WEBVTT - Will-o'-the-Wisp: A Light in the Swamp 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.280 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to step to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.840 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. So, Robert, Yes, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.200 I want you to put yourself in a scenario. Okay, 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:25.200 all right, you're doing it. You are a peasant in 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.280 medieval England. All right, it's a place to start. But 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.880 I'm with you. Yeah, it's so. I know it's rough, 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.680 but you're a peasant in medieval England, in in sort 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:39.400 of the thin land. Okay. So there's some marshes all 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.120 around you, and this is a time and place where 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.640 for your life the world is sort of alive with 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.199 magical beings. So who knows if there's a ferry or 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.800 a goblin hiding under a rock or in a bush 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.560 over by the side of the road. Who knows. There 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.880 are lots of things out there that you just don't understand. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:00:59.960 It's a world lit only by fire. It's a demon 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.639 haunted world. Yeah, yeah, I think that's a perfect way 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.039 of putting it. Um. So you're out one night returning 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:11.280 home from church, and dusk is coming on, and as 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.080 you're walking your way through the path that winds along 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.520 the marshlands at night, and the crickets are chirping and 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.080 you hear the frogs. You suddenly see something kind of 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.280 strange off off to your left, sort of in the right, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.480 at the edge of your field of vision. You see 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:33.680 a bluish looking flame that's just hovering over the ground 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.680 that that's sort of beyond where you can see exactly 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.760 where it is. It's it's among some trees and some 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.360 some marsh grasses. Now what do you do? Do you 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.320 just continue on your path or do you walk over 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.680 to see what it is? Who? What can I do? Uh? 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:55.080 Let me do a perception check. Okay, Ah, well, I'm 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:59.000 I'm seeing a basically a ghostly blue flame that's just 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.680 hovering in the air. I'm thinking I'm gonna want to 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.520 avoid anything to do with that, because if it's some 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.760 sort of supernatural entity at night, Uh, it's probably up 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.240 to no good. It's I'm probably better off to stick 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.160 into the course and going straight home. Well, you're fantastic 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.800 at resisting temptation. Congratulations, you're incurious, proud of it, and 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.360 you're gonna live a live to a ripe old age 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.160 in the solid knowledge that you just didn't check things out. Well, yeah, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.040 I mean, because I've probably heard enough stories like how 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:35.200 does every weird horror story begin, every strange folklore against 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.280 with that guy getting off the beaten path, moving out 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.400 of the path and going into the wilderness and maybe 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.120 following some sort of strange flame. Well, okay, let me 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:45.679 try you again. Then let's say that we do the 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.560 same scenario, but you've already gotten lost. You're on your 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.079 way home from church, dusk is coming on, You've lost 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.480 the path and suddenly you are lost in the marsh 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.840 lands and you you can't find your way back to 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:01.280 the path. But up ahead you do see a light. Uh, 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.360 you see a flame bobbing that's just above the horizon 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.520 ahead of you, and you're not quite sure what it is. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.079 Now do you go toward the light or not? Well, 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.040 I'm lost, So that light might very well be somebody's 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.359 camp buire. That might be there's a sign of humans 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.400 out here, so I should Yeah, maybe I should head 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.760 that way because either that either they're in the clear 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:23.520 or maybe they can help me get out right. It 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.160 could be a traveler's lantern could lead you back to 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.280 the path and get you on your way home and 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.120 out of this muck. So let's say you follow it 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.639 for a while, but you can't ever seem to catch 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.280 up with it, and you just keep going farther and 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.080 farther along in the marsh, but it's always just out 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.480 of where you can reach it or get a good 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.880 look at exactly what it is. Do you keep following? Well, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.200 the more I follow, the more I'm probably gonna feel 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.160 like I'm being manipulated. And this led on a winding 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.080 goat trail to nowhere. So uh, which, granted, and maybe 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.000 that's a perfect metaphor for life, but I'm probably gonna 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.640 get a little frustrated. Yeah, but what other choice do 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:04.680 you have right now? You're lost in the marsh, and 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.160 you better keep following. Yeah, I can't go back. It's 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:08.840 just as much trouble to go back as it is 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.040 to push forward. And maybe if I hurry a little bit, 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.360 I can actually catch that durn thing. Okay, So let's 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.640 say you're trying to catch it. Unfortunately, you keep coming 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.200 up on it, thinking you're just about to get to it, 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.880 but it goes away and eventually you don't see it 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.800 anymore at all, and you're there alone in the dark, 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.400 stuck in some quicksand quicks in the marsh and what 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:33.839 are you gonna do? Well, you're gonna stay still, struggle, 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.400 You struggle, that's how you get out of quicksand. No, 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.680 it's not, it's not at all. Do we have an 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.120 episode on quicksand? I don't think we do yet, but 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.480 it's a fascinating topic. Yeah, maybe we should explore that sometime. Well, 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.120 if you ever find yourself trapped in quicksand, whether you're 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:48.880 in a marsh and you have been led there by 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.760 a ghost light or not, don't struggle. Oh that's why 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.880 I have these sperrets in my backpack. They're gonna help 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.960 me out. That'll just work you deeper into the into 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:58.520 the muck. No, that's not what you want to do. 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:00.799 But anyway, I've been describing a scenario that might sound 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.040 kind of outlandish to your people at home, but I 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:08.280 think this type of story was very common two people 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.680 of say Europe in the Middle Ages, or actually it's 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.600 too folklore all over the world in one form or another, 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.200 that there will be stories that bear similarities to this, 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.000 That there's a glowing entity or some kind of flame 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.840 that looks like a lantern or like a blue luminescence 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.040 that's just hovering out of your vision and if you 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:32.839 if you try to get to it, you can never 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.960 quite catch it. Yeah, what is this thing? It is 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.640 the will of the wisp, that's right, and it goes 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.320 by a number of names as well discussed, but it's 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.960 it's it's that that false fire, right, that ignus fatus 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.440 right and in fatuous fatuous, that's what I think. It's. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:55.200 It's ignie so fire yeah, and then f a t 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.200 u u s that makes me think fatuous, like you're 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.960 being fatuous, being foolish. Yes, so this is uh, it's 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:07.040 it's the swamp light, the marshlight, the fairy light. It's 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:11.840 this ghostly luminescence that appears typically in marshlands and swamp lands, 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:16.720 by ways, fins, marshes, the lonely roads, the places that 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.640 maybe you wouldn't want to be stuck at night, you'll 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:25.120 see this strange glowing entity. Um, what is it? Is 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.800 it a mischievous spirit? Yeah? Oftentimes it is. It's seen 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.160 as this either a mischievous spirit or sometimes an outright 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:38.360 demotic demonic entity that ends up leading humans astray. If 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.480 you try and follow it, you can't quite catch it. 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.000 And eventually you're gonna wind up in the quicksand just 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.080 loft in the wilderness over a cliff, falling off a cliff, 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.760 walking straight into hell who knows what, but it's leading 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.120 you off the path. Like I'm you made a great comparison. 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.440 It's like a bad GPS system. Yeah, do you remember 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.720 that in there an episode of the Office, the g 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.599 P s tells them to drive the car across the lake. 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:08.080 Its scenario. Because also sometimes you see motifs where it's 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.000 the it's the light that's representing like fairy gold or something. 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.200 So who I follow it, I'll get some riches like 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.000 and you can't reach it because it's like the other 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.400 end of the rainbow, right. Yeah, And this lower comes 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.320 from all across time, all over the world. It's very common. 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.120 One common feature of the ghost light or the glowing 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:29.239 ento the will the whisp lower is that the lights 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.880 tend to recede as you approach them. You can never 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.320 quite get to them or get ahold of them, and 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.360 they draw the traveler farther and farther off course as 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.680 they go. Another common feature is the color, and this 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.960 is interesting, so sometimes people just report various types of light, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:50.160 but it's very often described as blue or bluish green. 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.520 And in the words of one scientist to study the phenomenon, 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:56.600 Alan A. Mills, who were going to quote later in 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.880 the episode, he called it quote an ephemeral bluish loo 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.560 minas exhalation associated with Marshy places. That's his Will of 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.320 the Whisp definition. So it's it's instantly identifiable as as 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.320 something that's it's it's not a torch, it's not a lantern. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.880 It's something else, something perhaps magical. Yeah. And so we 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.640 have various names for this phenomenon. I'm not gonna run 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.040 through all of them, but just some of them. For instance, 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:30.200 in the English traditions, you have Dicko Tuesday, Um, Kinky Puck. 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.560 Hinky Puck, by the way, is a key punk punk. Yes, 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.200 hinky punk is a sprite with only one leg and 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:41.040 it carries a candle to miss Lee travelers. Yeah. Um, 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.640 you know about the names like corpse, candle, l fire hob, lantern, hobby, lantern, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.600 fire drake, jack O lantern. Uh. So we're seeing a 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:54.360 convergence here with like Will of the Wisp, Jacko lantern. Uh. 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.559 Maybe Dicko Tuesday is something else, but anyway, anyway, that 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.400 the idea here is that this first part is actually 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:07.160 a name. It's like Jack or Will. These are characters 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.920 who have emerged in the lore of people trying to 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.040 explain what happens when they see these ghost lights in 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.160 the marshes. But it's a character who carries some kind 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.319 of light or torch with them. The whisp idea of 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.120 being like a wisp of sticks, that would be a torch, right, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.160 I mean, it's the idea that there seems to be 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.839 a consciousness behind it, a will behind it. It seems 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.760 to be an entity of some sort. One that comes 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.959 up a lot is Will the Smith. Not Will Smith, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.480 our beloved national treasure, but but rather the soul of 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.160 a debauched human who has given, who has given a 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.480 second chance at life in order to redeem his soul. 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.520 Only he's screwed up again and so now he can't 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:46.880 get into heaven or hell, so he has to wander 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.280 the earth, and Satan gave him a glowing coal to 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.360 warm him, stuff which he uses to lure other victims 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.480 to his dinner, to their doom because he's just a 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.680 horrible individual. So he's walking around with some hell fire 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:02.240 in Marsh's trying to get revenge on humanity, right. And 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.559 you see a number of different variations on will the Smith, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.000 where it's some sort of immortal wanderer, some sort of 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.800 a spirit uh entity that can't get into heaven or hell. Um. 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.960 You also have in Scotland the Spunkies. In Ireland you 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.480 have fox Fire or William with the little Flame, which 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:24.200 is essentially will the Smith. In Germany you have blood. 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:28.000 You have the Dickie potent weight hold on blood just blld. 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.360 And then there is of course uh ear lickt uh 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.319 and this is uh the ear lit is actually as 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.559 as the willow the whisp in today is the subject 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.160 of an Arnold Bockland painting as well as the cloth 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:44.280 Shool's album. So there you go. Um. And you see 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.200 a lot of accounts of this phenomenon from from Germany 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:52.280 for sure. Uh. In France there's a sandyand Tad, which 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.120 in the folklore of Brittany is a type of elf, 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.400 and they dance together at night with candles on their fingertips, 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.960 each spinning independently, and any mortal who happens upon them 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.240 becomes disoriented and confused. So it's kind of like the 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.480 the the the example in the Hobbit right where they 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.840 see some fire in the woods and they follow it 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:15.320 out there and it's elves having their their mischief there 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.920 in the woods, and it's just disorienting. Yeah, like they're 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.240 they're I imagine there's some elfin debauchery going on. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.839 I mean, you know, Tolkien doesn't get into it as much, 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.280 but you know, they get up to some weird stuff. Uh. 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:34.160 In Finland you have Likiko, which means the flaming one. 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.560 And this is interesting because in this you have the 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.880 transformed soul of a child that's buried in the forest 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.760 and now wanders with a flame at night, but also 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.280 serves as a guardian of wild animals and plants that 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.040 are in the woods. So it's kind of almost like 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.319 a swamp thing vibe going on here, where it's the 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:55.200 spirit guardian of the environment. Um. You see a version. 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.920 You see versions in Native American traditions. You see the 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.120 one I ran across from the Penobscate to Native American 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:08.480 tribe in the name for this issue date, there's also 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:13.120 the Kanza perry uh. And this is something that exists 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.640 in the folklore of the Cheermis and Mari people. That's 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.520 a Finno, you grick ethnic group. You see. You also 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:25.360 see it in the Amazon Basin in the form of betata. Oh, 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.160 and this one's a really good one. This is in uh, 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:32.920 South America, in Chile, the creature known as Alecanto, and 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.160 this is a night spirit in the shape of a 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.560 glowing metallic bird. Yeah. It lives in the mountains and 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.679 it's said to feast upon gold and silver veins. So 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.000 if you glimpse its light at night and you're you know, 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.600 you're kind of a greedy individual, you might want to 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.480 follow it and find that rich mining deposit. But Alecanto 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.719 uh is hip to your your scheme here, and we'll 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.439 probably lure you over the edge of a cliff instead. Oh, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.920 this fits the same stuff you would encounter in Europe 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.680 about sometimes the will of the whisp being the guardian 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.760 of a treasure. Yeah, not just luring you off the path, 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.199 but like standing guard over where the gold is hidden. Exactly. 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.200 And I and I wondered to what extent it's just 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.079 a continuation of European beliefs in the New World there, 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.800 I imagine that's very much the case. But there are 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.800 also plenty of ghost lights in in Asian folklore. In 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.839 Bengal traditions, you have Layah, which is the name given 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:33.840 to unexplained strange um Marshall wood lights there. Okay, and 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.360 then of course, uh, outside of folk folklore and folk tales, 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:44.600 we have versions and are more recent media as well. Right, Well, 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:49.040 I mean I would call dungeons and dragons perfectly acceptable folklore. Yes, 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:51.040 And you know, for a lot of people, this may 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.040 be one's first encounter with with will of the whisp 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.800 or will whisps as they're called there. Uh. In case 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.000 your dungeon and dragons fan or have any a familiarity, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.000 their their alignment is chaotic evil. So they are bad news. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.560 They're not just a little mischievous. They're awful. If they 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.120 were just a little mischievous, what would they be chaotic neutral? Yeah, 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:12.840 I think they would be more I would I would 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:14.920 say more chaotic neutral if that were the case. But 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.000 they are just completely like evil, mischieous, mischievous. Uh. They 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:20.840 have a challenge rating of two, so they're not too bad. 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.160 But get this, they have a dexterity stat of twenty eight. Uh. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.120 That's like like generally eighteen is an exceedingly high level 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.040 for a normal humanoid, so they have crazy dexterity to 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.000 give them a plus nine and all dexterity sex and 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.280 according to the most recent Monster manual UH, their quote 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.240 the souls of evil beings that perished in anguish or 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:46.160 misery as they wanted it, forsaken lands, permeated with magical powers, 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.840 and they use the the usual lure people to their 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.200 doom act in the game, plus, they can shock victims 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.360 for two D eight damage, they can drain life, and 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.760 sometimes in the Dungeon and Dragons the world, they align 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:02.120 themselves with hags or black dragons or evil cultists in 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.320 order to quote drink the agony of slaughter. So so 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.760 they're pretty cool. I kind of want to buff one 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.440 out in UH in my game. Now, well, that's great, 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.600 and that does mirror some of the folkloric tradition, like 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.360 the idea that they might be an unrighteous spirit that's 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.040 left wandering the world. So they might be, you know, 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.200 a person who's just rendered spiritually unclean, maybe by having 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.520 died unbaptized in Christian tradition or something, or or maybe 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.600 there are you know, a sinful person who can't get 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.000 into heaven or hell. Like we talked to Uh, like 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.520 we talked about with Will the Smith and the titular 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.640 will intil the Whisp. But the will of the Whisp 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.600 also shows up in in plenty of later literature. You know, 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.920 in some classic English poetry, you'll get references to the 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:47.560 Will of the Whisp, like in the Rhyme of the 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.480 Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. Uh. There is there is a 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.360 scene that describes ghost lights out on the sea that 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.520 says about about in real and route the death fires 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.240 danced at night the water like a witch's oils burnt 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:07.000 green and blue and white. Yeah, I like that. There's 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.680 Will the Wisp in Paradise Lost too, and John Milton's 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.480 Paradise Lost. There is the scene where the snake in 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.680 the Garden of Eden is it is attempting to tempt Eve. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.560 Attempting to tempt is trying to get Eve to come 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.080 and eat of the fruit, you know, the forbidden fruit. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.320 And it compares the snake's temptation of Eve to a 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:30.480 will of the Wisp in the sense that both would 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.880 be leading someone astray. This is in book nine, starting 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:39.160 around line and so it compares the snake too, as 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:43.360 when a wandering fire compact of unctuous vapor with the 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:48.400 night condenses and the cold environs round kindled through agitation 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.479 to a flame, which oft they say, some evil spirit attends, 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.800 hovering and blazing with delusive light, misleads the amazed night 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.480 wanderer from his way to bogs and myers, and off 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.080 through pond or pool. They're swallowed up and lost from 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.320 sucker far. Now this is this is interesting and I 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.360 think potentially telling for later on In that um Milton 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:17.840 is describing a supernatural entity by comparing it to willow 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.399 the wisp, So keep that in mind and talking about 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.359 will of the whisp as a natural phenomenon, right, I 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.480 mean he's describing a thing from a magical story in 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.399 terms of the will of the whisp, meaning that the 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.680 will of the Wisp must have been a thing that 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.960 people were so intimately familiar with it could be used 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.040 as a reference point. Yes, yeah, And I would think 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.359 for modern people, you'd you'd be more likely to go 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.280 the other way, like you'd compare the will of the 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.919 Whisp to something in the Bible that people might be 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.160 more familiar with. But he goes the other way around, Yeah, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:53.520 as if to say, this is the thing that the 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.239 average reader will have a familiarity with and then can 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.400 therefore use as a reference point for this mythic thing. Yeah, 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.240 but of course it's not just the stuff of fairy 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:07.120 tales and an ancient literature and fiction imagical storytelling. There 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:12.480 are many like sober secular accounts of the ignis fatuous 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.920 or the will of the Wisp throughout world literature, including 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:20.080 scientific literature. For example, Isaac Newton mentions the will of 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.040 the Whisp as if it were a commonplace occurrence in 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.080 his third Book of Optics. He says, the ignis fatuous 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.919 is a vapor shining without heat, and is there not 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.639 the same difference between this vapor and flame as between 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.679 rotten wood shining without heat and burning coals of fire? 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.720 Which is interesting because their Newton is attempting to distinguish 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:47.160 actual physical characteristics of the Igney's fatuous, like it's not 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.400 like flame because it lacks heat. So yeah, you'd get 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:55.840 pretty often people making sort of secular material physical observations 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:57.960 of these things, as if it's just a phenomenon that 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.520 they were trying to catalog and understand. So very often 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.719 you'd hear about this this sort of hovering blue flame 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.800 near the ground, but some accounts differ that there are 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.520 other types of appearances that people also categorized as will 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.439 of the Wisp. One comes from a first hand account 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.679 by the English folklorist Jabez Allies. I wonder if I'm 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.120 saying that name right, But he had a treatise called 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.520 Igny's Fatuous or Will of the Wisp and the Fairies, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.520 from eighteen forty six, and I'm just going to read 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.440 a piece of this. In this story, he gives about 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:31.920 how he witnessed the will of the wisp one night. 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.600 He says, sometimes it was only like a flash in 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.240 the pan on the ground. At other times it rose 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.680 up several feet and fell to the earth and became extinguished. 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.200 And many times it proceeded horizontally from fifty to one 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.639 hundred yards in an undulating motion, like the flight of 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.399 the green woodpecker, and about his rapid And once or 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.879 twice it proceeded with considerable rapidity in a straight line 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.720 upon or close to the ground. The light of this 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:03.119 ignis fatuous, or rather of these ignace fatu i or 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:07.240 fatui was very clear and strong, much bluer than that 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.400 of a candle, and very like that of an electric spark, 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.040 and some of them look larger and as bright as 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.280 the star. Serious of course, they look dim when seen 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.159 in ground fogs, but there was not any fog on 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.280 the night in question. There was, however, a muddy closeness 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.360 of the atmosphere and at the same time a considerable 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.360 breeze from the southwest. These will of the wisps, which 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:33.560 shot horizontally invariably proceeded before the wind towards the northeast. 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:40.560 That's interesting because it's a very scientifically minded, um and 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.199 practical response to viewing this. Yeah, he's describing it in 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:49.040 terms of electricity, describing the color and sort of the position, 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.400 and the motion and speed of motion, and then explaining 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.080 that it follows the pattern of the wind. Yeah. And 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.240 I but I do love the fact that he's he's 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.199 really standing back and taking a serious, calm approach to it. 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:03.360 Because one of the accounts that I was looking at 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:09.480 an earlier account from traveling German lawyer Hintsner Paul Hertzner, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.000 who wrote about his travels in England and Uh. He 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.120 wrote the following about a journey from Canterbury to Dover. 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.800 He said, quote, there were a great many jack o 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:24.280 lanterns so that we were quite seized with horror and amazement. Um. 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.879 And of course if you're seized with horror and amazement, 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.400 you get into that whole realm of like what am 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.040 I perceiving? How is my mind perceiving it? And then 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.800 how am I recalling that memory and altering it? I mean, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:40.200 the you know, part and partial to any paranormal experience 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:45.359 where the experience is valid, but they're varying mental factors 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:47.920 that are going to play into your interpretation of the event, 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.919 particularly if Englishmen have been telling you tales of the 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.680 strange lights in the in the in the swamp lands 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.479 and what they represent. Yeah, And of course everybody's got 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.080 an interpretive framework that they bring to to seeing things 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:03.760 like this, Like I'm sure that our German traveler friend 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.080 brought a magical interpretive lens to it, saying there's a 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.800 spirit out here it wishes us harm. It might be 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:13.240 that dungeons and dragons chaotic evil spirit. I need to 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:18.880 stay away. Uh. Jabez Allies brought a more secular approach 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.400 to it, he said at the end of his recollection 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.840 of the different events that he witnessed, he says, from 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.720 all the circumstances, stated it appears probable that these meteors 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.720 rise in exhalations of electric and perhaps other matter out 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.080 of the earth, particularly in or near the winter season, 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:38.919 and that they generally occur a day or two after 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.480 a considerable rain and on change from a cold to 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.199 a warmer atmosphere. Now, whether all that is true, we 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:48.280 don't know. It might not be the case that you're 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.680 more likely to see it under those circumstances. But it's 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:56.000