Wights

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File:Wight.jpg

Wight by Liz Danforth

Wights was a name used for undead beings, especially as a short form for the Barrow-wights.

Etymology

wight is an Old English word for "human being" or "person".

Due to its obscurity, there is a popular misunderstanding that "wight" means "spirit" or "ghost"; however it is cognate to modern German "Wicht", meaning "unpleasant person".

Due to the misunderstanding, many works of fantasy fiction, role-playing games and computer and video games use the term as the name of spectral creatures very similar to Tolkien's Barrow-wights; DnD has created a monster called "Wight", a kind of undead; the new terminology is also exemplified in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, book IV A Feast for Crows (2005). ("Who has been beyond the wall of death to see? Only the wights, and we know what they are like. We know.")

See also

• Talk:Undead#Wights

External links

• Wight at Wikipedia