What the Fetch? What IS a Fetch?

How They Met Themselves
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1864)
Source: WikiPedia

What the fetch?? How's that for a throwback? The catch-phrase uttered by OG TAPS member and star of the original Ghost Hunters television show, Grant Wilson, was presumably a family-friendly (ratings friendly) way to say something a little more colorful. But, what if the meaning behind the phrase was actually paranormal in nature?

According to the Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology, edited by Leslie A. Shepard, in Irish folklore, a fetch is an apparition of a living person. Very much like a doppelganger, the fetch is generally regarded as a bad omen for the person who it represents.  Although occasionally it will appear exactly like the person in question, other times it will appear shadowy and ethereal in appearance...like a ghost. But, unlike the doppelganger, the time of day the fetch is seen COULD mean the difference between life and death. If the fetch is seen in the morning, that's actually a GOOD sign, meaning a long-life for the living counterpart. However, if the fetch is seen in the evening, a death is surely imminent. 

Etymologists aren't 100% sure of the origins of the term fetch, but one possible explanation may come from Richard Stanyhurst's 1583 translation of the Aeneid. The book mentions psychopomps, which are entities (creatures, spirits, angels, demons, etc.) that act as guides, escorting the living to the world of the dead.  In other words, psychopomps FETCH the souls of the dying. Since the fetch is seen as a harbinger of death, I guess it has been interpreted that it could be seen as a type of psychopomp, come to 'fetch' the soul of the living. 

Like many here in West Virginia and elsewhere throughout Appalachia, I've got quite a fair amount of Scots-Irish ancestry, and growing up I was both fascinated and horrified by some of the spooky tales told by older generations of my family. I don't remember all of their stories, traditions, and superstitions, but one belief that always stuck with me was the idea that seeing the ghost of a living person, especially if it was of YOURSELF, was a very, very bad omen, most often resulting in the death of that person. As I got older and started studying paranormal phenomena, I just tended to lump these types of stories and experiences under the term of doppelganger, but now I know that fetch is probably a little more culturally accurate! 

Luckily, I've never had a personal experience with a fetch and/or a doppelganger, but I HAVE had plenty of run-ins with another member of the doubles family---a strange thing known as a Vardoger. You can read about those experiences HERE. If you've had any experiences, good or bad, with any member of the doubles family of apparitions, I'd love to here them. You can comment down below, or find me over on Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State FaceBook page. Stay spooky, ya'll! 

The Vardoger: A Norwegian Doubles Phenomenon Explained

Have you ever heard the term, 'vardoger?'  

Quite literally, the term "vardoger" is a Norwegian word defined as "a premonitory sound or sight of a person before he arrives."

Vardogers are a class of paranormal "doubles," a class that includes doppelgangers, crisis apparitions, and bilocation.  In fact, it is believed that the vardoger is simply an example of bilocation. 

Those who experience a vardoger "haunting" generally describe the phenomena in an almost identical manner.  Generally, the witnesses are at a location, most often home, waiting for a friend or loved one to arrive.  About 15 minutes to a half hour before the scheduled time of the person's arrival, the witness will hear the sounds associated with that person coming home.  They will hear a car in the driveway, hear doors opening and closing, and even the footsteps in the entry way.  Rarely, the actual car or the form of the person will be seen in solid form, indistinguishable from a real person.

My family went through its own period of vardoger hauntings in the late 1990s/early 2000s, especially concerning the arrival home of myself or my sister.  In one specific textbook example, my mom and I were in the bedroom, waiting for my sister to come home from work.  We heard the garage door open, a car door open then close, the garage door being lowered, and then the kitchen door being opened and closed.  The dogs rushed out of the room towards the kitchen to greet my sister, and after calling to my sister where we were...my mother quickly followed, only to find that no one was there.  No car was in the garage.  After precisely 15 minutes, my sister did indeed arrive home, none the wiser to what had just occured.

It is theorized that in these vardoger cases, the spirit of the person, eager to arrive, does in fact leave the body to arrive early.  And, although in a similar paranormal class, vardogers are distinctly different from the more widely known concept of a doppelganger.  In classic doppelganger cases, the person himself often sees his own image.  The doppelganger seems as flesh and blood as a real human, identical in every way save for one or two slightly different details to the "host."  It is considered extremely unlucky, and even is seen as a death omen in some cultures, to see your own doppelganger.  Vardogers, on the other hand, are benign and not associated with luck, good or bad.

Lincoln photo above from Chris Capps' site, Unexplainable.Net