The Legend of the Banshee

The Project

This project has been created for the Laboratory exam of the Master's Degree of Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge, held by Porf. Francesca Tomasi. It's aim is to experiment with 2 or 3 topics that were discussed during class, and to present an original work.

The project creates a sort of virtual tour exploring Ireland through the myth of the Banshee, one of the oldest and most known Celtic Myths. The project involved the consultation of some historical and philological sources, the creation of a small animation model with Blender and a sotrytelling section.

WHAT'S INSIDE THIS PROJECT

History and documentation

The first step was to retrieve some reliable information on the subject. For that, I consulted many diffrent sources, which helped me to paint an accurate picture of the myth before reshaping it in the storytelling. This section is useful to dive deep into the Myth and explore its origins and the meaning behind it.

Like any other ancient myth, the myth of the Banshee has mainly passed orally though the centuries, and thus presents great variance. The various details and peculiarities that were added to the description of the Banshee’s clothes, or of her hairs, and of the sounds she made, contribute to create the perfect ground for this myth to be exported and exploited by a great variety of interpreters, even the most modern ones. During the years, this myth has survived and evolved to stand for omens of death, to enchanted destiny fairy, to vengeful brides. The Banshee has many faces, and many screams, and that is her beauty.

The Myth and its origins

Storytelling with Twine

In this section, I created a short immmersive storytelling experience using twine. The story elaborates on the myth of the Banshee, taking the user through an emotional journey in Ireland, where she can empathize with the main character and learn about Irish folklore.

The story is written in second person, to give the reader a much deeper sense of immersion. I have written this story with the intention of letting the reader personally relate with the myth of the Banshee, setting the narrative in a contemporary scenario and adapting the part of the myth I was interested in. While the Digital history section is thought to be as accurate as possible, historically and philologically speaking, in this section I took some liberties and developed a much more personal interpretation of the myth. The story is set in Ireland, where the protagonist undertake a road trip journey which helps her come out of her toxic romantic relationship and heal herself. The myth of the banshee is used as a narrative escamotage to start the healing process, where the protagonist frees herself from fear and discovers her power.

Immersive storytelling

Blender Tower animation

For this section, I created a simple animation of a typical Irish countryside landscape: An old tower on a green hill. This animation is embedded in the Twine storytelling section, but can be consulted as a standalone here