corpse candle
Graveyard floating flame
A corpse candle is a flickering light seen at night over marshy ground, traditionally interpreted as an omen of death.
In Welsh and other British folklore, the ghostly flame was said to travel from a churchyard to the home of someone about to die, or to hover where a death would occur.
The phenomenon likely has mundane explanations—swamp gas, bioluminescence—but the eerie name persists in folklore and gothic fiction.
Eerily beyond normal
- macabreDisturbing, death-obsessed
- chillingCausing fear or cold
- spookyUnsettlingly strange
- sinisterThreateningly suggestive of harm
gothic · foreboding · ghoulish · morbid · dread · shadowy · eldritch · unsettling
Visible supernatural manifestation
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- specterGhostly threatening presence
- wraithSpectral apparition of someone
- etherealDelicate beyond earthly measure
shade · supernatural · paranormal · otherworldly · haunting · revenant · deathly · unearthly
Misleading light over wetlands
- death omenSign predicting someone's passing
- jack-o'-lanternCarved pumpkin with light
- fairy lightSmall decorative string bulb
- superstitionBaseless belief in omens
legend · myth · lore · folktale · tradition · ancestral · storytelling · mythos
Wetland-produced flammable vapor
- methaneSimplest alkane fuel
- phosphorescenceHeatless delayed light emission
- bioluminescenceOrganism-generated light emission
- spontaneous combustionCatching fire independently
decomposition · oxidation · natural phenomenon · luminescence · pale glow · flickering light · wetland · peat bog
Sign predicting someone's passing
- forewarningNotice of future trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- portentSign of future calamity
foreboding · warning sign · presage · ill omen · prophecy · augury · foreshadowing · death knell
uncanny
Eerily beyond normal
sinister · gothic · foreboding · ghoulish · morbid · dread · shadowy · eldritch · unsettling · creepy
apparition
Visible supernatural manifestation
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- specterGhostly threatening presence
- wraithSpectral apparition of someone
ethereal · shade · supernatural · paranormal · otherworldly · haunting · revenant · deathly · unearthly · disembodied
will-o'-the-wisp
Misleading light over wetlands
- death omenSign predicting someone's passing
- jack-o'-lanternCarved pumpkin with light
- fairy lightSmall decorative string bulb
superstition · legend · myth · lore · folktale · tradition · ancestral · storytelling · mythos · old wives' tale
marsh gas
Wetland-produced flammable vapor
- methaneSimplest alkane fuel
- phosphorescenceHeatless delayed light emission
- bioluminescenceOrganism-generated light emission
spontaneous combustion · decomposition · oxidation · natural phenomenon · luminescence · pale glow · flickering light · wetland · peat bog · organic decay
death omen
Sign predicting someone's passing
- forewarningNotice of future trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
portent · foreboding · warning sign · presage · ill omen · prophecy · augury · foreshadowing · death knell · bad omen
corpse candlecandlelight
Luminescence from burning wick
lamplight · torchlight · electric light · sunlight · daylight
corpse, candle, corps, corpses, candles, candled, candling, corporal, corporate