What the Fetch? What IS a Fetch?

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!