Phantom Lights
Sometime in the 19th century a resident of Melin-y-Wig was returning to his home at Betws Gwerfil Goch one night, when before him he saw a dancing light in the lane. Accounts suggest that the man was not known as a suspicious type, and he believed at first that the light was a lantern held by a fellow traveller. But as he approached, it became apparent that the light was held by no person in fact, and that the light was floating of its own accord. Badly frightened, the man began to hurry, but the light followed him. In fact, as the man approached his home, running now in terror, the light continued to float behind him. On entering his house, he slammed the front door closed, and breathless and scared he leaned against the frame, thankful to leave the floating flame beyond. But, to his astonishment, a moment later the light appeared having floated through the door. It danced away into the house and floated against the ceiling, directly below a servant’s bed chamber. It vanished, then, leaving the badly shaken man a quivering wreck.
The next morning, on awakening late and for a moment believing the phantom light of the evening before had been a particularly vivid dream, he found his household in grief, for the servant whose bedchamber had seemed the ultimate destination of the light had died.
Ghostly lights which foretold a death are not uncommon, and are legion in tales throughout the British Isles. More common still, are stories of corpse candles, blue lights which appeared in the house of the deceased and led the way to the church, halting at the spot where the coffin should be placed wherein it brightened to light the whole church, an assuredly impressive sight before gas lighting became common. Rather than a frightening sight, these lights were rather seen as reassuring, since they were taken to mean that a soul was at rest.