The Russian Ghost- Witnessed 2004, Russia

The Russian Ghost- Possible Wraith

I saw a ghost while I was away on holiday in Russia. I was traveling by coach in a party of eight to 12 others. We had been traveling most of the day to get to the town of Kostrumo, in the Golden ring outside of Moscow. The countryside consists of vast expanses of Siberian Silver Birch and forests. As we neared the village I noticed out of the window on my left a graveyard. Standing next to a grave was what I assumed to be a woman in a black cloak, who was a widow, mourning the loss of her husband. It was strange, but not unusual to see this.

I noticed that in the graveyard was an orchard of cherry trees. I did not think too much about this and looked away. I then took a glance again over my shoulder. As I looked back through the coach window, the figure had moved and was now standing next to a low wall and the wrought iron gates, the main entrance. The figure was ominously tall, looking much more than normal, and took on a threatening presence or shape. I noticed that there was no face in the hood of the cloaked figure. Far more disturbing, though, was that it seemed to be watching me and its hands were rested upon the top wall. I got a glimpse of its hands - it was not human! The hands and fingers on them were very long - over a meter in length and were skeletal, long and bony.

As I continued to look back at it, a skull appeared in the hood and two orange eyes looked back and it grinned at me. I looked away instantly and did not look back, as I figured that it represented death. I thought I must be imagining things, so I tried to put the whole thing out of my mind and get on with the rest of the holiday.

One thing that did strike me as odd was that the graveyard was completely run down and overgrown with long grass; no one had been there in months or, in fact, years. So what was this figure doing there? I did not think too much about the incident and had forgotten about it. Two days later, I arrived at a new hotel and had sat down to eat dinner in the main restaurant along with other Japanese guests. As I ate, I looked up into the corner of the restaurant, and it was decorated with pots and other antiques. But what drew my attention was a large wood carving by a Russian artist of a figure from Russian folklore. My Blood chilled to the bone. For there was a carving of a hooded figure - a man who looked like a monk. His arms were completely outstretched and its fingers were long and bony, at least over a metre long. This was exactly what I had seen in the graveyard.


English Folklore: Wraiths (English Folklore)

This can be a synonym for ghost, but generally means the spectral double of someone still alive. Usually, it appears at or near the time of the person's death, as a sign for close friends or relatives; sometimes it is a more long-term warning; occasionally it means the person is in danger or distress. To see one's own wraith (also called a ‘fetch’) is a sure sign of death. The apparition of a destined husband summoned by some love divinations is also a wraith. The belief is old, and still strongly held; a Manchester woman in 1981 said:

Some years ago, it was at the end of the First World War. My husband was quite young, and he was away with his older sister,—on holiday or something. And the young man his sister was engaged to appeared before them in the bedroom, as plainly as anything, in his uniform. He said it was just as if he was almost there! And he'd been killed just at that time in the War! (Bennett, 1987: 55)

There was a widespread idea that once a year, usually on St Mark's Eve but sometimes at All Souls or Midsummer Night, anyone who watched in the church porch from midnight till one o'clock would see those fated to die that year entering the church, usually in the order of their deaths. An account of 1634, from Burton in Lincolnshire, describes a procession of figures in winding-sheets led by the curate, and sounds of a burial service.

However, keeping this watch was disapproved of, and could bring its own punishment. It was said of a certain Jonny Joneson, sexton of Middleton (near Manchester) around 1800, that he kept watch on All Souls' Eve, counting the wraiths and gloating to think how many burial fees he would earn, until one appeared which he recognized as himself. He fell ill, and was dead within a year (Samuel Bamford, Autobiography (1848-9), i. 160-2). Similarly at Dorstone (Herefordshire) on All Souls' Eve a man saw wraiths gathering in the church, where the Devil, dressed as a monk, called out the names of those fated to die; he heard his own name, and died shortly after (Leather, 1912: 107). For further examples, see St Mark's Eve.
Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

· Opie and Tatem, 1989: 80-1

· Bennett, 1987: 55-64

· S. P. Menefee, in The Seer, ed. Hilda Ellis Davidson (1989), 80-99.

· Some Victorian accounts of wraiths are in Briggs, 1970-1: B. ii. 489-93, 505-6 518-19, 525-6, 549, 576, 595

Reprinted from Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Wraith (Section on Religion & Spirtuality)(Occultism and Parapyschology)

The apparition or double of a living person, generally supposed to be an omen of death. The wraith closely resembles its prototype in the flesh, even to details of dress. There are accounts of people seeing their own wraith, and among those who were warned of approaching death in this way are said to be Queen Elizabeth I, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Catherine of Russia. The latter, seeing her double seated upon the throne, ordered her guards to fire upon it.

Case History
But wraiths of others may appear to one or more persons. Lord Balcarres of Scotland saw the wraith of his friend "Bonnie Dundee" at the moment when the latter fell at the Battle of Killiecrankie, and the poet Ben Jonson saw his eldest son's double when the original was dying of the plague.

The belief in the wraith flourishes in Europe, and in different parts of Britain it goes under different names, such as "waff," "swarth," "task," and "fye." Variants are the Irish " fetch, " and the Welsh "lledrith."

In Scotland it was believed that the wraith of one about to die might be seen wrapped in ashroud. The higher the shroud reached, the nearer was the approach of death.

Something analogous to wraith-seeing comes within the scope of modern psychical science, and the apparition is explained in various ways, as an astral projection or an emanation from the person of its living prototype.

Cases
A well-known case is that of the Birkbeck Ghost, when three children witnessed the apparition of their mother shortly before her death. This instance, reported in Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (vol. 1, 1882, pp. 121-122), is noteworthy because Mrs. Birkbeck was conscious before she died of having spent the time with her children.

Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost, spectre, apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent, omen". In modern fantasy literature, it usually designates dangerous and evil beings following use of the word in J.R.R. Tolkien's Ringwraiths. Often, a wraith will be a more evil apparition, and tends to be more frontal or aggressive.