Will-o’-the-wisp

Aka : Faery Lights, Hobbedy’s Lantern, St. Elmo’s Fire, Elf Fire, Jack-o-Lantern, Will-o’-the-Whisp,, Willowisps, Will-o’-Light, Bob-A-Longs, Night Whispers, Fire Faeries, Jenny Burnt-Tail , Hunky Punky, Teine Sith, Huckpoten, Irrbloss, Les Eclaireux, Candelas, Ruskaly, fox fire, ignis fatuus

Origin : first accounts dated back from Antiquity. The faery lights are seen all over the world and each land has a different name for them.

Description : floating blue lights, glowing ball or tiny flickers of fire that travel through breezes and air currents sometimes even following their observer or mimicing his movements.  Some believe the mysterious to be portents of bad luck or even death.  Other explanations are that these are the lights of trooping faeries on their Rades, or that they are the wandering souls of discarnate humans.

Time : night

Records : 100 000+

Location : near marshes, meadows, and grassy hillocks, swamps and swampy areas, ships before storms

Theory : ignited pockets of swamp gas that hover over swamps and swampy areas and glow blue. A similar phenomenon occurs on ships when the air is full of electricity.

Veracity factor : Researchers believe that many people have mistaken will o’ the wisps for the ghostly lanterns of trains and/or their long-dead conductors. Often confused with orbs.