Wraith is a
ScottishScottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not include Scots depending on the observer.The main, formal variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English...
dialectal word for "
ghostA ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person...
, spectre, apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent,
omenAn omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. Omens may be considered "good" or "bad", but the term is more often used in a foreboding sense, as with the word "ominous".-In ancient Rome:Ancient Roman religion employed two distinct types of...
".
In modern
fantasy literatureFantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, the majority of fantasy works have been literature. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
, it usually designates dangerous and evil beings following use of the word in J.R.R. Tolkien's
RingwraithsIn J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Nazgûl were nine men who succumbed to Sauron's power and attained near-immortality as wraiths, servants bound to the power of the...
. Often, a wraith will be a more evil apparition, and tends to be more frontal or aggressive.
The word "wraith" was, according to the OED, first attested in 1513, in
Gavin DouglasGavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, makar and translator. Although he had an important political career, it is for his poetry that he is now chiefly remembered...
' translation of the
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
with a meaning of both "
ghostA ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person...
, apparition of a deceased person" and "an immaterial or spectral appearance of a living being".
Also believed to be the image of death in many ways.
Wraith is a
ScottishScottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not include Scots depending on the observer.The main, formal variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English...
dialectal word for "
ghostA ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person...
, spectre, apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent,
omenAn omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. Omens may be considered "good" or "bad", but the term is more often used in a foreboding sense, as with the word "ominous".-In ancient Rome:Ancient Roman religion employed two distinct types of...
".
In modern
fantasy literatureFantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, the majority of fantasy works have been literature. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
, it usually designates dangerous and evil beings following use of the word in J.R.R. Tolkien's
RingwraithsIn J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Nazgûl were nine men who succumbed to Sauron's power and attained near-immortality as wraiths, servants bound to the power of the...
. Often, a wraith will be a more evil apparition, and tends to be more frontal or aggressive.
Etymology
The word "wraith" was, according to the OED, first attested in 1513, in
Gavin DouglasGavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, makar and translator. Although he had an important political career, it is for his poetry that he is now chiefly remembered...
' translation of the
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
with a meaning of both "
ghostA ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person...
, apparition of a deceased person" and "an immaterial or spectral appearance of a living being".
Also believed to be the image of death in many ways. With a black cloak and a skeletal body a wraith is confused with a messenger of death, or holy figure.
In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits.
In 19th-century usage, it came to be used in a metaphoric sense to refer to wraith-like things and to portents in general.
The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only.
An association with the verb
writhe was the etymology favoured by
J. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from...
.
Modern literature
Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the
RingwraithsIn J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Nazgûl were nine men who succumbed to Sauron's power and attained near-immortality as wraiths, servants bound to the power of the...
has influenced later usage in
fantasyFantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place on fictional planes or planets where magic is common...
literature.
The word "wraith" is also used in modern fiction to signify the
shifting wraiths of T.A. Barron's book series
The Lost Years of MerlinThe Lost Years of Merlin is a work of literature by T.A. Barron, published by Penguin Group USA. It tells the tale of the legendary wizard Merlin's youth. Though the character Merlin is world famous as an ancient wizard, this story of his lost youth is original to the author...
and the
mortiwraiths of Wayne Thomas Batson's
The Door Within Trilogy-Overview:The Door Within Trilogy is a set of three novels written by American author Wayne Thomas Batson describing the adventures of three adolescent protagonists through a fantasy world. The titles of the books are The Door Within, The Rise of the Wyrm Lord, and The Final Storm...
. Whereas the
shifting wraith is a bestial, snake-like predator able to change itself into the form of any animal, albeit always having a feature uncharacteristic thereof, the
mortiwraith is an anthropomorphically intelligent, gigantic, cave-dwelling, extremely photosensitive, but also snake-like predator having creased, furry ears, poisonous blood, and many clawed legs, whose quantity increases with the passage of every five years. The use of the word "wraith" for either of these is not explained in either story, though it may relate to the word "writhe".
The Wraith plays a part in the novel Stargazer by
Claudia GrayClaudia Gray is a pseudonym for Amy Vincent, a New York-based fantasy/romance author, most well-known for the Evernight series. She is published by HarperCollins...
, the second installment in the Evernight series.
In the War of Light and Shadows series by Janny Wurts the Mistwraith is a major plot device. The Mistwraith was in fact a mist made up of countless individual wraiths that in a collective swarm appeared to be mist. The mistwraith blocked out the bulk of sunlight of Athera the main world of the sequence and made the world constantly gloomy.
Within
Stephen R. DonaldsonStephen Reeder Donaldson is an American fantasy, science fiction and mystery novelist, most famous for his Thomas Covenant series. His work has attracted critical attention for its "imagination, vivid characterizations, and fast pace." He earned his bachelor's degree from The College of Wooster...
's
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the UnbelieverThe Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Stephen R. Donaldson. It was followed by The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, also a trilogy, and The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, a planned tetralogy....
series of fantasy novels, the wraiths are beings that resemble candle flames without the candle.
The
WraithIn the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith are the original enemy alien species, first introduced in the pilot episode . In the series, they are a telepathic race who feed on the "life-force" of humans, and are the dominant power in the Pegasus galaxy...
are also a species in the TV series Stargate Atlantis. Much like the evolved version of the word, the Wraith represent an unrelenting evil, bent solely on consuming the entire human populous of the Pegasus galaxy. The Stargate Atlantis Wraith are excellent warriors, feeding on human life force and capable of rapid self-healing, long-range telepathy and mind control. The Wraith live on space ships called Hives and every Hive has a female leader called "Queen". The Wraith are feared for their cruelty but also worshipped by various men and women.
Video games
"Wraiths" and "death wraiths" are two kinds of enemies in
PreyPrey is a first-person shooter video game developed by Human Head Studios and produced by 3D Realms. The Xbox 360 port was developed by Venom Games. The game was initially released in North America and Europe on 2006-07-11, and later was made available on Valves Steam system on 2006-11-06...
, where they look like flying
manta rayThe manta ray , is the largest of the rays. The largest known specimen was more than across, with a weight of about . It ranges throughout tropical waters of the world, typically around coral reefs...
s with sharp teeth. The former are encountered during the normal game, are translucent white in color, can pass through any part of the level and attack the main character by lunging at him and reducing his spiritual energy, which can be completely replenished by destroying one of them. The latter are encountered during the "deathwalk" levels (special levels that are loaded when the main character dies), are opaque red or blue in color and recharge a small amount of the main character's physical or spiritual energy whenever they are destroyed.
In
Final Fantasy XIIis a single-player console role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2. Released in 2006, it is the twelfth title in the Final Fantasy series...
, a Wraith appeared as a mark after you complete 2 marks. It was known to cast Doom.
In the
HaloHalo may refer to:In the visual arts,*Halo , a ring of light that surrounds an object in religious iconography*Halo , a DC Comics superheroine...
video games series a Wraith is a large Covenant vehicle.
In the
StarcraftStarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
video game, the Wraith is a Terran ship, capable of cloaking itself.
In the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, wraiths are large ghosts wearing a black cloak.
In the game Rohan : Blood Feud an MMORPG, wraiths are level 28 mages wearing a black cloak and carrying a staff.
In the game
Heroes of Might and Magic VHeroes of Might and Magic V is the fifth installment of the Heroes of Might and Magic turn-based strategy video game series. It was developed by Nival Interactive, under the guidance of franchise-owner Ubisoft...
, a wraith is a large ghost with a scythe that is described as, and looks like, Death itself.
Role playing games
WraithsIn the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the wraith is an undead creature.-Dungeons & Dragons :The wraith was one of the first monsters introduced in the earliest edition of the game, in the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set , where they were described as high-class wights with more...
appear in the popular
role-playing gameA role-playing game is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines...
Dungeons and Dragons. They are undead monsters that were notorious in earlier editions for their ability to drain levels of experience from a character.