Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
There was not only no tomb bearing the name of Colonel ----, but
there was no tomb at all corresponding in appearance with the one I
had seen. Unwilling to credit the evidence of my own senses, I went
to the cottage of an old acquaintance of my boyhood, who lived outside
of the Churchyard gate, and asked her to show the place where Colonel
---- lay buried. She took me to the spot, which was a green mound,
undistinguished in appearance from the surrounding graves.
Nearly two years subsequent to this occurrence, surviving relatives
erected an Altar-tomb, with a railing round it, over the last resting
place of Colonel ----, and it was, as nearly as I could remember, an
exact reproducing of the memorial of my day-dream. Verily, 'there are
more things in Heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'
THE CORPSE CANDLE.
The "Canwyll Corph" or Corpse Candle, was another death portent often
seen in West and Mid-Wales, about a generation or two ago. Indeed there
are several persons still alive who have told me that they had seen
this mysterious light themselves. It was a pale light moving slowly
and hovering a short distance from the ground. Some could tell whether
a man, woman, or child was to die. The death of a man was indicated
by a red light, that of a woman by a white light, and a faint light
before the death of a child. If two lights were seen together, two
deaths were to take place in the same house at the same time. If the
light was seen early in the evening a death was to take place soon,
but if late it was not to take place for some time.
Like the "toili" or phantom funeral, the Corpse Candle also was seen
going along from the house--where death was to take place--to the
churchyard along the same route which a funeral was to take, whether
road or path.
Sometimes the light was seen carried by a spectral representation of
the dying person, and it was even thought possible to recognise that
person by standing near the water watching the apparition crossing
over it. Another way of recognising the dying person was to stand
at the church porch watching the candle entering the building. There
are some instances of people seeing their own corpse candle.
There was an old woman living at Llanddarog, in Carmarthenshire, named
Margaret Thomas, who always saw every light or Corpse Candle going to
the churchyard before every funeral. She only died about 27 years ago.
Another old woman who also saw the same death portents was Mary Thomas,
Dafy, who lived close to Llandyssul churchyard in Cardiganshire. She
was buried sixty years ago.
There is a tradition that St. David, by prayer, obtained the Corpse
Candle as a sign to the living of the reality of another world, and
according to some people it was confined to the Diocese of St. David's,
but the fact of it is there are tales of corpse candles all over Wales.
A CORPSE CANDLE SEEN AT SILIAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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