Will-o'-the-wisps in popular culture

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Main article: will-o'-the-wisp

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The will o' the wisp has made appearances in many guises across many genres and forms of artistic expression.

Contents 1 Literature 2 Music 3 Games 4 Films 5 Sports 6 References

[edit] Literature

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner describes the Will o' the wisp. The poem was first published in the Lyrical Ballads of 1798: "About, about in reel and rout, the death-fires danced at night; the water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue and white"^[1]

Two Will-o-the-wisps appear in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's fairy tale of The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (1795). They are described as lights which consume gold, and are capable of shaking gold pieces again from themselves.^[2]

In literature, Will o' the wisp sometimes has a metaphorical meaning, describing a hope or goal that leads one on but is impossible to reach, or something one finds sinister and confounding.^[3]

The Will o' the wisp makes an appearance in the first chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula, as the Count, masquerading as his own coach driver, takes Jonathan Harker to his castle in the night:

"Suddenly, away on our left I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment... the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions. He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose, it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all, and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device... When he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness."^[4]

The following night, when Harker asks Dracula about the lights, the Count makes reference to a common folk belief about the phenomenon by saying that they mark where treasure is buried.^[5]

Hinkypunk, the name for a Will o' the wisp in South West 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 creature that appears to be made of smoke. The hinkypunk inhabits bogs and carries a lantern which it uses to lure travellers in the dark. Professor Remus Lupin introduces the creature in the book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry and his classmates face a hinkypunk in their final exam for Defence Against the Dark Arts that year. Though Harry passes by it successfully, Ronald Weasley becomes confused by its misleading directions and sinks into the bog.^[6]

The Flemish poet Willem Elsschot, aka Alfons-Jozef De Ridder, wrote the short story Het dwaallicht ("Will-O'-the-wisp") in 1946.

A Will o' the wisp named Blubb figures in Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story. It is a messenger who, ironically, gets itself lost in a forest before meeting the Tiny, Nighthob, and Rock Chewer (Rock Biter in the film), also messengers from different parts of Fantastica to tell the Childlike Empress about the Nothing.

The character Will o' the Wisp in the Spider-Man comic books is named after the phenomenon. He is capable of passing through matter and emitting hypnotizing and blinding blasts of light.

In J.R.R Tolkien's work The Lord of the Rings, will o' the wisps are present in the Dead Marshes outside of Mordor. When Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee make their way through the bogs the spindly creature Gollum tells them "not to follow the lights" meaning the will o' the wisps. He tells them that if they do, they will keep the dead company and have little candles of their own.

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

"My eye still roved over the sullen swell, and along the mooredge, vanishing amidst the wildest scenery; when at one dim point, far among the marshes and the ridges, a light sprang up. "That is an ignis fatuus, was my fist thought; and I expected it would soon vanish. It burnt on, however, quite steadily; neither receding nor advancing..."

Also mentioned in that book is when Jane returns to Thornfield after having been absent for a month spent with her dying aunt, Mr Rochester comment upon her arrival

I have been with my aunt, sir, who is dead. "A true Janian reply! Good angels be my guard! She comes from the other world - from the abode of people who are dead; and tells me so when she meets me alone here in the gloaming! If I dared, I'd touch you, to see if you are substance or shadow, you elf! - but I'd as soon offer to take hold of a blue ignis fatuus light in a marsh. 'Truant! Truant!' he added, when he had paused an instant. Absent from me a whole month; and forgetting me quite, I'll be sworn!"

The children's fantasy series "The Spiderwick Chronicles", by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, includes will o'the wisps; they are listed in "Arthur Spiderwick's Guide to the Fantastical World Around You." In the series, Will O' The Wisps are described as fat fireflies that lead travellers astray.

[edit] Music

• "Will-o'-the-Wisp" is the fourth track on the album Black Ram by Magnolia Electric Co.[1]

• "Canción del Fuego", a piece central to Manuel de Falla's ballet El amor brujo, focuses on the symbolism of will-o'-the-wisp: "Lo mismo que er fuego fatuo/ lo mismito es er queré/ Le huyes y te persigue,/ le yamas y echa a corré" ("Just like will-o'-the-wisp/ so exactly is love/ You flee from it and it pursues you,/ you call to it and it takes off running").^[7]

• In the song "Maria" (sometimes known as "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria"), from the musical The Sound of Music, the nuns attempt to describe Maria by comparing her to a will-o'-the-wisp.

• British progressive rock band Yes guitarist Steve Howe first solo album, Beginnings, includes a song called "Will o' the Wisp".

• Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt composed a piece named Feux Follets [2] or, In English, Flighty fires.

• American singer/songwriter Leon Russell has an album titled Will O' The Wisp (1975).

• One of the songs in Franz Schubert's Winterreise is entitled "Irrlicht" (Irrlicht is German for Will-o'-the-Wisp)

[edit] Games

• In the trading card game, Magic: the Gathering, there is a creature card named will 'o the wisp.

• In the video game The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Will-o'-the-wisps are an enemy you battle with throughout various quests in the game.

• In the Pokemon game series, Will-O'-Wisp is a fire type attack and can be learned by few fire type pocket monsters (Ninetails, Vulpix, etc.) and a few ghost types.

• In the game Diablo II Will-o'-the-wisps are an enemy you can encounter (Referred to in the game as willowisps)

• In the PC game Gothic II a Will-o'-wisp can be trained to find valuable items for the player.

• In the PC game Arcanum Will-o'-the-wisps are an enemy you can encounter.

• In Super Mario RPG, ghost and undead enemies could use a magic attack called "willy wisp" which appeared as a glowing ball.

• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Night Elves gain a wisp form upon their death.

• In Castlevania: Circle of the Moon there's plenty of them.

• In the PC RPG, Icewind Dale 2, Will of the WIsps are encountered in the dark forest area.

• In the PC game EverQuest, Willowisps are abundant in plains and forested areas and used to be the favored prey of low-level players due to their tendency to possess Lightstones, stones that glow in the dark and can be sold for money.

• In the MMORPG RuneScape, wisps can be seen floating over the swamps of the Vampyre kingdom of Morytania as well as the elven forests of Isafdar.

• In the Playstation2 game Soul Calibur 3, an unplayable (except through use of third party cheating devices) character named Will-O'-the-Wisp could appear in a "Prepare to Defend Yourself" event during Tales of Souls.

• In the Playstation2 game Final Fantasy X, creatures known as pyreflies share striking similarities with the will-o-wisp. They feature prominently into the game's plot, being the cause of numerous supernatural phenomenon.

[edit] Films

• In the 2006 Pixar short Mater and the Ghostlight, the character Mater is made to believe there is a Will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon known as the "Ghostlight" which he is then tricked into thinking one is following him.

[edit] Sports

• Professional wrestler Jeff Hardy used to be referred to as Will-o'-the-Wisp during his days prior to becoming part of the WWE. He was inspired by the character from Spider-Man, and based his persona off of the comic book character.

[edit] References