Wight

For other uses, see Wight (disambiguation).
Wight
Grouping Legendary creature
Sub grouping Undead
Similar creatures Ghost
Country England

Wight is a Middle English word, from Old English wiht, and used to describe a creature or living sentient being. It is akin to Old High German wiht, meaning a creature or thing.[1][2]

In its original usage the word wight described a living human being.[3] More recently, the word has been used within the fantasy genre of literature to describe undead or wraith-like creatures: corpses with a part of their decayed soul still in residence, often draining life from their victims. Notable examples of this include the undead Barrow-wights from the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and the level-draining wights of Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

The English word is cognate with other Germanic words such as Dutch wicht, German Wicht, Old Norse vættr, Norwegian vette, Swedish vätte, Danish vætte. Modern High German Wicht means 'small person, dwarf,' and also 'unpleasant person,' while in Low German the word means 'girl.' The Wicht, Wichtel or Wichtelchen of Germanic folklore is most commonly translated into English as an imp, a small, shy character who often does helpful domestic chores when nobody is looking (as in the Tale of the Cobbler's Shoes). These terms are not related to the English word witch. In Scandinavian folklore, too, wights are elusive creatures not unlike elves, capable of mischief as well as of help. In German and Dutch language the word Bösewicht or Booswicht points out an evildoer, "Bösewichte haben keine Lieder" means they (do not make merry) are unpleasant folk.

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin, wights are a category of undead creatures, usually humans or animals who have been killed and turned by the Others (aka the White Walkers) or by other wights. They have pallid skin, black hands, and fierce ice-blue eyes, and are described as being virtually impervious to all forms of attack, even forcibly amputated limbs are described as having sentience. Their only known weakness is fire; unlike the White Walkers themselves who are vulnerable to obsidian and possibly Valyrian steel.

In the games Heroes of Might and Magic III and V, Wights are creature in the Necropolis faction.

Used by Aristotle

Far best is he who knows all things himself;
Good, he that hearkens when men counsel right;
But he who neither knows, nor lays to heart
Another's wisdom, is a useless wight.[4]

Examples of the word used in classic English literature and poetry

  • Geoffrey Chaucer (1368-1372), The Reeve's Tale, line 4236, The Riverside Chaucer (3rd edition):
    "For [Aleyn] had swonken al the longe nyght, And seyde, 'Fare weel, Malyne, sweete wight!'"
  • Edmund Spenser (1590–1596), The Faerie Queene, I.i.6.8-9:
    "That every wight to shrowd it did constrain,
    And this fair couple eke to shroud themselues were fain."
  • Church of Scotland (1650), Scots Metrical Psalter, Psalm 18 verse xxvi:
    "froward thou kythst unto the froward wight..."
  • Washington Irving (1820), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
    "In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity."
  • George Gordon, Lord Byron (1812-1816), Childe Harolds' Pilgrimage Canto 1, verse :
    Ah, me! in sooth he was a shamles wight ..." .
  • Edwin Greenslade Murphy (1926), "Wot Won the Larst?", in Dryblower’s Verses:
    From weedy little wights whose cigarettes
    Recall a badly-disinfected drain
  • Boris Sagal (1971), The Omega Man:
    The 'nocturnals' of Sagal's 1971 motion picture The Omega Man could be considered a filmic example of the wight.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Merriam-Webster, 1974.
  2. ↑ T. F. HOAD. "wight." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-wight.html
  3. ↑ Wight, in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.
  4. ↑ Nicomedian Ethics Book One
  5. ↑ Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson. Dungeons & Dragons (3-Volume Set) (TSR, 1974)