Will-o-the-Wisps are featured in Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You.
About[]
The luminous will-o’-the-wisps are spotted deep in forests, swamps and other desolate places and appear as glowing orbs that move slowly over the landscape. These phantom lights are called by many different names and are even sometimes thought to be a prank of some malicious faerie. Elves particularly delight in using will-o’-the-wisps as a source of illumination and decoration for their revels.
Lost travelers spotting wisps often believe they are seeing an artificial light and head toward it, causing them to become even more lost. Many have died, lost and alone, or fallen prey to some more dangerous faerie. As with stray sod, it is unlikely that the wisps know that they cause so much havoc for mortals. Even if they did, however, there is little reason to think that they would change.Some Wisps have also been known to help lost travelers, by guiding them onto the correct path.
Known species[]
- Will-o'-the-Wisp (Candentisphaera floccata)
Additional facts[]
According to Care and Feeding of Sprites, Will-o'-the-Wisps are sometimes mistaken for Sprites. It is not suggested to keep Wisps as pets, as they can be very dangerous despite their great beauty. If Will-o'-the-Wisps is kept inside a house, they will float around lazily, and the lawn will start to become waterlogged and resembling the swamps that is the Wisps' natural habitat. People inside the house will become disoriented when the creatures is present and will even become lost in corridors and large rooms. Residents who leave the house will become more and more unable to find their way back home.
Known Wisps[]
One swarm of Wisps moved outside Noseeum Jack's old house, and when Nick and Laurie Vargas arrived there, they were lured by the Faeries to walk out in the swamp. However, they managed to get back to the house without any damages.
Behind the scenes[]
In mythology and folklore, a Will-o'-the-Wisp is a fast-moving Faerie light that lures travelers astray. It is sometimes believed to be a devilish little creature with a lantern that wish to harm Humans, or sometimes a ghost guarding a buried treasure by luring people away from it. It has counterparts all over the world: in Scandinavia it is known as an Irrbloss ("Wander Flare") or Lyktgubbe ("Lantern Man"), in Britain it is sometimes thought to be the prank of the Púca, Pixie, or Puck, in Bengal are there a strange, unexplained light phenomena known as Aleya ("Marsh Ghost-Light"), and a similar phenomena are in the Banni grasslands known as a chir batti ("Ghost-Light"), chhir batti or cheer batti. The Brazilian counterpart is known as a Boi'tatá, which was believed to be a giant, evil serpent that fed on animals and corpses, and by swallowing the light of their eyes it gained its ghostly light. And among the Aborigins of Australia were the tales of the Min Min Lights told.
Appearances[]
- Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You (First appearance)
- Care and Feeding of Sprites
- The Nixie's Song