A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1133 entries
corpse candle
A corpse candle is a small pale light seen moving low over marsh, churchyard, or open ground at night. Physically, the phenomenon covers several things: gas escaping from wet ground and igniting, glowing fungi in rotting wood, and bioluminescent insects. In Welsh tradition it was read as an omen, and the light was said to travel the exact route a coffin would later take.
Etymology
The English name translates the Welsh canwyll corff, which is on record from the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym in the fourteenth century. The same light has been named all over Europe. Latin called it ignis fatuus, foolish fire, which entered English in 1563 in a description of a foolish fire that does no harm. English also has will-o’-the-wisp, jack-o’-lantern, and foxfire; French has feu follet; German has irrlicht, the erring light.