balefire
nounEtymology From Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (“balefire, funeral or sacrificial fire”); equivalent to bale (“funeral pyre”) + fire.
1
A bonfire, any large outdoor fire (for example those used in a funeral pyre, or in witches' rituals).
- Rites done on a lakeshore or seashore can be illuminated with balefires of dried driftwood collected prior to the rite.2002, Marilyn F. Daniel, Kitchen Witchery, Weiser, →ISBN, page 236: