A wight is a being or thing. This general meaning is shared by cognate terms in Germanic languages, however the usage of the term varies greatly over time and between regions. In Old English, it could refer to anything in existence, with more specific usages arising in Middle English, perhaps due to the term of similar meaning in Anglo-Norman, creature. The term is widely used in modern fantasy, often to mean specifically a being which is undead.
Modern English "wight" is descended from Middle English : wight or Middle English : wiȝt, from Old English : wiht, from Proto-West Germanic '*wihti' from Proto-Germanic : *wihtiz from Proto-Indo-European: '*wekti' ("cause, sake, thing"), from Proto-Indo-European "*wekʷ-" ("to say, tell"). "Wight" is further cognate with Scots : wicht, German : Wicht, Dutch : Wicht, Gothic : 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃 and Old Norse : vættr, the ancestor of Swedish : vätte, Danish : vætte and Icelandic : vættur. [2] [3] A dialect form in Swedish is vätter, which, similar to the other form, is descended from Old Swedish: vætter. [4]
In Old English, wiht has been variously translated as "wight", "creature" and "being". [6] The term is found in the compound words eall-wihta ("all beings") and á-wiht ("aught", "anything"). [7] [8] Wiht is often used as the subject of riddles, such as riddle 86 from the Exeter Book, in which it has been interpreted as referring to a person selling vegetables, likely garlics. [6] [9] The term is also used to refer to beings such as the dwarf which is the focus of the XCIIIB charm, and the eoten Grendel and the dragon in Beowulf. [1] [10]
The word began to acquire the sense of supernatural or unearthly beings, included in the 8th century Lindisfarne Gospels. [11]
When creature was borrowed from Anglo-Norman around 1300 CE, it was possibly wholly synonymous with Middle English : wight, however over time the words became differentiated by speakers. [12] The exact usage of the term varies between works but it broadly is used in one of five loose categories that blur between themselves:
The term is used to refer to a range of positive beings with supernatural aspects such as saints, Jesus, and his mother, Mary. [14] It has been argued that the term could be used for anything other than the God the Father, as he himself was not created in Christian theology. It has been noted, however, that it is stated in the Man of Law that Daniel in the lion's den was saved by "No wight but God", showing it was possible to use the term to refer to a class of beings that includes both man and the Christian god. It is to be noted though are no extant texts in Middle English that refer to God the Father directly as a wight. [15]
The most common use of the term, however, is to refer to everyday corporeal beings as these are much more represented in normal conversation. Wight is commonly found with adjectives, such as curside, wikkede, or worldly. The phrase "sweet wight" is notable, occurring frequently and often in gendered and romantic contexts. [16]
As with "wight", Old Norse : vættr (pl. vættir) means a being, especially a supernatural being. It occurs in compound nouns such as mein-vættr ("evil wight"), land-vættr ("guardian spirit of a country"), vitta vettr ("witch wight" or "sorceress") and bjargvættr ("helping sprite"). [17] [18] [19]
Wights feature in J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, especially in The Lord of the Rings , and in George R. R. Martin's novel series A Song of Ice and Fire [ citation needed ] [20] and HBO television series Game of Thrones .[ citation needed ] Since its 1974 inclusion in the RPG Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), it has become a recurring form of undead in other fantasy games and mods, such as Vampire: The Masquerade . [21] and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.[ citation needed ]
A similar change of meaning can be seen in the German cognate Wicht, meaning a living human being, generally rather small, poor or miserable man (not woman). The word is somewhat old-fashioned in today's language, but it is still used and readily recognized in everyday speech.[ citation needed ]
The diminutive Wichtel refers to beings in folklore and fantasy, generally small, and often helpful, dwelling in or near human settlements, secretly doing work and helping the humans, somewhat similar to the more specific Heinzelmännchen. Wichtel in this sense is recorded since the Middle Ages. Today, Wichtel is more often used than Wicht.[ citation needed ]
The word wicht can be used to refer, to any woman, often with negative connotations. It is not used to refer to men.[ citation needed ]
Booswicht (literally evil-being) matching 'villain', can be used to describe both men and women.[ citation needed ]
In Danish, the term vætte typically refers to supernatural beings from folklore or a lesser god, such as nisser and dwarfs. They often live either underground or near human homes. [22] Usage of the Norwegian cognate vette is similar. [23] In Swedish, vätte similarly typically refers to supernatural beings, often those that are small and resembling humans. [24]
The Brittoniclanguages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family; the other is Goidelic. It comprises the extant languages Breton, Cornish, and Welsh. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning Ancient Britons as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael.
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries.
Old English, pronounced[ˈeŋɡliʃ]), or Anglo-Saxon, was the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English was replaced for several centuries by Anglo-Norman as the language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during the subsequent period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into what is now known as Middle English in England and Early Scots in Scotland.
Yule is a winter festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples that was incorporated into Christmas during the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples. In present times adherents of some new religious movements celebrate Yule independently of the Christian festival. Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the heathen Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht. The term Yule and cognates are still used in English and the Scandinavian languages as well as in Finnish and Estonian to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season. Furthermore, some present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions.
Æsir or ēse are gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and mythology, the precise meaning of the term "Æsir" is debated, as it can refer to both the gods in general or specifically to one of the main families of gods, in contrast to the Vanir, with whom they waged war, ultimately leading to a joining of the families. The term can further be used to describe local gods that were believed to live in specific features in the landscape such as fells. In the Old English Wið færstice, the Ēse are referred to, along with elves, as harmful beings that could cause a stabbing pain, although exactly how they were conceived of by the author of the text is unclear.
Hel is an afterlife location in Norse mythology and paganism. It is ruled over by a being of the same name, Hel. In late Icelandic sources, varying descriptions of Hel are given and various figures are described as being buried with items that will facilitate their journey to Hel after their death. In the Poetic Edda, Brynhildr's trip to Hel after her death is described and Odin, while alive, also visits Hel upon his horse Sleipnir. In the Prose Edda, Baldr goes to Hel on his death and subsequently Hermóðr uses Sleipnir to attempt to retrieve him.
Frith is a word derived from Old English meaning "peace; protection; safety, security, freedom, refuge".
Wyrd is a concept in Anglo-Saxon culture roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English weird, whose meaning has drifted towards an adjectival use with a more general sense of "supernatural" or "uncanny", or simply "unexpected".
A hörgr or hearg is a type of altar or cult site, possibly consisting of a heap of stones, used in Norse religion, as opposed to a roofed hall used as a hof (temple).
Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germany, Netherlands, and at times other parts of Europe, the beliefs and practices of Germanic paganism varied. Scholars typically assume some degree of continuity between Roman-era beliefs and those found in Norse paganism, as well as between Germanic religion and reconstructed Indo-European religion and post-conversion folklore, though the precise degree and details of this continuity are subjects of debate. Germanic religion was influenced by neighboring cultures, including that of the Celts, the Romans, and, later, by the Christian religion. Very few sources exist that were written by pagan adherents themselves; instead, most were written by outsiders and can thus present problems for reconstructing authentic Germanic beliefs and practices.
Grendel's mother is one of three antagonists in the anonymous Old English poem Beowulf, the other two being Grendel and the dragon. Each antagonist reflects different negative aspects of both the hero Beowulf and the heroic society that the poem is set in. Grendel's mother is introduced in lines 1258b to 1259a as: "Grendles modor/ides, aglæcwif".
Landvættir are spirits of the land in Old Nordic religion, later folk belief and modern Heathenry. They are closely associated with specific locations and their wellbeing is presented as being required for the land they inhabit to be fruitful. In Old Norse sources, they are depicted as being potentially harmful and capable of driving away unwanted individuals and capable of being frightened through human actions such as usage of carved figureheads on ships or níðstangs. Good relationships between humans and landvættir were believed to be fostered through acts like leaving out food for them however upon the establishment of the church, the practice was labelled heretical and explicitly forbidden in the Norwegian Gulating law codes.
In historical Germanic society, nīþ was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain. A person affected with the stigma is a nīðing . Middle English retained a cognate nithe, meaning 'envy', 'hate', or 'malice'.
The English word god comes from the Old English god, which itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic *gudą. Its cognates in other Germanic languages include guþ, gudis, guð, god, and got.
The spear or lance, together with the bow, the sword, the seax and the shield, was the main equipment of the Germanic warriors during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages.
Witch, from the Old English wiċċe, is a term rooted in European folklore and superstition for a practitioner of witchcraft, magic or sorcery. Traditionally associated with malevolent magic, with those accused of witchcraft being the target of witch-hunts, in the modern era the term has taken on different meanings. In literature, a 'witch' can now simply refer to an alluring women capable of 'bewitching' others. In neopagan religions such as Wicca the term has meanwhile been adopted as the female term for an adherent.
Sowilo (*sōwilō), meaning "sun", is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic language name of the s-rune.
Neorxnawang is an Old English noun used to translate the Christian concept of paradise in Anglo-Saxon literature. Scholars propose that the noun originally derives from Germanic mythology, referring to a "heavenly meadow" or place without toil or worries.
In Germanic mythology, an idis is a divine female being. Idis is cognate to Old High German itis and Old English ides, meaning 'well-respected and dignified woman.' Connections have been assumed or theorized between the idisi and the North Germanic dísir; female beings associated with fate, as well as the amended place name Idistaviso.
In historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law is a description of a phonological development that occurred in the Ingvaeonic dialects of the West Germanic languages. This includes Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon, and to a lesser degree Old Dutch.
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