Caoineag

nature_spirit intermediate Scottish single tradition · 2

Caoineag is a death spirit in Scottish tradition, a particular type of Banshee or Bean Sídhe. She appears to foretell death through her wailing.

↻ synthesized from 2 sources

When

First attested
500 CE
Attested period
500 – 2020
Historical notes
Scottish Gaelic tradition, variant of broader Celtic banshee lore.

Relationships

aspect of
Banshee, Bean Sídhe
cognate of
bean-nighe

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Caoineag (Scottish) – Death spirit (a particular type of Banshee/Bean Sídhe)”

#4193 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“The caoineag (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈkʰɯːɲak]) is a female spirit in Scottish folklore and a type of Highland banshee, her name meaning "weeper". She is normally invisible and foretells death in her clan by lamenting in the night at a waterfall, stream or Loch, or in a glen or on a mountainside”

#5952 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001