Home Forums Blogs Articles Photos Videos Contact FAQ

Will o' the wisp - Literature

Will o' the wisp - Literature: Encyclopedia II - Will o' the wisp - Literature

In literature, Will o' the wisp often has a metaphorical meaning, describing any hope or goal that leads one on but is impossible to reach, or something one finds sinister and confounding. Some examples of references in literature are: 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, ...

Will o' the wisp: Encyclopedia II - Will o' the wisp - Literature

Will o' the wisp - Literature

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

Some examples of references in literature are:

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"

"The race yearns to adore. Can it adore the simple or venerate the obvious? All mythology and folk lore rise in indignant protest at the thought. The sun gave light, therefore he was not hot gas nor a flame, but a god or a chariot. The "ignus fatuus" deluded men of nights. It was a spirit; nothing so simple as decomposition could serve the need." - The Secret of Victory by George Smith Patton, Jr, written on March 26, 1926.

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

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, in The Lord of the Rings (first published 1954 - 1955), mentions swamp lights in the Dead Marshes:

"At last Sam could bear it no longer. 'What's all this, Gollum?' he said in a whisper. 'These lights? They're all round us now. Are we trapped? Who are they?' Gollum looked up. A dark water was before him, and he was crawling on the ground, this way and that, doubtful of the way. 'Yes, they are all round us,' he whispered. 'The tricksy lights. Candles of corpses, yes, yes. Don't you heed them! Don't look! Don't follow them! Where's the master?' Sam looked back and found that Frodo had lagged again. He could not see him. He went some paces back into the darkness, not daring to move far, or to call in more than a hoarse whisper. Suddenly he stumbled against Frodo, who was standing lost in thought, looking at the pale lights. His hands hung stiff at his sides; water and slime were dripping from them. 'Come, Mr. Frodo!' said Sam. 'Don't look at them! Gollum says we mustn't." -The Passage of the Marshes, The Two Towers

A will o' the wisp figures in Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story.
"... a flibbertigibbet, a will o' the wisp, a clown ..." part of the song "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" from The Sound of Music

Hinkypunk, the name for a Will o' the wisp in Southwestern England, (probably derived from the Welsh Pwca (Puck)), has achieved fame as a monster 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.