Wraith << rayth >> is a supernatural spirit, either of a dead person or of a living person who will soon die. These spirits are often thought to bring news of death or misfortune. The term may also refer to an embodied being that can actually harm humans.
The word wraith is thought to have originated in Scottish folklore. However, legends and beliefs about the ability of the dead to return to haunt human beings were found throughout medieval Europe. Scottish lore holds that seeing a person’s wraith—the likeness of a living person that moves and talks like the person does—might be an omen of their death. But the vision of a wraith might carry a message of good fortune or recovery, depending on the context in which it was seen. A wraith might appear as a ghost when a person has died an untimely death, or it might haunt a specific location, such as a mine.
Immigrants to the United States brought with them the belief in wraiths. American legends about wraiths haunting settlements and mines originated with these immigrants. Some legends about wraiths claim that they may appear to certain members of a family. A wraith sighting would foretell the deaths of several family members at a time. Legends collected from Midwestern logging camps indicate that wraiths can also physically harm people, going so far as to murder lumberjacks.
Wraiths take many forms in contemporary popular culture. The Nazgûl, also called Ringwraiths, in the three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), by J. R. R. Tolkien, helped popularize a version of wraiths that can cause bodily harm to their victims. Several comic-book characters have taken the name Wraith to hide their real-world identities. Some of these characters have ghostly or psychic superpowers. In the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, wraiths are a form of undead creature. Another role-playing game, Wraith: The Oblivion, is entirely devoted to these creatures.
