The Eerie Legend of the Corpse Candle

Share a story of the corpse candle around a dark summer night’s campfire. Just the name can stir up the heebie-jeebies in the uninitiated.

All of the corpse candle’s dozens of variations, most originating from 18th century Wales and Ireland, were based on the belief that these mysterious luminaries portended death. The appearance of these small faint lights was often said to be seen flickering just above the ground near the home of a person fated to die, or along the “corpse road” a funeral procession would soon take to the church. The lights might also be spotted hovering over the place where a grave would be dug. In some cases, the person who saw the light would soon face death.

In rural Wales, before industrialization, legends and folk tales quickly spread about the strange lights. People who saw them would testify the corpse candles invariably traveled in a straight line, taking the direct route from the home of the person who died to the burial site. The glow reportedly traversed over mountains, valleys, even rivers and marsh land, never bothering with traditional roadways. Occasionally a corpse candle was said to be followed by a hollow skull.

Some accounts went as far as to say that color and size differences between corpse candles indicated the gender and age of the person about to die. A large red light targeted an adult male, while a large white light suggested an adult woman. Small blue lights pointed out a young child or youth, more intensely blue – an infant. And if two white orbs of varying sizes were seen floating side by side, it was anticipated that a woman and her unborn child were to die.

In one oft-told tale, three men were tossed out of their small boat and drowned on the river near Llandeilo, a small town in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Afterwards, news spread that, just a few days before, the passengers on a horse-drawn coach traveling the local road had seen three corpse candles hovering above the water at the exact spot where the three men drowned.

According to Welsh writer and broadcaster Phil Carradice, most historians from the 19th century seemed content with simply relating stories of the corpse candle without trying to account for the phenomenon. One exception, however, was James Motley, whose account of a corpse candle sightings is quoted in Richard Holland’s book “South Wales Ghost Stories.” In his 1848 account, Motley wrote that the lights —

“seem to be of electrical origin, when the ears of the traveler’s horse, the extremity of his whip, his spurs or any other projecting points appear tipped with pencils of light… the toes of the rider’s boots and even the tufts of hair at the fetlocks of his horse appeared to burn with a steady blue light, and on the hand being extended, every finger immediately became tipped with fire.”

In retrospect, Motley had described an electrical phenomenon of some sort on his trip across the mountains. Notably, he survived the occurrence of this natural light phenomena, with no great expectation or actualization of oncoming doom to himself or others.

In post-industrial Wales, corpse candle tales began to die out except among the most isolated and superstitious peoples, replaced by logical explanations for the appearance of the intriguing lights. Similar to Motley’s description, lightning or static electricity could explain the phenomena, as well as the light from a setting sun reflecting on water or stones. Other natural occurrences that very well could contribute to the preternatural sights include sightings of barn owls, which have a luminescence (thought to be due to fungal bioluminescence or “foxfire”). Likewise, it’s possible those who have observed corpse candles may have been witnessing the effect of methane gases produced by decomposing organic material found in swamps, marshlands, and bogs — facts best excluded from a campfire retelling of the corpse candle legend.