THE CORPSE CANDLE.
The “Canwyll Corph” or Corpse Candle, was another death portent often seen in West and Mid-Wales, about a generation or two ago. Indeed there are several persons still alive who have told me that they had seen this mysterious light themselves. It was a pale light moving slowly and hovering a short distance from the ground. Some could tell whether a man, woman, or child was to die. The death of a man was indicated by a red light, that of a woman by a white light, and a faint light before the death of a child. If two lights were seen together, two deaths were to take place in the same house at the same time. If the light was seen early in the evening a death was to take place soon, but if late it was not to take place for some time.
Like the “toili” or phantom funeral, the Corpse Candle also was seen going along from the house—where death was to take place—to the churchyard along the same route which a funeral was to take, whether road or path.
Sometimes the light was seen carried by a spectral representation of the dying person, and it was even thought possible to recognise that person by standing near the water watching the apparition crossing over it. Another way of recognising the dying person was to stand at the church porch watching the candle entering the building. There are some instances of people seeing their own corpse candle.
There was an old woman living at Llanddarog, in Carmarthenshire, named Margaret Thomas, who always saw every light or Corpse Candle going to the churchyard before every funeral. She only died about 27 years ago.
Another old woman who also saw the same death portents was Mary Thomas, Dafy, who lived close to Llandyssul churchyard in Cardiganshire. She was buried sixty years ago.
There is a tradition that St. David, by prayer, obtained the Corpse Candle as a sign to the living of the reality of another world, and according to some people it was confined to the Diocese of St. David’s, but the fact of it is there are tales of corpse candles all over Wales.