Ignis Fatuus

Origin

The iconographic origin is the fusion of (1) the natural-ignition phenomenon canon of the Natural History (Naturalis Historia, 37 books in total, 77 CE) of the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus, 23-79 CE) of the 1st century, and (2) the folk will-o'-the-wisp traditions of medieval European marshlands — the Fens of eastern Britain, the northern German plain, the Irish bogs, and the Scandinavian marshes. The first decisive textual record of the Latin ignis fatuus ('foolish fire') — in Latin — settled in 16th-century Renaissance natural histories, and since the decisive English-literary entry in Act 3 Scene 3 of the historical play Henry IV, Part 1 of the British William Shakespeare (1564-1616) of 1597 — in which Sir Falstaff compares Bardolph's red nose to 'ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire' — became the English-literary canon. The decisive poetic canon is the canon of lines 634-642 of Book 9 of the epic Paradise Lost (10 books in total in the 1667 first edition, 12 books in the 1674 revised edition) of the British poet John Milton (1608-1674) of 1667 — depicting Satan's seduction of Eve in Eden through the metaphor of 'the marsh ignis fatuus that lures night-travelers into ponds and bogs' — the decisive English-literary canon, and the August 1670 Royal Society report of the British chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) — which attempted a chemical analysis of the phosphorescence phenomenon — became the decisive natural-philosophy canon. The Opticks (Opticks) of the British natural philosopher Isaac Newton (1643-1727) of 1704 and the discovery of the element phosphorus ('light-bringer') by the German chemist Hennig Brandt (c. 1630-1710) of c. 1672 were established as the chemical canon of the marsh ignis fatuus.

Features

• Blue phosphorescence of marshes and wetlands
• Presumed natural ignition of marsh methane
• Visible only on dark nights
• Disappears or moves away when approached
• Lures travelers and causes them to lose their way
• Disappears in sunlight and strong wind

Stories

The Natural History canon of the 1st-century Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder is the decisive origin, and the Latin ignis fatuus settled as the decisive scientific name in 16th-century Renaissance natural histories. The decisive English-literary canons are the ignis fatuus comparison of Sir Falstaff in Act 3 Scene 3 of the 1597 Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and the decisive comparison of Satan and Eve in lines 634-642 of Book 9 of the 1667 John Milton's Paradise Lost, and the August 1670 Royal Society report of the British chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) became the canon of chemical analysis of the phosphorescence phenomenon. The Opticks of the British natural philosopher Isaac Newton (1643-1727) of 1704 and the discovery of the element phosphorus by the German chemist Hennig Brandt (c. 1630-1710) of c. 1672 became the 17th-18th-century natural-philosophy canon, and the will-o'-the-wisp tradition of the Kinder- und Hausmaerchen of the German Grimm Brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm) of 1812-1815 and Chapter 17 of Volume 1 of the 1835 Jacob Grimm's scholarly work Deutsche Mythologie systematised the decisive canon of the Germanic folk will-o'-the-wisp (Irrlicht). The Irrlicht appears in the Walpurgis Night scene of the Faust I (published in 1808) of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), and the decisive modern canon is the canon of the Dead Marshes (Dead Marshes) of Volume 4 of The Two Towers of The Lord of the Rings of the British author J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) of 1954-1955 — the faces of the dead lured by the will-o'-the-wisp — the decisive canon, and the Will-o-Wisp of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual by Gygax of TSR in the USA — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014 — is the decisive canon of the modern fantasy RPG will-o'-the-wisp.

Weakness

The ignis fatuus's weaknesses are: (1) sunlight — the decisive natural canon that, as a natural phosphorescence phenomenon, it disappears immediately in sunlight; (2) strong wind — the decisive natural canon that, as a marsh-methane ignition phenomenon, it scatters in strong wind; (3) firm will — the decisive folk canon in medieval European folklore that a traveler who ignores the will-o'-the-wisp with firm will does not lose his way; (4) faith — the canon in medieval European Catholicism that the cross and faith neutralise the will-o'-the-wisp; (5) not approaching — the decisive canonical iconography that the will-o'-the-wisp disappears or moves away when approached; (6) sacred light — the canon in the canon of Book 9 of Milton's 1667 Paradise Lost and the canon of Goethe's 1808 Faust I that sacred light weakens the will-o'-the-wisp; (7) preservation of the natural environment — the environmental weakness that the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon persists only when the natural environment of the marsh is preserved; (8) chemical understanding — through the August 1670 Royal Society report of Robert Boyle and the discovery of the element phosphorus by Hennig Brandt of c. 1672, the canon of the Opticks of Isaac Newton of 1704, the natural ignition of marsh methane (CH4) and phosphine (PH3) of the will-o'-the-wisp became the 17th-18th-century natural-philosophy canon, weakening the supernatural canon. The decisive modern canonical finale is the decisive canon of the Dead Marshes of Volume 4 of The Two Towers of Tolkien's 1954-1955 The Lord of the Rings — in which Gollum warns Frodo and Sam not to look at the faces of the dead in the will-o'-the-wisp.

Cultural Significance

The ignis fatuus is not merely a will-o'-the-wisp icon but the canonical iconographic figure of the Western natural-phosphorescence canon traversing the 1st-century Roman Pliny the Elder's Natural History, the 1597 Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, the 1667 John Milton's Paradise Lost, the 1670 Robert Boyle's Royal Society report, the 1704 Isaac Newton's Opticks, the 1808 Goethe's Faust I, the 1835 Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, the 1954-1955 Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the 1977 D&D Will-o-Wisp. The Latin ignis fatuus — meaning 'foolish fire' (ignis 'fire' + fatuus 'foolish') in Latin — settled as the decisive scientific name in 16th-century Renaissance natural histories, and the comparison of Sir Falstaff in Act 3 Scene 3 of the historical play Henry IV, Part 1 (first performed at the Globe Theatre in London c. 1597) of the British Shakespeare (1564-1616) of 1597 — to ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire — is the decisive English-literary entry, and the canon of lines 634-642 of Book 9 of the epic Paradise Lost (10 books in total in the 1667 first edition, 12 books in the 1674 revised edition) of the British poet John Milton (1608-1674) of 1667 — depicting Satan's seduction of Eve in Eden through the metaphor of the marsh ignis fatuus — became the decisive English-literary canon. The decisive chemical event in which the German alchemist Hennig Brandt (c. 1630-1710) of Hamburg, Germany, of c. 1672 — discovered the element phosphorus ('light-bringer') from human urine — and the British chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) of Oxford, Britain, in August 1670 — analysed the chemical properties of phosphorus in a Royal Society report — became the decisive canon of 17th-18th-century chemistry and natural philosophy. The canon of the will-o'-the-wisp (Irrlicht) in the Walpurgis Night scene of the Faust I published by Cotta'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung in Tuebingen, Germany in April 1808, and Chapter 17 of Volume 1 of the 1835 scholarly work Deutsche Mythologie by Jacob Grimm — the decisive scholarly canon of the Germanic folk will-o'-the-wisp — became the decisive German canon of the 19th century, and the canon of the Dead Marshes of Volume 4 of The Two Towers of The Lord of the Rings of the British author J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) of 1954-1955 — the faces of the dead lured by the will-o'-the-wisp — became the decisive culminating work of the 20th-century global fantasy will-o'-the-wisp.

In Popular Culture

Pliny the Elder, Natural History (1st century) — Roman natural-philosophy canonShakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act 3 Scene 3 (1597) — decisive English-literary entryJohn Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9 lines 634-642 (1667) — decisive English-literary poetic canonRobert Boyle, Royal Society report (1670) — chemistry canonHennig Brandt, discovery of element phosphorus (c. 1672) — decisive chemical canonIsaac Newton, Opticks (1704) — decisive natural-philosophy canonGoethe, Faust I (1808) — decisive German canonJacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Volume 1 Chapter 17 (1835) — decisive Germanic folk canonTolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Volume 4 Dead Marshes (1954-1955) — decisive fantasy canonGygax, D&D Monster Manual, Will-o-Wisp (1977) — decisive RPG canon