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POPSCruel Women From Celtic Mythology by A. Cotterell: "The enchanted forest of Arthurian legend was alive with beguiling fairy maidens, who often taunted errant knights. One such, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, was a banshee who attracted mortal lovers for her own amusement. inspiring them with a hopeless infatuation and then leaving them bereft of will of purpose until they withered on the lake, 'alone and palely loitering.' As the languishing knight here sleeps, he dreams of the pale kings and warriors whom La Belle Dame 'holds in thrall' (ref. to last image, same site)
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POPSThe wail of the Banshee The stories told to me sometimes recounted that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a specific murdered woman, or a woman who died in childbirth would or could become a Banshee if she did not receive a good Catholic burial.