Tales and Creatures from English Folklore

Will-O-The-Wisp

Will-o'-the-wisps are very simple apparitions. They appear as balls of light, sometimes so bright that they hurt your eyes and other times so dim that you have to squint to see them. They usually have a blue-ish gleam to them, although red has also been reported.

In some rare sightings, a dark figure has been seen carrying the light, as if it was a torch or a lantern. Despite carrying a light, the figure is always too dark to be described in detail

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 folklore, it is said that the light is "fairy fire" held in the hand of a small goblin-like fairy that mischievously leads lone travellers off the beaten path at night. As the traveller follows the creature through the marsh or bog, the fire is extinguished, leaving them lost.

A peasant travelling home at dusk sees a bright light traveling along ahead of him. Looking closer, he sees that the light is a lantern held by a dusky little figure, which he follows for several miles. All of a sudden he finds himself standing on the edge 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 high over its head, lets out a malicious laugh and blows out the light, leaving the poor peasant a long way from home, standing in pitch darkness at the edge of a precipice.

This is a fairly common cautionary tale concerning the phenomenon; however, the creatures were not always 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 travelers 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 get them lost further in the woods or guide them out.

Also related, the Pixy-light from Devon and Cornwall is most often associated with the Pixie who often has led travellers away from the safe and reliable route and into the bogs with glowing lights. Like Poltergeists they can generate uncanny sounds. Also frequently blowing out candles on unsuspecting courting couples or producing obscene kissing sounds, which were always misinterpreted by parents. Pixy-Light was also associated with "lambent light" which the Norsemen might have seen guarding their tombs.

In Cornish folklore, Pixy-Light also has associations with the Colt Pixie.
A colt pixie is a pixie that has taken the shape of a horse and enjoys playing tricks such as neighing at the other horses to lead them astray.
In Guernsey, the light is known as the "Rolling fire" and is believed to be a lost soul. On being confronted with the spectre, tradition prescribes two remedies. The first is to turn one's cap or coat inside out. This has the effect of stopping the faeu boulanger in its tracks. The other solution is to stick a knife into the ground, blade up. The faeu, in an attempt to kill itself, will attack the blade.

The will-o'-the-wisp was also known as the Spunkie in the Scottish Highlands where it would take the form of a Linkboy (a boy who carried a flaming torch to light the way for pedestrians in exchange for a fee), or else simply a light that always seemed to recede, in order to lead unwary travelers to their doom. The spunkie has also been blamed for shipwrecks at night after being spotted on land and mistaken for a harbor light. Other tales of Scottish folklore regard these mysterious lights as omens of death or the ghosts of once living human beings. They often appeared over lochs or on roads along which funeral processions were known to travel.