Ignis Fatuus

 While Keightley defines ignis fatuus as "enchanter" (7), the direct Latin translation is "foolish fire."  This phrase is most often used to describe the elusive will o' the wisp.  This is a type of fairy a person thinks they see, but immediately seems to disappear.  It can never be caught.

The will o' the wisp or ignis fatuus is often used metaphorically in Victorian literature.  For example, in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South,Nicholas Higgins suspects that Mr. Thornton might be secretly in love with Margaret Hale, but considers that it "might be but a will-o'-th'wisp" (332).  That is, the notion might be an illusion or passing fancy that will soon disappear.  Similarly, in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Jane is mortified that her love for Rochester might just be a silly crush, and that upper class Rochester would never consider her.  She wishes in that moment that she might fade like an “ignus fatuus” (191).

Edward Robert Hughes was a Victorian British painter.  Heavily influenced by his Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood uncle (Osborne), Hughes was entranced by fairies and also chose them for a subject matter.  His most successful painting, Midsummer Eve was painted just after the end of the Victorian era in 1908, and includes a circle of will o' the wisps.

Fig. 1, Midsummer Eve, painted by Edward Robert Hughes, 1908.  Wikipedia, 14 Oct. 2019.

The will o’ the wisp is most often seen in swamps and bogs after dark even today.  These quick ghostly flashes of light and color can certainly appear like mystical beings.  There is a scientific explanation, however.  According to Vocabulary.com, ignius fatuus is caused by a chemical reaction due to methane gas and plant decay.  Sadly, these “fairies” really are nothing more than “foolish fire.”  

Below is a modern photograph of such natural phenomenon in India.

Fig. 2.  Photograph of the Aleya Ghost Lights in the marshes of West Bengal, India.  Blue Night Productions, 2017. 

 Below is another modern photograph from the Bengal Swamp. 

Fig. 3. Photograph of ignis fatuus in Bengal Swamp, India.  Blue Night Productions, 2017. 

Works Cited 

Bronte, Charlotte.  Jane Eyre.  1847.  Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.

Gaskell, Elizabeth.  North and South.  1854.  Edited by Alan Shelston, W.W. Norton & 

Company, 2005.

“Ignis Fatuus.”  Vocabulary, www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ignis fatuus.  Accessed 15 

Dec. 2019. 

Keightley, Thomas.  The Fairy Mythology.  1828.  George Bell & Sons, York St., Covent

Garden, and New York, 1892.  Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/41006/41006-h/41006-h.htm

Osborne, Victoria Jean. A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite Circles: Edward Robert 

Hughes RWS, 2010.  University of Birmingham, master’s thesis.  University of 

Birmingham, etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/1465.  Accessed 15 Dec. 2019.