Article for Marion's 'zine....
Jan. 31st, 2008 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdehnersWights have been part of my life as far back as I can remember and according to my folks…even before then. The childhood of an Army brat is wonderful for many reasons but there is little better to expose you to new lands, new customs and new “critters”. These Beings, that as a Heathen I collectively/generically call “Wights”. I prefer the term since it annoys the “Smurfs”, who think it’s something “racist” and because I hate switching keyboards for the “æ” in Landvættr!
There are 3 basic types of Wight that I’ll cover in this article: House, Agriculture and Land….
Housewights are the easiest to “deal” with because they are the ones most folks will run into as well as the most often friendly to Humans. After all, most of us aren’t Forest or Farm folk anymore! In all my yrs I’ve yet to run into a house or even apt younger than 40 yrs old with ANY Wights in residence at all, unless there was a traumatic Death involved(I consider Ghosts a form of Wight). If there were any Housewights in one, I’d guess that they’d probably followed the inhabitants, either from their previous residence(s) or from those attached to their Famil(ies/y).
With few exceptions I don’t feel there IS a difference between Wealful and Woeful Housewights, only those who are Happy and/or Unhappy. One thing that both my experiences and the Lore agree with is that They are creatures of Order. More Order= More Happy! A Chaotic household, Emotionally, Spiritually, Physically or Hygienically is going to make them…“Grumpy”. A good Housecleaning is more likely to do more for your Relationship with any Wights in residence than all the Dairy or Alcoholic products in the world…and a lot less smelly! That’s Housecleaning not “Housecleansing”. Many “Cleansing Rites” are forms of Banishing. I’ve run into a fair number of Folks from Newager to Heathen who can’t Understand why they have no Wights, esp. with all the Cleansing Rites they’ve done for them! My Opinion about Cleansing homes comes close to that I have of Ritual Space. A spot that is Unholy is not the spot you want to do ANY Rites in. If your home is at that level, I’d be seriously thinking of Moving. Evil is like Tomcat Piss….no matter how much you Clean, there’s always something “Whiffy” about…
On Rewarding them. The Lore is also pretty clear on the subject; they Appreciate Gifts, but not Thanks. There are many theories about this but personally I think it’s actually very simple. A Gift is a Deed, Thanks only a Word. Words by themselves can be very Hollow things. This also has been my experience with Agriculture, Landwights, as well as most Ghosts….
Landwights often trigger a “pet peeve” of mine with folks living outside of N Europe. “Oh, that’s a ____!”. After all, “____” was/is an Old World Landwight . It may be a local name for a type of wight but that particular kind may not be Indigenous to the part of the world you are presently Living in. To call something Native to the lands you are living by another land’s name, beyond the most generic is Bad Manners. Just as the Physical inhabitants may be varied for a particular niche, so may the “non-physical”. If you happen to live in Europe, great. If you don’t, just call them Landwights, Nature spirits, etc. Good Manners are NEVER a “Bad Thing”!
Lore can be useful even for those living outside of Nordic Europe but not an end-all. There’s a couple of reasons. The biggest is that for the most part, they are often local Names for the same type of Being, even in N. Europe. The other is that it’d take someone VERY good to tell them apart beyond the Basics! A personal aside is that while I can tell the difference between types, within a type…not that much. An example would be that those in my apt in San Francisco appear to me more “torpedo-shaped” while here they are more “mushroom-shaped” and all appear (to me) to be made of blown glass(at night they Glow as if molten). IMO, For the most part, the Native Wights are not compatible with Western “Lifestyles”. It’s possible that the House and Ag Wights of certain Native folks could be but chances of them being friendly with those that “bothered” their Folks? Their reactions would probably get them listed under the Woeful category for good reason! My own personal UPG is that Agriculture Wights are a form of Housewight, not a form of “domesticated” Landwights. First,They resemble them in both form and function as well as being Order-preferring. And Secondly, I watched a Housewight “bud-off” and escort the result out to a group of Ag Wights outside and return to the house…
While I’ve noted Wights in gardens, truckfarms and family farms I have not on the big Ag properties I’ve been around. While Organic practices might be more Hospitable, their presence on land where chemicals shows it doesn’t make it a “deal-breaker”. My personal “take” is that the smaller, more diversely planted farms and gardens are more “Orderly” than the mega Monocultures that require so much extra to just produce a baseline level of crop. Literally, the more diverse is healthier and so more “Orderly”….
There is one form of Wight that, while found about farms and gardens isn’t an Ag-Wight. It’s an Arial form of Landwight that I personally think is the source of much of the “fairy” Lore and Sightings. To me they simply look like glass/soap bubbles about the size of a golfball. Their movement in the air is very similar to that of a butterfly. It would be easy for someone with greater Imagination to interpret a Butterfly-like movement as a Butterfly-like creature. I haven’t noted any interaction of them with the other Wights. Perhaps this is the source the myths of Dwarf-Fairy hostility? Folks seeing that they Ignore each other and extrapolated a story….
As hinted above, I see Landwights as part of the natural ecology of a place, no different really to the physical members of the same place. Some Under, On and Above ground. What they do? I dunno! I have seen apparent predation so the animal analogy seems most apt. Larger, up to Human and greater seem to be generally noted only in old, wild places. My personal “take” is a lot of these cryptozoological sightings are actually the larger Landwights(as well as the Aquatic Wights…). Most are Indifferent to Humans as long as we are Good Guests. Unfortunately, some have long memories of Bad Ones and they may take it out on you. After all, if we can’t tell them apart…
There are 3 basic types of Wight that I’ll cover in this article: House, Agriculture and Land….
Housewights are the easiest to “deal” with because they are the ones most folks will run into as well as the most often friendly to Humans. After all, most of us aren’t Forest or Farm folk anymore! In all my yrs I’ve yet to run into a house or even apt younger than 40 yrs old with ANY Wights in residence at all, unless there was a traumatic Death involved(I consider Ghosts a form of Wight). If there were any Housewights in one, I’d guess that they’d probably followed the inhabitants, either from their previous residence(s) or from those attached to their Famil(ies/y).
With few exceptions I don’t feel there IS a difference between Wealful and Woeful Housewights, only those who are Happy and/or Unhappy. One thing that both my experiences and the Lore agree with is that They are creatures of Order. More Order= More Happy! A Chaotic household, Emotionally, Spiritually, Physically or Hygienically is going to make them…“Grumpy”. A good Housecleaning is more likely to do more for your Relationship with any Wights in residence than all the Dairy or Alcoholic products in the world…and a lot less smelly! That’s Housecleaning not “Housecleansing”. Many “Cleansing Rites” are forms of Banishing. I’ve run into a fair number of Folks from Newager to Heathen who can’t Understand why they have no Wights, esp. with all the Cleansing Rites they’ve done for them! My Opinion about Cleansing homes comes close to that I have of Ritual Space. A spot that is Unholy is not the spot you want to do ANY Rites in. If your home is at that level, I’d be seriously thinking of Moving. Evil is like Tomcat Piss….no matter how much you Clean, there’s always something “Whiffy” about…
On Rewarding them. The Lore is also pretty clear on the subject; they Appreciate Gifts, but not Thanks. There are many theories about this but personally I think it’s actually very simple. A Gift is a Deed, Thanks only a Word. Words by themselves can be very Hollow things. This also has been my experience with Agriculture, Landwights, as well as most Ghosts….
Landwights often trigger a “pet peeve” of mine with folks living outside of N Europe. “Oh, that’s a ____!”. After all, “____” was/is an Old World Landwight . It may be a local name for a type of wight but that particular kind may not be Indigenous to the part of the world you are presently Living in. To call something Native to the lands you are living by another land’s name, beyond the most generic is Bad Manners. Just as the Physical inhabitants may be varied for a particular niche, so may the “non-physical”. If you happen to live in Europe, great. If you don’t, just call them Landwights, Nature spirits, etc. Good Manners are NEVER a “Bad Thing”!
Lore can be useful even for those living outside of Nordic Europe but not an end-all. There’s a couple of reasons. The biggest is that for the most part, they are often local Names for the same type of Being, even in N. Europe. The other is that it’d take someone VERY good to tell them apart beyond the Basics! A personal aside is that while I can tell the difference between types, within a type…not that much. An example would be that those in my apt in San Francisco appear to me more “torpedo-shaped” while here they are more “mushroom-shaped” and all appear (to me) to be made of blown glass(at night they Glow as if molten). IMO, For the most part, the Native Wights are not compatible with Western “Lifestyles”. It’s possible that the House and Ag Wights of certain Native folks could be but chances of them being friendly with those that “bothered” their Folks? Their reactions would probably get them listed under the Woeful category for good reason! My own personal UPG is that Agriculture Wights are a form of Housewight, not a form of “domesticated” Landwights. First,They resemble them in both form and function as well as being Order-preferring. And Secondly, I watched a Housewight “bud-off” and escort the result out to a group of Ag Wights outside and return to the house…
While I’ve noted Wights in gardens, truckfarms and family farms I have not on the big Ag properties I’ve been around. While Organic practices might be more Hospitable, their presence on land where chemicals shows it doesn’t make it a “deal-breaker”. My personal “take” is that the smaller, more diversely planted farms and gardens are more “Orderly” than the mega Monocultures that require so much extra to just produce a baseline level of crop. Literally, the more diverse is healthier and so more “Orderly”….
There is one form of Wight that, while found about farms and gardens isn’t an Ag-Wight. It’s an Arial form of Landwight that I personally think is the source of much of the “fairy” Lore and Sightings. To me they simply look like glass/soap bubbles about the size of a golfball. Their movement in the air is very similar to that of a butterfly. It would be easy for someone with greater Imagination to interpret a Butterfly-like movement as a Butterfly-like creature. I haven’t noted any interaction of them with the other Wights. Perhaps this is the source the myths of Dwarf-Fairy hostility? Folks seeing that they Ignore each other and extrapolated a story….
As hinted above, I see Landwights as part of the natural ecology of a place, no different really to the physical members of the same place. Some Under, On and Above ground. What they do? I dunno! I have seen apparent predation so the animal analogy seems most apt. Larger, up to Human and greater seem to be generally noted only in old, wild places. My personal “take” is a lot of these cryptozoological sightings are actually the larger Landwights(as well as the Aquatic Wights…). Most are Indifferent to Humans as long as we are Good Guests. Unfortunately, some have long memories of Bad Ones and they may take it out on you. After all, if we can’t tell them apart…
