Wight (Old English: wiht literally: a person of a particular kind, also denotes imaginary and omnipresent ones, precisely means, a conscious thing, roughly: a life form, a being, a spirit, a creature, an entity, an existence) is a generic term used for all beings and non-beings, creatures and non-created, spiritual and physical, living and dead. This includes (but is not limited to): “gods, elves, dwarves, ettins, ghouls, humans, vampires, wanes, and zombies.” In mythical contexts, the word’s meaning is often narrowed to a specific kind of wight called dreag (which is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the Norse draugr), and in modern media to an advanced version of draugs. Wight is the most generic term when describing beings, deities, spirits, creatures, monsters, races, and species but is not commonly used with this meaning; because people often only use the word “wight” in Germanic contexts and for undead.
Wight is an old word used for a person of a particular kind (modern equivalents: species, race, spirit, lifeform), that applies to figures who transcend the concept of being and life such as deities and undead even if they have always existed or had created themselves. Nowadays words like “a spirit”, “a being”, and “a creature” are used like this instead of their literal meanings.
Modern Descriptions[]
Wights are featured in J. R. R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-earth, especially in ‘’The Lord of the Rings‘’, and in George R. R. Martin’s HBO television series ‘’Game of Thrones‘’ and novel series ‘’A Song of Ice and Fire‘’. 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‘’.
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