region. In some accounts the banshee is a beautiful young woman in white with long streaming hair; in others a tiny crone, or a tall figure in grey with eyes red from centuries of weeping. She may be seen combing her hair with a silver comb, and superstition warns never to pick up a comb found in the road.

Appearance

The most sculptable banshee combines the traditions: a tall, thin woman with proportions slightly elongated beyond the human, wrapped in a long shroud or hooded cloak that trails and dissolves into mist at the ground. Hair is the signature element - unbound, streaming back or upward as though in a wind, longer than the figure is tall. The face is gaunt and grief-stricken rather than monstrous, mouth open in a cry, eyes deep-set and dark.

The body is translucent in the myths, which a sculptor can suggest by shaping the lower half as trailing drapery with no feet, the hem breaking into ragged strands. Hands are long and thin, pressed to the face or holding the comb. Colours are white, grey and pale green; there is no armour, weapon or jewellery. The silhouette should read as a single vertical sweep of cloth and hair.

In modern fantasy

The banshee appears in Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder as an undead spirit whose wail can kill, in Warhammer and many video games as a screaming ghost, and in films and series as a harbinger of doom. Modern fantasy often makes her actively hostile, unlike the folklore mourner. Both interpretations are open to a sculptor working from the general archetype, provided no franchise's specific design is copied.

3D printing notes

The banshee is one of the best candidates in the bestiary for translucent resin. Printed in clear or lightly tinted resin, the flowing drapery genuinely looks spectral. At 28-32 mm, standard grey resin is fine; the important thing is that hair and drapery are sculpted as connected masses rather than separate strands, or they will snap off during support removal.

This is a poor subject for FDM at small scale. At 75 mm and above, FDM works if the sculpt is designed for it: a hooded, downward-flowing cloak is essentially a cone and prints without supports. Streaming, upward hair needs supports on the underside; tilt the model back so they land on the rear of the hair, which no one sees.

The banshee has no feet, which is a gift for the base: the drapery simply widens into a pool of mist that becomes the base itself. For a 150 mm display piece, print the figure hollow in clear resin, leave the base open underneath, and drop in an LED - or print an opaque upper body in grey resin for paintability and a clear lower drapery for the glow.

Painting and display

For an opaque print, base in a cool mid-grey, then work upward through pale grey-green to almost white on the highest folds and the hair. Glaze the recesses with thin teal to suggest spectral light. Keep the face slightly darker than the hair so the eyes and open mouth read. For a clear resin print, do the opposite: paint only the face, hands and deepest folds with thin glazes and leave most of the resin bare so light passes through.

Base ideas: a moonlit moor with standing stones, the gate of an old house, or a stream bank with washed cloth on the rocks for the Scottish version. A cool white or pale green LED beneath a clear print looks superb in a dim room.

Related creatures

The banshee belongs to the same family of death-heralds as the Norse Valkyrie, who chooses rather than mourns. Among the undead, the Vampire and the Lich are the corporeal dead who refuse to leave, where the banshee is a spirit that never lived as one of us.

For a banshee in glowing translucent resin or a painted tabletop spirit, ask Fantasy Lab 3D for a custom print.