Inside Out and Back Again These Brave Chinese Students Always Watch Online

Atmospheric ghost lights

In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp or ignis fatuus (Latin for 'giddy flame',^[1] plural ignes fatui ), is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. The phenomenon is known in English folk belief, English folklore and much of European sociology by a variety of names, including jack-o'-lantern, friar's lantern, hinkypunk and hobby lantern and is said to mislead travellers past resembling a flickering lamp or lantern.^[2] In literature, will-o'-the-wisp metaphorically refers to a promise or goal that leads one on, but is incommunicable to reach, or something one finds strange or sinister.^[iii]

Wills-o'-the-wisp announced in folk tales and traditional legends of numerous countries and cultures; notable wills-o'-the-wisp include St. Louis Lite in Saskatchewan, the Spooklight in Southwestern Missouri and Northeastern Oklahoma, the Marfa lights of Texas, the Naga fireballs on the Mekong in Thailand, the Paulding Calorie-free in Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Hessdalen light in Kingdom of norway.

In urban legends, folklore and superstition, wills-o'-the-wisp are typically attributed to ghosts, fairies or elemental spirits. Modernistic science explains the lite aspect every bit natural phenomena such every bit bioluminescence or chemiluminescence, caused by the oxidation of phosphine (PH₃), diphosphane (P₂H₄) and methane (CH₄) produced by organic decay.

Etymology [edit]

The term "volition-o'-the-wisp" comes from "wisp", a bundle of sticks or paper sometimes used every bit a torch and the name "Will", thus meaning "Will of the torch". The term jack-o'-lantern (Jack of the lantern) originally referred to a will-o'-the-wisp.^[4] In the United states, they are frequently called "spook-lights", "ghost-lights", or "orbs" by folklorists and paranormal enthusiasts.^[5] ^[6] ^[7]

The Latin proper noun ignis fatuus is composed of ignis , meaning "fire" and fatuus , an describing word meaning "foolish", "silly" or "elementary"; it tin can thus be literally translated into English as "foolish burn" or more idiomatically every bit "giddy flame".^[1] Despite its Latin origins, the term ignis fatuus is not attested in artifact, and what the aboriginal Romans chosen the will-o'-wisp may be unknown.^[1] The term is not attested in the Middle Ages either. Instead, the Latin ignis fatuus is documented no earlier than the 16th century in Germany, where it was coined by a German humanist, and appears to be a free translation of the long-existing German language name Irrlicht ("wandering lite") conceived of in German folklore as a mischievous spirit of nature; the Latin translation was made to lend the German name intellectual credibility.^[viii] ^[9] Beside Irrlicht , the will-o'-the-wisp has also been called in High german Irrwisch (where Wisch translates to "wisp"), as constitute in e.g. Martin Luther's writings of the same 16th century.^[ix]

Folklore [edit]

Folk conventionalities attributes the miracle to fairies or elemental spirits, explicitly in the term "hobby lanterns" found in the 19th century Denham Tracts. In her book A Lexicon of Fairies, K. K. Briggs provides an all-encompassing list of other names for the aforementioned phenomenon, though the place where they are observed (graveyard, bogs, etc.) influences the naming considerably. When observed in graveyards, they are known every bit "ghost candles", also a term from the Denham Tracts.

The names will-o'-the-wisp and jack-o'-lantern are used in etiological folk-tales, recorded in many variant forms in Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Appalachia, and Newfoundland.^[10] ^[eleven] ^[12] In these tales, protagonists named either Will or Jack are doomed to haunt the marshes with a light for some criminality. One version from Shropshire is recounted by Briggs in A Dictionary of Fairies and refers to Will Smith. Volition is a wicked blacksmith who is given a second chance past Saint Peter at the gates of sky, but leads such a bad life that he ends up beingness doomed to wander the earth. The Devil provides him with a single burning coal with which to warm himself, which he then uses to lure foolish travellers into the marshes.

An Irish version of the tale has a ne'er-do-well named Drunk Jack or Stingy Jack who, when the Devil comes to collect his soul, tricks him into turning into a coin, and then he tin pay for his one last beverage. When the Devil obliges, Jack places him in his pocket next to a crucifix, preventing him from returning to his original form. In exchange for his freedom, the Devil grants Jack 10 more years of life. When the term expires, the Devil comes to collect his due. Simply Jack tricks him again by making him climb a tree and then carving a cross underneath, preventing him from climbing down. In exchange for removing the cross, the Devil forgives Jack's debt. Notwithstanding, no one every bit bad equally Jack would ever be allowed into heaven, then Jack is forced upon his death to travel to hell and inquire for a place there. The Devil denies him entrance in revenge but grants him an ember from the fires of hell to light his manner through the twilight earth to which lost souls are forever condemned. Jack places it in a carved turnip to serve every bit a lantern.^[13] ^[14] Another version of the tale is "Willy the Whisp", related in Irish Folktales past Henry Glassie. Séadna by Peadar Ua Laoghaire is withal another version—and as well the starting time modernistic novel in the Irish language.

Americas [edit]

Mexico has two equivalents as well. In one they are chosen brujas (witches), folklore explains the phenomenon to be witches who transformed into these lights. The reason for this, however, varies according to the region. Another explanation refers to the lights as indicators to places where gold or hidden treasures are cached which can be establish but with the help of children, in this one they are called luces del dinero (coin lights) or luces del tesoro (treasure lights).

The swampy expanse of Massachusetts known as the Bridgewater Triangle has folklore of ghostly orbs of light, and at that place have been modern observations of these ghost-lights in this surface area likewise.

The fifollet (or feu-follet) of Louisiana derives from the French. The legend says that the fifollet is a soul sent back from the dead to do God's penance, but instead attacks people for vengeance. While it mostly takes function in harmless mischievous acts, the fifollet sometimes sucked the blood of children. Some legends say that it was the soul of a child who died before baptism.^[fifteen] ^[xvi]

Will-o'-the-wisp is a part of the folklore in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay.

Boi-tatá (Portuguese pronunciation: [bojtaˈta]) is the Brazilian equivalent of the will-o'-the-wisp.^[17] Regionally information technology is called Boitatá, Baitatá, Batatá, Bitatá, Batatão, Biatatá, Chiliad'boiguaçu, Mboitatá and Mbaê-Tata. The name comes from the Old Tupi language and ways "peppery snake" (mboî tatá). Its great fiery eyes exit information technology almost blind past solar day, but by nighttime, it tin see everything. According to legend, Boi-tatá was a large serpent which survived a great deluge. A "boiguaçu" (a cave anaconda) left its cave later on the deluge and, in the dark, went through the fields preying on the animals and corpses, eating exclusively its favourite morsel, the optics. The collected low-cal from the eaten eyes gave "Boitatá" its fiery gaze. Non really a dragon but a behemothic serpent (in the native language, "boa" or "mboi" or "mboa").

In Argentina and Uruguay the volition-o'-the-wisp phenomenon is known as luz mala (evil light) and is one of the about of import myths in both countries' folklore. This phenomenon is quite feared and is more often than not seen in rural areas. It consists of an extremely shiny ball of low-cal floating a few inches from the ground.

In Colombia, La Candileja is the will-o'-the-wisp ghost of a vicious grandmother who raised her grandchildren without morals, and as such they became thieves and murderers. In the afterlife the grandmother's spirit was condemned to wander the earth surrounded in flames.

In Trinidad and Tobago a Soucouyant is a "fireball witch" that is literally a witch that takes on the class of a flame at night. This spirit is, like the other versions, evil – it enters homes through any gap it can discover, and drinks the blood of its victims.

Asia [edit]

Aleya (or marsh ghost-low-cal) is the name given to a strange lite phenomena occurring over the marshes as observed past Bengalis, especially the fishermen of Bangladesh and West Bengal. This marsh light is attributed to some kind of marsh gas apparitions that misfile fishermen, brand them lose their bearings, and may even pb to drowning if i decided to follow them moving over the marshes. Local communities in the region believe that these strange hovering marsh-lights are in fact Ghost-lights representing the ghosts of fisherman who died angling. Sometimes they confuse the fishermen, and sometimes they help them avoid hereafter dangers.^[xviii] ^[nineteen]

A Japanese rendition of a Russian will-o'-the-wisp

Chir batti (ghost-lite), also spelled chhir batti or cheer batti, is a strange dancing lite phenomenon occurring on dark nights reported from the Banni grasslands, its seasonal marshy wetlands^[20] and the bordering desert of the marshy salt flats of the Rann of Kutch^[21] near Indo-Pakistani edge in Kutch commune, Gujarat Country, India. Local villagers have been seeing these sometimes hovering, sometimes flying balls of lights since time immemorial and call it Chir Batti in their Kutchhi–Sindhi linguistic communication, with Chir meaning ghost and Batti significant light.^[twenty]

Other varieties (and sources) of ghost-lights appear in sociology across of India, including the Kollivay Pey of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the Kuliyande Choote of Kerala, and many variants from dissimilar tribes in Northeast India.^[22]

Similar phenomena are described in Japanese sociology, including Hitodama (literally "Human being Soul" as a ball of energy), Hello no Tama (Brawl of Flame), Aburagae, Koemonbi, Ushionibi, etc. All these phenomena are described every bit balls of flame or light, at times associated with graveyards, but occurring across Japan as a whole in a wide variety of situations and locations. Kitsune, mythical yokai demons, are besides associated with will 'o the wisp, with the matrimony of 2 kitsune producing kitsune-bi (狐火), literally significant 'play tricks-fire'.^[23] These phenomena are described in Shigeru Mizuki's 1985 book Graphic World of Japanese Phantoms (妖怪伝 in Japanese).^[24]

China [edit]

Medieval Chinese polymath Sheng Gua may have recorded such a phenomenon in the Book of Dreams, stating, "In the middle of the reign of emperor Jia Y'all, at Yanzhou, in the Jiangsu province, an enormous pearl was seen especially in gloomy weather. At starting time it appeared in the marsh… and disappeared finally in the Xinkai Lake." It was described as very vivid, illuminating the surrounding countryside and was a reliable phenomenon over x years, an elaborate Pearl Pavilion being built by local inhabitants for those who wished to observe information technology.^[25]

Europe [edit]

In European folklore, these lights are believed to be spirits of the dead, fairies, or a variety of other supernatural beings which endeavour to lead travellers to their demise. Sometimes the lights are believed to be the spirits of united nations-baptized or stillborn children, flitting betwixt heaven and hell.

In Sweden, the will-o'-the-wisp represents the soul of an unbaptized person "trying to lead travellers to water in the hope of existence baptized".^[26] ^{[ unreliable source? ]}

Danes, Finns, Swedes, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Irish people and amongst some other groups believed that a will-o'-the-wisp too marked the location of a treasure deep in basis or water, which could be taken only when the fire was there. Sometimes magical tricks, and even dead man's hand, were required also, to uncover the treasure. In Finland and several other northern countries, it was believed that early autumn was the best time to search for wills-o'-the-wisp and treasures beneath them. It was believed that when someone hid treasure, in the ground, he made the treasure available simply at the Saint John'southward Day, and ready will-o'-the-wisp to mark the exact place and time then that he could come to take the treasure back. For so he could be fulfilled with treasures.

The Aarnivalkea (besides known every bit virvatuli, aarretuli and aarreliekki), in Finnish mythology, are spots where an eternal flame associated with wills o' the wisp burns. They are claimed to mark the places where faerie gilded is buried. They are protected by a glamour that would foreclose anyone finding them by pure chance. Yet, if one finds a fern seed from a mythical flowering fern, the magical backdrop of that seed will lead the fortunate person to these treasures, in improver to providing one with a glamour of invisibility. Since in reality the fern produces no blossom and reproduces via spores under the leaves, the myth specifies that it blooms only extremely rarely.

Britain [edit]

The will-o'-the-wisp can be found in numerous folk tales around the Uk, and is often a malicious character in the stories. In Welsh sociology, it is said that the light is "fairy fire" held in the paw of a púca, or pwca, a small goblin-like fairy that mischievously leads lonely travellers off the beaten path at dark. Every bit the traveller follows the púca through the marsh or bog, the fire is extinguished, leaving them lost. The púca is said to be one of the Tylwyth Teg, or fairy family. In Wales the light predicts a funeral that will take place soon in the locality. Wirt Sikes in his book British Goblins mentions the following Welsh tale about púca.

A peasant travelling dwelling house at dusk sees a bright lite travelling along ahead of him. Looking closer, he sees that the calorie-free is a lantern held by a "dusky little effigy", which he follows for several miles. All of a sudden he finds himself standing on the border of a vast chasm with a roaring torrent of water rushing below him. At that precise moment the lantern-carrier leaps across the gap, lifts the light loftier over its head, lets out a malicious express mirth and blows out the lite, leaving the poor peasant a long manner from abode, continuing in pitch darkness at the edge of a precipice. This is a fairly mutual cautionary tale concerning the phenomenon; however, the ignis fatuus was non ever considered dangerous. There are some tales told about the will-o'-the-wisp being guardians of treasure, much like the Irish leprechaun leading those brave enough to follow them to sure riches. Other stories tell of travellers getting lost in the woodland and coming upon a will-o'-the-wisp, and depending on how they treated the will-o'-the-wisp, the spirit would either go them lost further in the woods or guide them out.

Also related, the Pixy-light from Devon and Cornwall is most ofttimes associated with the Pixie who ofttimes has "pixie-led" travellers abroad from the prophylactic and reliable route and into the bogs with glowing lights. "Like Poltergeist they tin can generate uncanny sounds. They were less serious than their German Weiße Frauen kin, often blowing out candles on unsuspecting courtship couples or producing obscene kissing sounds, which were ever misinterpreted by parents."^[27] Pixy-Light was also associated with "lambent lite"^[28] which the Old Norse might accept seen guarding their tombs. In Cornish folklore, Pixy-Low-cal too has associations with the Filly pixie. "A filly pixie is a pixie that has taken the shape of a horse and enjoys playing tricks such equally neighing at the other horses to lead them off-target".^[29] ^[thirty] In Guernsey, the light is known as the faeu boulanger (rolling fire), and is believed to be a lost soul. On being confronted with the spectre, tradition prescribes ii remedies. The kickoff is to plow one's cap or coat inside out. This has the upshot of stopping the faeu boulanger in its tracks. The other solution is to stick a knife into the ground, blade upward. The faeu, in an endeavor to impale itself, will attack the blade.^[31]

The will-o'-the-wisp was also known as the Spunkie in the Scottish Highlands where it would have the form of a linkboy (a male child who carried a flaming torch to lite the way for pedestrians in exchange for a fee), or else simply a low-cal that always seemed to recede, in lodge to lead unwary travellers to their doom.^[32] The spunkie has also been blamed for shipwrecks at night after existence spotted on land and mistaken for a harbour light.^[33] Other tales of Scottish folklore regard these mysterious lights as omens of death or the ghosts of once living human beings. They ofttimes appeared over lochs ^[34] or on roads along which funeral processions were known to travel.^[35] A strange light sometimes seen in the Hebrides is referred to as the teine sith, or "fairy light", though there was no formal connection betwixt it and the fairy race.^[36]

Oceania [edit]

The Australian equivalent, known as the Min Min light is reportedly seen in parts of the outback later on dark.^[37] ^[38] The majority of sightings are reported to accept occurred in the Channel State region.^[37]

Stories about the lights can be constitute in ancient myth pre-dating western settlement of the region and take since become role of wider Australian sociology.^[37] Ethnic Australians hold that the number of sightings has increased alongside the increasing ingression of Europeans into the region.^[37] Co-ordinate to folklore, the lights sometimes followed or approached people and have disappeared when fired upon, only to reappear later on.^[37] ^[38]

Natural explanations [edit]

In modern scientific discipline, it is generally accustomed that volition-o'-the-wisp phenomena (ignis fatuus) are acquired by the oxidation of phosphine (PH_iii), diphosphane (P₂H₄), and methane (CH₄). These compounds, produced by organic decay, can cause photon emissions. Since phosphine and diphosphane mixtures spontaneously ignite on contact with the oxygen in air, just small quantities of it would exist needed to ignite the much more abundant methane to create imperceptible fires.^[39] Furthermore, phosphine produces phosphorus pentoxide every bit a by-product, which forms phosphoric acid upon contact with water vapor, which can explain "mucilaginous moisture" sometimes described as accompanying ignis fatuus.

The thought of the will-o'-the-wisp phenomena being caused by natural gases can be found as early as 1596, every bit mentioned in the book Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night, And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie forewarnings, which commonly happen before the death of men: Great Slaughters, and alterations of Kingdomes, by Ludwig Lavater, in the chapter titled "That many naturall things are taken to be ghoasts":

Many times candles & small fires appeare in the nighttime, and seeme to runne upwards and downe... Onetime these fires goe alone in the night season, and put such equally see them, equally they travel past night, in great feare. But these things, and many such lyke take their naturall causes... Natural Philosophers write, that thicke exhilations aryse out of the world, and are kindled. Mynes total of sulphur and brimstone, if the aire enter unto it, as it lyeth in the holes and veines of the earth, will kindle on fier, and strive to get out.^[40]

In 1776, Alessandro Volta first proposed that natural electrical phenomena (like lightning) interacting with marsh gas marsh gas may be the crusade of ignis fatuus.^[41] This was supported past the British polymath Joseph Priestley in his series of works Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1772–1790); and by the French physicist Pierre Bertholon de Saint-Lazare in De l'électricité des météores (1787).^[42]

Early critics of the marsh gas hypothesis often dismissed it on various grounds including the unlikeliness of spontaneous combustion, the absenteeism of warmth in some observed ignis fatuus, the odd behavior of ignis fatuus receding upon being approached, and the differing accounts of ball lightning (which was besides classified as a kind of ignis fatuus).^[42] An instance of such criticism is the following by the American anthropologist John 1000. Owens in Folk-Lore from Buffalo Valley (1891):

This is a name that is sometimes practical to a miracle perhaps more frequently called Jack-o'-the-Lantern, or Will-o'-the-Wisp. It seems to exist a ball of fire, varying in size from that of a candle-flame to that of a man's head. It is more often than not observed in damp, marshy places, moving to and fro; but it has been known to stand perfectly all the same and ship off scintillations. As you lot arroyo it, it volition move on, keeping just beyond your reach; if you retire, it will follow y'all. That these fireballs exercise occur, and that they will repeat your motion, seems to be established, but no satisfactory caption has yet been offered that I take heard. Those who are less superstitious say that it is the ignition of the gases rising from the marsh. But how a calorie-free produced from burning gas could accept the form described and movement as described, advancing as yous advance, receding as you recede, and at other times remaining stationary, without having any visible connection with the earth, is not clear to me.^[43]

Even so, the apparent retreat of ignis fatuus upon being approached might be explained simply by the agitation of the air by nearby moving objects, causing the gases to disperse. This was observed in the very detailed accounts of several shut interactions with ignis fatuus published before in 1832 past Major Louis Blesson after a series of experiments in various localities where they were known to occur.^[44] Of note is his first meet with ignis fatuus in a marshland between a deep valley in the forest of Gorbitz, Newmark, Germany. Blesson observed that the water was covered past an iridescent film, and during day-fourth dimension, bubbles could be observed rising abundantly from certain areas. At night, Blesson observed blue-purple flames in the same areas and concluded that it was connected to the rising gas. He spent several days investigating the phenomenon, finding to his dismay that the flames retreated every fourth dimension he tried to arroyo them. He eventually succeeded and was able to ostend that the lights were indeed caused by ignited gas. The British scientist Charles Tomlinson in On Certain Depression-Lying Meteors (1893) describes Blesson's experiments as thus:

On visiting the spot at night, the sensitive flames retired as the major advanced; just on standing quite still, they returned, and he tried to light a piece of newspaper at them, just the current of air produced by his breath kept them at too dandy a distance. On turning away his head, and screening his jiff, he succeeded in setting fire to the paper. He was also able to extinguish the flame by driving it before him to a part of the ground where no gas was produced; and so applying a flame to the place whence the gas issued, a kind of explosion was heard over eight or nine square feet of the marsh; a red light was seen, which faded to a blue flame almost iii feet high and this continued to fire with an unsteady motility. As the morning dawned the flames became stake and they seemed to approach nearer and nearer to the earth, until at concluding they faded from sight.^[42]

Blesson also observed differences in the colour and estrus of the flames in unlike marshes. The ignis fatuus in Malapane, Upper Silesia (now Ozimek, Poland) could be ignited and extinguished, but were unable to burn pieces of paper or wood shavings. Similarly, the ignis fatuus in another forest in Poland coated pieces of paper and wood shavings with an oily viscous fluid instead of burning them. Blesson also accidentally created ignis fatuus in the marshes of Porta Westfalica, Germany, while launching fireworks.^[42] ^[44]

One try to replicate ignis fatuus under laboratory conditions was in 1980 by British geologist Alan A. Mills of Leicester University. Though he did succeed in creating a absurd glowing cloud by mixing crude phosphine and natural gas, the colour of the light was green and it produced copious amounts of acrid smoke. This was contrary to well-nigh eyewitness accounts of ignis fatuus.^[45] ^[46] Every bit an alternative, Mills proposed in 2000 that ignis fatuus may instead be cold flames.^[45] ^[47] These are luminescent pre-combustion halos that occur when various compounds are heated to but below ignition indicate. Cold flames are indeed typically bluish in colour and as their name suggests, they generate very little heat. Cold flames occur in a broad multifariousness of compounds, including hydrocarbons (including methane), alcohols, aldehydes, oils, acids, and fifty-fifty waxes. However it is unknown if cold flames occur naturally, though a lot of compounds which exhibit cold flames are the natural byproducts of organic decay.^[45] ^[48]

A related hypothesis involves the natural chemiluminescence of phosphine. In 2008, the Italian chemists Luigi Garlaschelli and Paolo Boschetti attempted to recreate Mills' experiments. They successfully created a faint absurd light by mixing phosphine with air and nitrogen. Though the glow was nonetheless dark-green in colour, Garlaschelli and Boschetti noted that under depression-light atmospheric condition, the human being eye cannot easily distinguish between colours. Furthermore, past adjusting the concentrations of the gases and the ecology conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.), information technology was possible to eliminate the smoke and smell, or at least render it to undetectable levels. Garlaschelli and Boschetti also agreed with Mills that cold flames may too be a plausible explanation for other instances of ignis fatuus.^[47]

In 1993, professors Derr and Persinger proposed that some ignis fatuus may be geologic in origin, piezoelectrically generated nether tectonic strain. The strains that motion faults would likewise oestrus up the rocks, vaporizing the water in them. Rock or soil containing something piezoelectric, like quartz, silicon, or arsenic, may also produce electricity, channelled upwards to the surface through the soil via a column of vaporized water, there somehow appearing every bit earth lights. This would explain why the lights appear electrical, erratic, or even intelligent in their behaviour.^[49] ^[l]

The volition-o'-the-wisp phenomena may occur due to the bioluminescence of various woods dwelling micro-organisms and insects. The eerie glow emitted from certain fungal species, such as the dear mucus, during chemic reactions to class white rot could be mistaken for the mysterious will-o'-the-wisp or foxfire lights. There are many other bioluminescent organisms that could create the illusions of fairy lights, such equally fireflies. Light reflecting off larger forest dwelling creatures could explain the phenomenon of will-o'-the-wisp moving and reacting to other lights. The white plumage of Barn owls may reflect enough light from the moon to appear as a volition-o'-the-wisp; hence the possibility of the lights moving, reacting to other lights, etc.^[51]

Ignis fatuus sightings are rarely reported today. The pass up is believed to exist the result of the draining and reclamation of swamplands in recent centuries, such as the formerly vast Fenlands of eastern England which take now been converted to farmlands.^[46]

In culture [edit]

Literature [edit]

In literature, will-o'-the-wisp sometimes has a metaphorical meaning, describing a hope or goal that leads 1 on but is impossible to reach, or something one finds sinister and confounding.^[3] In Book Nine of John Milton'due south Paradise Lost, lines 631–642, Satan is compared to a volition-o-the-wisp when he leads Eve to the Tree of Noesis of skillful and evil.^[52]

[Every bit] a flame,
Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads the amazed night-wanderer from his style
To bogs and mires, and oft through swimming or pool;
There swallowed upwardly and lost, from succour far.
—nine.631-642

2 Wills-o-the-wisp appear in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe'due south fairy tale The Green Ophidian and the Cute Lily (1795). They are described every bit lights which eat gilded and are capable of shaking gold pieces again from themselves.^[53]

Emily Dickinson'southward "Those — dying and then," a verse form about the absenteeism of God and the abdication of belief, closes with the lines "Better an ignis fatuus / Than no illume at all —".^[54]

It is seen in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre when Jane Eyre is unsure if it is a candle or a Will-o-the-wisp.

"Mother Carey" wrote a popular 19th-century poem titled "Will-O'-The-Wisp".^[55]

The Will o' the wisp makes an advent in the beginning affiliate of Bram Stoker's Dracula, as the Count, masquerading as his own jitney commuter, takes Jonathan Harker to his castle in the dark. The post-obit night, when Harker asks Dracula almost the lights, the Count makes reference to a mutual folk belief well-nigh the phenomenon by saying that they marker where treasure is buried.^[56]

In Lewis Carroll'southward The Hunting of the Snark (1876), the term is part of the description of the Snark: "The first is the taste, // Which is meagre and hollow, only crisp: // Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist, // With a flavour of Volition-o'-the-wisp."

"Volition o' the wisp" was the anonymous author of Newspaper Lantern for Puseyites, published in 1843 by Smith, Elderberry & Co., London. In that anti-Tractarian skit, the hero, the Rev. Hilary Oriel, writes an account to his friend Clement Loyola of his proposed alterations in his church.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's work The Lord of the Rings, wills o' the wisp are present in the Dead Marshes exterior of Mordor. When Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee brand their mode through the bogs the spindly fauna Gollum tells them "non to follow the lights", meaning the wills o' the wisp. He tells them that if they do, they will "keep the expressionless company" and "take little candles of their own".^[57]

The hinkypunk, the name for a will o' the wisp in South W England has achieved fame as a magical beast in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. In the books, a hinkypunk is a one-legged, frail-looking animate being that appears to be made of smoke. It is said to carry a lantern and mislead travellers.^[58]

The children'south fantasy series The Spiderwick Chronicles, past Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, includes wills o'the wisp; they are listed in "Arthur Spiderwick's Guide to the Fantastical World Around Yous." In the series, wills o' the wisp are described as fat fireflies that lead travellers astray.

The German fantasy novel past Michael Ende The Neverending Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte 1979 and Ralph Manheim'due south English translation 1983) begins in Fantastica, when a will-o'-the-wisp goes to ask the Childlike Empress for help confronting the Nothing, which is spreading over the country. The moving-picture show based on the book does non contain the Will -o'-the-wisp.

Civil War Confederate soldier and writer Sam Watkins writes in his war memoir, "Co. Aytch", about witnessing "jack-o-lanterns (ignis fatui)" while standing watch late in the nighttime near Corinth, Mississippi in early on Oct 1862.^[59]

American historian and historical novelist Frances Fuller Victor ends her poem "A Letter of the alphabet" with—

Nosotros tread on thorns where nosotros saw only roses,
And find an ignis fatuus in a star.

Music [edit]

In classical music, 1 of Franz Liszt's most challenging piano studies (the Transcendental Etude No. v), known for its flighty and mysterious quality, bears the title "Feux Follets" (the French term for Will-o'-the-wisp). The miracle also appears in "Canción del fuego fatuo" ('Song of the will-o'-the-wisp') in Manuel de Falla'southward ballet El amor brujo, ^[60] later covered by Miles Davis as "Volition-O'-The-Wisp" on Sketches Of Kingdom of spain. In Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, the main character, Maria is described as a Volition-o'-the-wisp in the song "Maria". The German name of the miracle, Irrlicht, has been the name of a song by the classical composer Franz Schubert in his vocal wheel Winterreise. Additionally, the beginning solo album of electronic musician Klaus Schulze is named Irrlicht. Office 3, Scene 12 of Hector Berlioz' "The Damnation of Faust" is entitled "Menuet des follets" - "Minuet of the Wills-o'-the-Wisp". Finally, the 2nd piece in Edward MacDowell's Woodland Sketches is titled "Volition-o-the-Wisp" and reflects other composer'southward portrayal of the phenomena as mysterious.^[61]

The 2016 album Sorceress past Swedish band Opeth, contains the rails "Will O The Wisp", using the term 'wisp' equally a short form of whispering.

Several bands have written songs about or referring to wills-o'-the-wisp, such as Magnolia Electric Co.,^[62] Verdunkeln, Leon Russell and Steve Howe. The will-o'-the-wisp is also referred to during the song "Maria" in The Audio of Music. ^[63]

"Will-o-the-wisp" is the opening track on the Pet Store Boys 2020 anthology "Hotspot", in which the narrator (Neil Tennant) describes visions of a phantom lover from the past riding on an elevated railroad train overhead.

Visual media [edit]

Will-o'-the-wisp phenomena have appeared in numerous reckoner games (such as Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Castlevania, Runescape, Ultima, EverQuest, the Quest for Glory series, Warcraft series and the Elder Scrolls series) and tabletop games (including Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and Small World Secret), frequently with reference to folklore of the phenomena misleading or harming travellers. The Concluding Fantasy series also pays tribute to the tradition of a will-o'-the-wisp being a lantern-carrying individual, with the Tonberry animate being. The Volition o the Wisp is also a monster in Chrono Cantankerous that either moves away from the character as they approach or follows them when they walk away. It is seen in areas relating to the dead. In the Pokémon game series, the Fire-type move "Volition-O-Wisp", introduced in Generation Iii, tin can inflict a burn on the opponent and is frequently learned by Ghost types. The character of Wisp from the Creature Crossing serial is too named after the Will-o'-the-Wisp and references the phenomenon by being a ghost. In the Mana series, Wisp is ane of the viii Mana spirits, representing the chemical element of lite. In Secret of Evermore, a spin-off of the Mana series, Wills-o'-the-Wisp are small flame enemies located in a swamp area that move erratically toward the player.

In television, Willo the Wisp appeared every bit a short cartoon series on BBC TV in the 1980s, voiced by Kenneth Williams.

In Lost Girl season 1 episode two, Bo and Kenzi meet a Volition of the wisp who appears as a shaggy hobo and uses blueish fire (foxfire) to confuse trespassers in his forest home.

"Volition O' The Wisp" is also the name of the 13th episode in season i of Disney channel's So Weird in which one of the principal characters, Jack, is possessed by a will-o'-the-wisp while visiting the ghost lights festival in Marfa, Texas.

The Disney/Pixar short Mater and the Ghostlight features a Will-o'-the-wisp aptly named "the Ghostlight", described as a glowing orb of bluish low-cal.

Wills-o'-the-wisp play a prominent role in the Disney/Pixar pic Brave. In a break from the usual characterization, these wills-o'-the-wisp appear benevolent or at least neutral in nature. They are hinted to be spirits of the dead, who assistance the living by leading them towards their destinies.

Will-o'-the-wisp (renamed to Isaribi) is also the proper noun of the reddish send owned by Tekadan in the Japanese anime series Mobile Adapt Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.