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The Corpse Candle - British Goblins CT021

Celtic Tomes

Release Date: 10/18/2017

Cult Accessories CT054 show art Cult Accessories CT054

Celtic Tomes

This chapter covers Temples, Altars, Images, Symbols, and the Cult of Weapons of the Ancient Celts.

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Celtic Tomes

The Celtic year was not at first regulated by the solstices and equinoxes, but by some method connected with agriculture or with the seasons.

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Celtic Tomes

The Irish geis, pl. geasa, which may be rendered by Tabu, had two senses. It meant something which must not be done for fear of disastrous consequences, and also an obligation to do something commanded by another.

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Celtic Tomes

The Celts offered human victims on the principle of a life for a life, or to propitiate the gods, or in order to divine the future from the entrails of the victim. We shall examine the Celtic custom of human sacrifice from these points of view first.

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Celtic Tomes

The Celts may have possessed the Heaven and Earth myth, but all trace of it has perished. There are, however, remnants of myths showing how the sky is supported by trees, a mountain, or by pillars.

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Celtic Tomes

Animal worship pure and simple had declined among the Celts of historic times, and animals were now regarded mainly as symbols or attributes of divinities.

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Celtic Tomes

The Celts had their own cult of trees, but they adopted local cults. This chapter also details how the Celts made their sacred places in dark groves, the trees being hung with offerings or with the heads of victims.

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Celtic Tomes

Among the Celts the testimony of contemporary witnesses, inscriptions, votive offerings, and survivals, shows the importance of the cult of waters and of water divinities. This chapter also details the many fairies and folklore creatures associated with water.

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Celtic Tomes

McCulloch talks about animism, where everything was a person and the greater objects of nature were worshiped for themselves alone.

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Celtic Tomes

The custom of burying grave-goods with the dead and other grave customs is the subject of this chapter. McCulloch also talks about the role of fairies and the festival of Samhain.

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More Episodes

The Corpse Candle

British Goblins: Welsh Folk Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1881)

Book 2 Chapter 9

by

Wirt Sikes

Corpse Candles are ghostly candle lights that allow us to see through the veil, or seen as an omen of forthcoming doom. How the candle lights are not tricked and how they can be seen coming from the mouth of a corpse. Sikes tells us the story of Morris Griffith and the 'Light before the Burying' as well as how Corpse Candle lights can be seen on the surface of water and streams. He finishes off by discussing the origins of the phantoms of the spirit world which ends the last chapter of Book 2 of British Goblins.

  • The Corpse Candle 0:55
  • Its Peculiarities 2:12
  • The Woman of Caerau 4:05
  • Grasping a Corpse Candle 6:26
  • The Crwys Candle 7:24
  • Lights issuing from the Mouth 8:39
  • Jesting with the Canwyll Corph 9:48
  • The Candle at Pontfaen 12:18
  • The Three Candles at Golden Grove 15:21
  • Origin of Death-Portents in Wales 16:02
  • Degree of Belief prevalent at the Present Day 17:28
  • Origin of Spirits in General 19:34
  • The Supernatural 19:56
  • The Question of a Future Life 21:30

 

Names Used in this Section

All proper names, and words in Welsh or other languages, are recorded here in the show-notes and we've done our best to get the pronunciations right for you.


Caerau
Crwys Candle
Canwyll Corph
Pontfaen
Aneurin
Llandovery
Cymry
Flambeau
Lledrith
Cardiff
Marquis of Bute
John Richards
'O wi! O Dduw!'
Jenny fach, Hach
Thomas Mathews
Liber Landavenis
St. Samson
St. Bubricius
William John
Lanboydi
Carmarthenshire
Morris Griffith
Pembrokeshire
Tre-Davydd
Llanferch-Llawddog
Mr. Higgon
Joshua Coslet
Heol Bwlch y Gwynt (Windgap Lane)
Llandilo Fawr parish
Prophet Jones
Golden Grove
Earl of Cawdor
St. David
King Arthur
Pelagian
Gwrach y Rhibyn
Cyhyraeth
Cambridgeshire
Evansville, Indiana
Feast
Tolaeth
Disraeli
Lothair
Plato
Aristotle

 

British Goblins can be found on Archive.org

You can find out more about Wirt Sikes on Wikipedia.

Try the Celtic Myth Podshow for the Tales and Stories of the Ancient Celts at http://celticmythpodshow.com or on Apple Podcasts.

Our theme music is "Gander at the Pratie Hole" by Sláinte.  You can find their music on the Free Music Archive.