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Will-o'-the-Wisp

English Folk Marsh Spirit

The Will-o'-the-Wisp is the most famous marsh-spirit of English folklore. The name derives from 'Will of the wisp' (Will carrying a torch of straw), appearing as small flickering blue lights in marshes on dark nights. Folk tradition holds them to be souls of the dead rejected by both heaven and hell, doomed to wander earth eternally and luring travelers to drowning in marshes. Featured in works by Shakespeare, Milton, and Bram Stoker, they have many regional variants including Jack-o'-Lantern and Friar's Lantern.

Origin

The will-o'-the-wisp is the most famous of Britain's marsh-light spirits. The name derives from 'Will of the wisp' (Will with a torch of straw), recalling the legend of a wicked 16th-century English smith named Will who, refused by both Heaven and Hell, wanders the marshes forever with a straw torch. John Milton's L'Allegro (1645) gave the figure literary fame.

Features

Blue or yellow flame drifting over marshes
Recedes when approached, advances when ignored
Lures lost travellers deeper into the bog
Mythic explanation for natural marsh phosphorescence
Sometimes interpreted as the soul of the dead

Stories

A folk explanation for travellers lost or drowned in marshland. Often used as a moral allegory for vain hope and deception, and a staple of fantasy literature.

Weakness

Insubstantial light, so cannot be struck. Vanishes at dawn; firm will and faith are said to break its lure.