We Vietnamese called them "Ma Trơi". According to folklore, they often appear floating around tombstones and give chase to anyone trying to run away from them. My highschool chemistry teacher use them as example of the combustion phenomenal. He said "If you run and the fire follow you behind, that's because you messed up the air flow while you running. If you slowly approach the flame and it does the same, run the heck away"
we called them "Trau mei cher" I've also actually seen them in real life when I was young,I was bought up in a village and also saw a forest nymph as well
In my language we call them "bludičky" (best translation I could come up with is "strayings") because if you follow them, you'll stray and get lost, never to be seen again.
Actually in my country (Russia) I heard stories about these wisps supposedly guiding out of a swampy area or leading to certain doom. Depends on the version.
In Japan there are many names for them. My favorite is Kitsunebi, or foxfire. Lighting up places where there are no roads, sometimes to guide humans, sometimes to trick them.
Another cool one would be from the Jack o Lantern. The story of that being from a man named Jack, who met the devil at a bar. The devil turned himself into a coin, trying to trick Jack. When Jack put the coin against the cross, and the deal was made on his terms, where the devil couldn't ever take his soul. When he died and weny to Hell, the devil couldn't take his soul. So he was sent back to the mortal world. Where his spirit wanders with an eternally burning lantern.
Along Kitsune-bi, there is Oni-bi. They are the unidentified strange fire or light in Japan. There is also Hito-dama, which is completely different thing, the floating spirit of the dead people.
Going back into Japanese names for wisps, there is also Shiranui in Kyushu, manifestations of fire created by the ocean dragon Ryujin. Chōchinbi, which in some regions is another word for Kitsunebi, but they are more attributed to tanuki instead of kitsune. Going into spookier territory there are the Kosenjōbi which appears where there were once ancient battles, said to be trapped souls that are unable to find peace due to the circumstance in which they died.
@@coldsobanoodle7407 There's all sorts of mysterious fire effects in Japan. Chōchinbi and kitsunebi are some, and there's also the red tengubi that descends from mountains down into rivers. The furaribi can take a form within its fireball, but it's typically viewed as a mysterious flame rather than the yokai that inhabits it. Tsurubebi (fires from a type of tree spirit), haka-no-hi (grave fire), minobi (fire that is drawn to mino, the traditional straw rain cloaks), and the like. There's also creatures that cause blue flames, though their physical appearances are usually pretty distinctive beyond the flame. The basan comes to mind: a rooster-like nocturnal bird yokai that breathes blue flames, lives in isolated bamboo groves, and feeds on charcoal, embers, and burnt things. The name comes from the rustle it makes as it moves its wings, with a "basa-basa" sound from its feathers. There's also aosagibi, or "blue heron fire," which is a yokai heron that glows with a heatless blue flame, while also exhaling a yellow powdery substance that ignites into brilliant blue orbs of heatless fire. Japan likes fiery spooky things, it seems.
In Finland they are called "virvatuli", flickering fire or "aarnivalkea", treasure flame. They were believed to sometimes point a place of "aarnihauta", a hidden treasure sometimes guarded by a creature resembling leprechaun or a fairy.
In the Netherlands their name is Dwaallicht, wander lights, but they are also known as nightlamps or false lanterns. They are the souls of unbaptized children that lead you to water in hopes of getting baptized, but I also once heard a story of them being the lights from the windows of a mysterious cursed castle filled with treasure which only appears in the mist!
In the Philippines, they're called "Santelmo". Fire spirits said to be extremely territorial and if two meet they would fight one another. The name may be from St. Elmo's Fire.
The whole turning clothes inside out is a common remedy when played with by spirits. All kinds of spirit. Based on what I know, the spirits would be unable to recognize you if you turn your shirt inside out. So I guess that’s how it works. Don’t know about other parts of the Philippines though...
Well the difference from the Will-o'-the-wisp and the Santelmo is the Santelmo kills anyone who tries to go to it's territory while Will-o'-the-wisp just make disappear the victim. It's just my opinion based from the stories in books and stories from the provinces in the Philippines.
when the “corpse candle” name was thrown it immediately took me the luz mala. haven’t heard it being called farol de mandinga before, cool! I was told it it was an effect of methane coming from the corpses of animals
@@darkdeifanI saw mine near a flowing cascades. It started behind bushes and moved its way closer to us. It disappeared and reappeared and shined off everything.
Some people say: Don't read the comments. I say: DO READ THE COMMENTS!!! People from all over the world are talking about their legends and lore about similar monsters/spirits/phenomenon. Thank you to everyone posting their own culture's views on this. Wonderful and fascinating!
In French, we call them "feux follets", which translates to "mad fires" and are associated with cemeteries rather than bogs. They are either wandering ghosts hoping for prayers to reach heaven or farfadets (a kind of trickster male fay). They are associated often with hellfire.
Yeah, I thought they were the same thing as foxfire (or faux fire maybe), which seems like a similar thing. Foxfire comes from decaying organic matter, and swamps and cemetaries would provide plenty of that.
The English myth surrounding the lights is said to be the spirit of a Irish (some stories say English) trickster named William. Who is condemned to wander the world till the end of days. The story goes that a man named William having lived a rather sinful life. Was as a result when he died was sent to Hell. He managed to convince the Devil to allow him a second chance to try to redeem himself. But he squandered his chance & behaved. Even worse in his 'second life' then he had in his first getting into all manner of Evil. As a result when he died for the second time he could neither enter Heaven or Hell. & was forces to rome the world for eternity as a lost soul. The Devil took pity on him & gave him a few coals from the fires of Hell to light his way with as he wandered. Will is said to continue to wander the earth to this day causing trouble, mischief & mayhem wherever he goes. & the coals from Hell are said to be the source of the lights known as the Will - o' - the Wips. Warning people of his approach so they can avoid his presence.
Imagine you're travelling alone in the woods with your lantern, and then this person keeps following you in the darkness, continuously calling you an imp...
In german they are called "Irrlichter". It's a combination of the words "verirren" (to stray) and "Licht" (light) as they are lights that lead away from a safe path. There is also the less common word "Sumpflicht" which combines the words "Sumpf" (bog) and "Licht" (light).
It's so fascinating that these "lights" are almost found in every country and culture and in different climates. From what's observed they appear during rainy seasons, after the rain, or some such, and appear in bogs and wetlands, marshes and swamps. Deforestation and urbanizing areas have minimized the phenomenon, so far. So yeah, I echo the sentiment "glow on"...
I think deforestation and the intrusion of agriculture and herding into wetlands make the lights. Disrupting the environment changes the environment to cause more anaerobic decay and more release of compounds like phosphine creates the lights. Later on, urbanization kills the lights by completely building canals, or by partially restoring the wetlands with retention ponds.
@Lesteryay Trippy I'm not sure if you've scanned through some of the other comment, but there are many terms referring to the same phenomenon from Japan, France, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Finland, Chile, Argentina.... I'm willing to bet the list goes on. EDIT: I scrolled even farther, and read there are terms for this same phenomena in Bengali & Ifugao (I may have spelled that incorrectly, my apologies), Brazil, Britain & Germany. So, I won that bet (with myself). Unwrapping a fruit chew rn. Mmmm. I feel that they little lights may not be supernatural.. probably completely natural. Decomposing vegetation could be found the world over. Anything decomposing will emit gases.
In Bengali, we call them "Aaleya" and I have heard stories about them usually from fishing communities, attributing them to the souls of dead fishermen, who can be either malevolent and lead to drowning or helpful and help avoid drowning. Love this channel and the work you guys do!
@@scurryfunge9581 You might also be interested to know that in the Rann of Kutch region, where there are salt flats, similar phenomena have been observed called "Cheer Batti". I don't know if there is any folk or supernatural explanation associated with it, though.
@@UrnaM92 Thanks! I dug around and found a Wondermondo article on the same. Cheer Battis apparently mean "ghost lights" in the local Kutch-Sindhi dialect and the phenomenon has even been documented by one Jugal Tiwari, a local biologist around 2010 in the Banni Grasslands. The denizens do believe that the lights lead people astray, if followed.🙃
Definition is different as per religion. Bengali Hindus think they're some kind of spirit as you mentioned. Muslims think they're some sort of malevolent jinns.
In Chinese folklore, they are called "鬼火", or 'ghost fires', when the Lord of the underworld comes up to the surface, his underlings light up the way for him with their lanterns.
im reading a lot of wacky assumptions and folk-stories in this comment section and people from all over the world. Lol phillipines, france, japan, everyone calls it something different and has their own guess on what it is. I never actually heard of these, being from England. But yeh. I read somewhere its to do with combustion of gases or whatever, idk. As long as no one has brought something to back up the claims, it looks like something taken straight outa horror books. Remind me of scooby doo idk about you guys
Here in Brazil they are called "Boitatá", and they are sayd to be snakes made of fire. The name is made of two tupi-guarany words "boi" fire and "tata" snake. Tupi-guarany is the main linguistic group of Brazillian indigenous populations.
This is one i and my friends have actually seen. So i have a love for this one. It was during summer and we had been out in the woodlands and swamps of southern alabama all day. We started heading back around twilight. Once we got back on the main road; a long two-lane road cutting threw the swamp, we saw a bluish-white orb. It floated about 3 or 4 feet off the ground and was about 200 feet a head of us in the center of the road. It seemed to stay in the same position and distance and was there until my Aunt drove past it looking for us. She said she never saw anything and about a month later we were talking about it to another group of friend when we saw it again. Ill never forget it and that made me believe in the supernatural.
This channel starts with exhaustive research combined then brings raconteur lecturing and a stylized animation department. This is so worth watching. (How about fireflies lifting glow worms?)
@@ChrisConnolly-Mr.C-Dives-In There seems to be many cultures (judging by the comments section) that observe this phenomenon that wouldn't necessarily be backed up by this singular explanation. To what, do you think, can we owe all of those to?
@@noahmartinez7088 I am not sure, I can only begin to guess. Maybe there is something about human sensation and perception that goes across cultures. Or maybe there is something that science is not yet able to explain. What do you think?
Flight of the Green Woodpecker could be a new name for liszt transcendental étude 5 (feux follets), since it is much harder than flight of the bumblebee
I had an experience with floating oddities like these wisps. I was walking one night with my brother, and we encountered a cluster of 20-ish floating orbs of lights. They made no sound and hovered 16-18 ft above us, moving at about 8 mph. Just a bunch of orbs in red, yellow, green, blue, silver, orange, and purple, with a speck of white within each. Like the wisps, I'll never know what those lights were.
Maybe somebody near was blowing soap bubbles? Was it sunset, bubless could catch last rays of sunshine and appear to glow? Maybe sounds funny, but that could be one possible explanation.
Probably a polluted creek. I believe that these lights are the result of a mixture of methane and phosphine gasses. Phosphine is the ignition source, and it should not really exist without human intervention. Cool your friend saw it though.
My late father, who always had a skeptical mindset, used to tell us about the time when he was young during the 40´s and he was one night in his hometown Sahuaripa, here in Sonora Mexico, when in a vacant lot next to the street he saw a blue light floating still over the ground in one place, when he approached the hovering light and was about to reach it, it suddenly disappeared,. Always we thought it was a "Fuego Fatuo" (Ignis Fatuus) and his footsteps disturbed the ground and ended the natural phenomenon.
Some older parts of the British isles also have them as ghostly apparitions of those drowned in bogs and marshes who appear to lure travellers to their deaths in the bogs, so a less nice version of tricksters. Tolkien has them in the dead marshes in lord of the rings. Oh and Dr. Z, your sneeze is cute and funny!
It made me seriously wince for the poor sound guy, who the Dr was apologizing too. Sound guys have headphones on and listen to the live recording at like 200-300% volume to try and pick up any background noise, so they can get rid of it. Often times sound guys will even set up their sound so that the low and high frequencies are even louder, since those are usually the ones that background noise occupy. You can actually hear the mic clip, because her sneeze was that loud. It maxed out the microphone, plus it was a high pitched noise. That means the sound guy just got a deafening, wall-shaking sneeze right into his ear, probably loud enough that his ear was ringing afterwards.
@@MatthewSmith-sz1yq Going on the messages below it was her poor Director who got the brunt of it and they now set up a sneeze warning system lol. Forgot it was as you said likely higher as she is fairly quiet spoken. I love they put the bloopers in though as its more humanising.
'Het Dwaallicht' is also a great Belgian novella by Willem Elsschot, which has no connection to the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon - but still. Have you ever heard of the mythological explanation that they're the souls of dead children, as said in this video? I haven't.
@@Bacopa68 Ignition source could be the rotting plant matter. Chemical reactions during rotting process generate heat which is sometimes able to cause spontaneous ignition. In the past wet hay was know to catch fire this way, completely on its own.
After many years of reading about the Will-o-the-wisp, my husband and I were very startled to encounter one when out for an evening drive, in Ontario, Canada. It hovered at the edge of the paved road, and ignited with a powerful light, that had the intensity of magnesium when it burns, but with a blue cast, *as our car passed through it!* To say that we were startled would be an understatement. It was not identifiable with anything we had ever encountered before, and certainly nothing like the color or size of a firefly. It was more as if an orb of air, 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) in diameter had caught fire, burning with a dazzling brilliance, then was suddenly gone. We felt nothing as the car went through it, and it left no mark on the hood where it impacted, leading us to assume that, despite it's intensity, it had no heat. I grew up spending every summer at a cottage near a swamp, and I have never encountered anything like this in fifty-five years. Our swamps in the area are filled with "swamp gas" or the gas produced by decomposing vegetation, but it has never to my knowledge, or that of anyone we know, ignited. If the explanation was that mundane, there would be many more encounters with the Will-o-the-wisp. No one that we know has ever experienced anything like what we saw that night... and we cannot hazard a guess as to what it was. It simply *was* for a few moments, and then was not! We are delighted that we had the encounter, and that there are still many mysteries flourishing in this amazing world!
We Bengalis also have Will O' Wisps, they are known as "Aleya/Atoshi". According to legends, Aleya are the ghosts of the dead fishermen who died while fishing and appear as strange hovering marsh lights. The Aleyas confuse fishermen, make them lose their bearings, and sometimes even lead them to drowning if one decides to follow them moving over the marshes. There are also good Aleyas who help fishermen avoid dangers. These beliefs were widespread in the Sundarban delta, across India and Bangladesh where this natural phenomenon is commonly observed.
Many, many people have seen floating lights in recent times. I don't know why she made that claim, other than to distance the show from the numerous accounts that are experienced more commonly as paranormal phenomena.
No, I saw them in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in 2000. So did my sister and our cousin. We believed it to be a phosphorescent plant or gas given off by one.
I have seen one! I was camping in the Lake District UK in 2021, I was wondering afterwards if there was any folklore that matched with what I saw and that’s how I found out about will o the wisp, it was a blue glowing light leading me away from the tent. It had also been raining a lot on the trip but it was a dry clear night when I saw it
I saw one yesterday right where I live, 50-75m from my house, so here's a recent encounter report ;) And yes I am cursing a lot right now I did not have my phone to document. There has been a lot of rain lately, over 100mm during a couple of weeks, and the ground is already always swamp-like in that direction. Yesterday was the first warm and sunny day and sighting was around 23:10 local time (Sweden). It fits well for the conditions described in the video. The "flame" was yellow/orange though not blue. It lasted for 2-3 minutes. I went there just now when there was daylight but ofc nothing to find (was half exptecting to find burnt ground..) I will keep an eye out tonight (and have my phone ready..) but given how rare this appears to be there is probably not much hope. I have never seen anything like it before, I can understand how it gave birth to the folk tales in the old days.
They are called “santelmo” in general in the Philippines, rooted on Spanish colonization. But each ethnic group has their own indigenous names for them. In our ethnic group, we call them “allawig”, & we believe they can be brought by fire owls. In some places, they are also described as some sort of vapors from blood that touched the ground.
My dad told me once that when he and his cousin were walking home with his uncle, they walked past this field. He saw a "little candle light" following them. He had his cousin look, too, and the two boys nervously kept looking back at the little light as they walked on. He has alzheimers now, so I can't exactly talk to him about the experience or tell him the theory of where the light might have come from... My dad was not religious or superstitious, so it was very interesting to hear him tell me that story. The only other story he had of something supernatural was when he swore he saw the Cipitio as a young boy at night. He said he saw it racing into his neighbor's garage. These stories probably took place between 1938-1945.
@@cosmicgirl7288 Cipitio is a legendary character from Salvadoran folklore revolving around the Siguanaba and Cadejo legends. He is generally portrayed as an 8- to . ( copied from the Internet)
I saw one of these when I was 16 on Halloween night in a open field, it was 60 feet away from me and was roughly the size of a basket ball with a faint orange core that was surrounded by a flickering white flame that rose off it like smoke, it glowed but didn't put off any light on the ground and it also seemed to phase in and out of reality by flickering really fast, almost like a film being played really slow on a old fashioned movie projector, I watched it slowly float across this field for almost a minute then without warning it shot off into the treeline at the edge of the field so fast it left a trail of light in the sky that faded away seconds later.
Here in Brazil, the elders call this "Bola de fogo", "Fireball". And the most common color described is bright yellow, orange or red. My grandfather described that its warm and really floats!
something similar can also be found in the philippines! the "santelmo" (from spanish "san elmo" and english "st. elmo's fire") is a mysterious, often malevolent spirit that appears as a fireball and appears at night, usually appearing to 'fight' another of its kind or follow the person who sees it. a story told to me by a relative warns to bury a dead body at once, lest it be struck by lightning and attract a santelmo that would follow you.
Interesting. When a plane flies through clouds with a certain electrical charge, this charge is diffused onto the nose of the plane and the pilots experience this as a blue electrical discharge across the windshield. Search for "St Elmo's Fire Airplane cockpit" in UA-cam and you'll see it.
Those things I know as fuegos fatuos, which is Spanish for ignis fatuus and it's related to ghosts who left an unknown treasure buried somewhere. Apparently, it's also called luces de muerto (deadman's lights) and they're known to be seen near cemeteries, at least in my country...
In Danish it's a Lygtemand (Lampman) - small creatures that carry a small lamp to lure people into swamps for them to perish. To protect your self from them you should turn your cap / beanie inside out. Don't point at one because you will draw him to you if you do.
Dr. Emily indeed is a very engaging host and fantastic storyteller!! I love the monstrum series!! It's a very engaging and unique representation. And I really enjoy it. 😇😇
In Vietnamese folklores, these are called ma trơi. They are belived to be souls of sodiers and warriors who died without proper burials and appears to call for their friends and family. When I was small, I was told to never approach them when I walked by the cemetary at night because they can take children with them as "companion"
In Australia we have Min Min Lights, famous around the towns of Winton and Boulia. I actually visited both towns but since we didn't head out into the outback at night we had no hope of seeing them :(
And then there were the ghostly blue flames as described from a distance by Jonathan Harker in the novel; Dracula, as a mysterious coachman takes him on a midnight ride through the Carpathians to The Count's castle. His host would later tell that they indicated the locations of buried treasure.
In Australia they are known as Min min lights,I've actually seen one from a distance . Always wanted to visit Brown mountain or Hessdalen to witness their lights.
Allow me to give proper recognition to the Will-O-Wisp diagram from the AD&D Monster Manual from 1977 at 1:03 . Well met. Monstrum, you always make my day.
Heyya! In India, they're called "Kacch Prakash" which basically means mysterious glow. There are many stories of lone lights or groups of lights encountered by people in the middle of forests or paddy-fields late at night. They're usually associated with a visual representation of wandering souls. So essentially ghosts. However, there are several regional variations to this. There are stories in the region that I'm from, for example, where some lone traveller will spot a distant flame in a paddy-field next to the road they are travelling on, on a cold winter's night. As the traveler approaches the flame thinking it to be some kind of campfire, the flame will move away and lead the traveler astray until they're lost. Sometimes, they're never heard of again.
They happen everywhere humans encroach upon freshwater wetlands. Humans cut down trees adding to carbon release, we drain land that's still kind of swampy, we move in grazing animals that up the nitrogen levels, and thus the remaining swamp cannot reprocess phosphorous and in the absence of oxygen from excess waste, the swamp starts producing methane. Compounds like phosphine ignite the methane. Healthy swamps do not do this.
I'd love a monstrum about the Klabautermann, it's a goblin-like little creature dressed in sailor's garb that lives on ships in northern Europe, depending on interpretation he's benevolent and helps out around the ship, but may be a bit mischievous and play pranks, sometimes he's a bit more malicious and causes problems on purpose. But seeing him is pretty much always an omen of death and shipwreck. I grew up on tales about him and he scared the chap outta me lmao
Idk how this channel popped up on my main page. But I'm glad it did. I love the ones about creatures and their lores. Coming from someone that enjoys games like castelvania, witcher, and so on i am absolutely obsessed with this stuff. keep up the good work.
In Japan they're often called Kitsunebi or "Fox fires" and may also have played a part in the Tale of the Peony Lantern, which is the story that long story short, ends in people seeing a "ghostly light" in the distance and saying it's Otsuyu and her peony lantern. As a side note, your sneeze is so cute!
I saw a canwyll corff, in the garden of my great uncle, while his coffin was in the house in Snowdonia North Wales. I saw it the day before his funeral. Uncle John loved his garden, and I believe that it was his spirit taking a last look over his beloved garden. I was 12 at the time, & I thought of uncle John, as a grandfather to me. I ran into the house to tell my father ( who was on vigil) of the canwyll corff of uncle John, but when we came back out. It was gone! It floated about the garden approximately 2 feet off the ground, no sound no flickering. It was beautiful! BTW we don't have fireflies in this country.
Nah, no reason to invoke Venus, though you are not half wrong. The source of the light is a phosphorous compound that ignites the methane. And it is human encroachment on swamps that causes the effect. Stable swamp biomes don't release much methane and have complex chains of bacteria and plants that assure that every precious atom of phosphorous gets recycled. Logging, draining swamps for grazing, and farming afterwards create the conditions for the lights. BTW: "Phosphorous" is "morning star" in English. AKA Venus.
*"HOW TO IDENTIFY ALLEGED SIGHTINGS:* *1. Pie plates, or as reflections in the atmosphere.* *2. Dry cleaning bags filled with marsh gas, or* *3. Mass insanity."* - Firesign Theatre, "Everything You Know Is Wrong"
love reading in the comments all the different ways the will-o-the-wisp is called around the world! here in Brazil they're called "fogo-fátuo". The term comes from the Latin mentioned in the video, and the word "fátuo" isn't very commonly used. it means "short lived", "cocky" or "foolish", while "fogo" means "fire", so: "brief fire", "cocky fire" or "silly fire"
@@joshuaarceo9938 Is that so? I'll have to look that up. I enjoy the way SMT and Persona present various deities and mythological figures, so I'm certainly interested in seeing what they may have chosen for the Will-o'-the-Wisp.
You rock, you are fantastic, you are a kick ass presenter. I thought I knew what the Ignis Fatuus was. I thought I had a good understanding and then you just come in like "YO HERE'S A TON MORE TO LEARN!" Anyway, I'm only half way through the video, I had to pause it and say thanks. This is really helpful for my current project.
In Java they known as "Lampor" while harmless they usually poped up in large number. It used to be a common things to see in rural area in the past but very rare to see today. Some old folks say that If u came close to it u can see the actual form of it as a toddler with lil flame floating above the head
I've seen one of these phenomena. But not in a swamp. On the mountain on my farm. In the barbeque area. It was late at night, during the dry South African winter months. I can't explain it. Nothing was burning. No smoke. Just a very bright blue flame above the barbeque place. And after quite some minutes, it vanished instantly.
In philippines we have this same thing it's a red ball of fire we called it "Santelmo" it appear in places where accidents will happen like a bad omen.
In Japan they have similar type of floating flames, usually near old graveyards. Some have claimed that there are gases released from freshly buried bodies (before cremation became the norm). Often they are associated with ghostly apparitions or are signs of foreboding to warn people that they are treading in places they should not be. People who used to work in Hawaiian plantations also reported seeing glowing balls that seem to disappear once you catch up with them.
Just like many other languages derived from Latin, in Italian as well they are called "fuoco fatuo". I cannot think of much related Italian folklore about them, despite our good dose of swamps, but the most common story is that they are ghosts just wandering around, usually accompanied by other types of otherworldly apparitions
Can’t help after watching about the fascinating folklore of Willo-the-wisp without thinking of the great Kenneth Williams and one of my favourite afternoon cartoons, what a voice!
Love love this series! Thank you for the beautiful storytelling you all do around the history, myth and science! I would love to see one on the fae / faries!
World of Warcraft: Night Elf Campaign I see will-o-the-wisp & more Hi there Dr. Emily Z... Here in the Philippines we have here "SANTELMO" just like will-o-the-wisp, but i dont know if SANTELMO & W.O.T.WISP is the Same kind of Ball of fire...
One magic is undeniable: The visuals together with the narration. Both are true magic! 🧚🏿♀️🧚🏿♀️🥰 While I enjoyed this video I thought your style would lend itself to magnificent fairytale readings!
George Maxwell, a British officer stationed in Malaya, saw these things but it was hovering on top of a hill. And then they move, at great speed, over his position. The locals, however, attributed these as manifestations of another creature Monstrum already covered in the past: the penanggal.
In Cornish traditions there is a fairy called Joan the Wad, a wad being a bundle of sticks for burning, it's thought she's named for this reason. Also in Hastings, England, there is a story about the witch Hannah Clarke who fell in love with a smuggler, and would use her lantern to guide him safely across the marsh at night. When he got lost on the marsh, Hannah went looking for him and believed the wispy lights to be his spirit or him under enchantment, so she collected them in her lantern, took it home, and it never left her side. That was roughly 18th century.
In China will-o'-the-wisps are called “鬼火”(literally "ghostly fire"). From what I heard of, in China, ghostly fires were mostly spotted in wild cemeteries(places where poor people who can't afford a proper burial ditch corpses, the remains are usually poorly buried or not buried at all, thus creepy places). Thus in Chinese(and Japanese) culture, ghostly fires are mostly associated with the dead and Afterlife. Human remains do release phosphorus gas, which match with the scientific explaination. Modern encounters with will-o'-the-wisps became rare were due to improved burial condition and the implement of cremetising.
This is intriguing. I always thought that 1) they were proven to be igniting swamp gas and 2) were still common sights at swamps. The fact they were cool to the touch and appeared only for a certain period in history and have ceased appearing is very fascinating. It puts a damper on the swamp gas theory.
Every Halloween Tracer is referred to as Will-O’-The-Wisp and I never understood. Now it makes perfect sense. A trickster... and you can always see her chest piece as she runs through time. Thanks for teaching me things like this!
finally, a "monster" that exists in Hungarian folklore too (we have such a lack of ghosts, cryptids and the like), but a version of this exists called the lidérc
sometime after the Second World War, we in Croatia also had stories about these lights. They always appeared in pairs. They would follow people for a while and fly away. In our country, people called them "Duplers". These were believed to be the souls of fallen soldiers, and I think they were yellow in color.
I am from the Mizo tribe of Northeast India. We have a similar type of phenomenon in our folklores. Brave warriors who sleep in the forest (We're a tribe living in the mountains of lushai hills) see these strange line of lights that appears in a distant. There's usually a lot of them, in a line, blinking all the way. Those near it cant see it. We call them "Traumei chherchhi"
We Vietnamese called them "Ma Trơi". According to folklore, they often appear floating around tombstones and give chase to anyone trying to run away from them. My highschool chemistry teacher use them as example of the combustion phenomenal. He said "If you run and the fire follow you behind, that's because you messed up the air flow while you running. If you slowly approach the flame and it does the same, run the heck away"
xin chào ae =))
Not bad advice lol
Cool
Hey! We chileans have also will-o'-the whisps, but we call them "anchimallen", a heritage of our mapuche natives.
Fellow Chilean here! I've never heard of them before, I just looked them up and they're fascinating 😍 thanks for sharing
ufo's bruh
I am a bengali indian and in bengali will o the wisps are called Aleya Bhoot
Oh hey, my mom's Chilean. I didn't know this, so thank you for giving me something cool to learn about :)
we called them "Trau mei cher" I've also actually seen them in real life when I was young,I was bought up in a village and also saw a forest nymph as well
In my language we call them "bludičky" (best translation I could come up with is "strayings") because if you follow them, you'll stray and get lost, never to be seen again.
Fellow czech
Actually in my country (Russia) I heard stories about these wisps supposedly guiding out of a swampy area or leading to certain doom. Depends on the version.
In Polish it is "błędny ognik" :)
Ah, much like "Irrlichter", then?
@@paavobergmann4920 yeah, more less :D
That sneeze in the bloopers at the end was ADORABLE.
I thought the same! Never thought I'd think that about a sneeze lol
Cute and adorable. Though that is Dr Z all over really.
Tell that to my poor director’s eardrums! We’ve established a “sneeze warning” protocol-*Dr.Z*
@@pbsstoried Your fans have spoken! We out vote your director lol
@@pbsstoried Poor director, but it's still cute regardless.
I love seeing all these comments on the different regional names for them!
Me too- it's really interesting
Agreed
Yeah, it's so fun to see it from different culture.
for me it demonstrates how similar we actually are, from behind the language barrier
I didn't know what to call what I just witness this morning ... I'm glad I'm not the only one .... This is a wow moment for me .
In Japan there are many names for them.
My favorite is Kitsunebi, or foxfire. Lighting up places where there are no roads, sometimes to guide humans, sometimes to trick them.
Another cool one would be from the Jack o Lantern. The story of that being from a man named Jack, who met the devil at a bar. The devil turned himself into a coin, trying to trick Jack. When Jack put the coin against the cross, and the deal was made on his terms, where the devil couldn't ever take his soul. When he died and weny to Hell, the devil couldn't take his soul. So he was sent back to the mortal world. Where his spirit wanders with an eternally burning lantern.
Along Kitsune-bi, there is Oni-bi. They are the unidentified strange fire or light in Japan. There is also Hito-dama, which is completely different thing, the floating spirit of the dead people.
Going back into Japanese names for wisps, there is also Shiranui in Kyushu, manifestations of fire created by the ocean dragon Ryujin. Chōchinbi, which in some regions is another word for Kitsunebi, but they are more attributed to tanuki instead of kitsune. Going into spookier territory there are the Kosenjōbi which appears where there were once ancient battles, said to be trapped souls that are unable to find peace due to the circumstance in which they died.
@@coldsobanoodle7407 There's all sorts of mysterious fire effects in Japan. Chōchinbi and kitsunebi are some, and there's also the red tengubi that descends from mountains down into rivers. The furaribi can take a form within its fireball, but it's typically viewed as a mysterious flame rather than the yokai that inhabits it. Tsurubebi (fires from a type of tree spirit), haka-no-hi (grave fire), minobi (fire that is drawn to mino, the traditional straw rain cloaks), and the like.
There's also creatures that cause blue flames, though their physical appearances are usually pretty distinctive beyond the flame. The basan comes to mind: a rooster-like nocturnal bird yokai that breathes blue flames, lives in isolated bamboo groves, and feeds on charcoal, embers, and burnt things. The name comes from the rustle it makes as it moves its wings, with a "basa-basa" sound from its feathers. There's also aosagibi, or "blue heron fire," which is a yokai heron that glows with a heatless blue flame, while also exhaling a yellow powdery substance that ignites into brilliant blue orbs of heatless fire.
Japan likes fiery spooky things, it seems.
@@Mokiefraggle fitting for I also like spooky things that use fire
In Finland they are called "virvatuli", flickering fire or "aarnivalkea", treasure flame. They were believed to sometimes point a place of "aarnihauta", a hidden treasure sometimes guarded by a creature resembling leprechaun or a fairy.
In the Netherlands their name is Dwaallicht, wander lights, but they are also known as nightlamps or false lanterns. They are the souls of unbaptized children that lead you to water in hopes of getting baptized, but I also once heard a story of them being the lights from the windows of a mysterious cursed castle filled with treasure which only appears in the mist!
yeah often seen over swamps or body of water
In Estonia we also call them "virvatuli"
but they guide travellers to their death
In the Philippines, they're called "Santelmo". Fire spirits said to be extremely territorial and if two meet they would fight one another. The name may be from St. Elmo's Fire.
The whole turning clothes inside out is a common remedy when played with by spirits. All kinds of spirit. Based on what I know, the spirits would be unable to recognize you if you turn your shirt inside out. So I guess that’s how it works. Don’t know about other parts of the Philippines though...
@Jov Ven yups
Well the difference from the Will-o'-the-wisp and the Santelmo is the Santelmo kills anyone who tries to go to it's territory while Will-o'-the-wisp just make disappear the victim. It's just my opinion based from the stories in books and stories from the provinces in the Philippines.
Wow! I didn't know that. Can't say I've heard about Santelmo before.
Dude, I remembered hearing about it for the first in Pedro Penduko. Yung ginamit ata nila yung ulo ng paring pugot ulo (dominic ochoa) bilang bait.
In Argentina they are called "luz mala" (evil light) or "farol de mandinga" (devil's lantern), and even today it is reported in unpopulated areas.
when the “corpse candle” name was thrown it immediately took me the luz mala. haven’t heard it being called farol de mandinga before, cool!
I was told it it was an effect of methane coming from the corpses of animals
@@darkdeifanI saw mine near a flowing cascades. It started behind bushes and moved its way closer to us. It disappeared and reappeared and shined off everything.
Some people say: Don't read the comments. I say: DO READ THE COMMENTS!!! People from all over the world are talking about their legends and lore about similar monsters/spirits/phenomenon. Thank you to everyone posting their own culture's views on this. Wonderful and fascinating!
Will-o’-the-Wisps played a big role in Disney's "Brave".
I didn't even about them - me & my parents grew up in the city - so when i found about them in Brave I was so interested in it!
Finally a comment about Willow-O-Wisp being in the Pixar movie Brave.
I was waiting for the mention in the video and... didn't happen!
These are so cute!
yeah, that's Pixar movie is one of the most boring one
In French, we call them "feux follets", which translates to "mad fires" and are associated with cemeteries rather than bogs. They are either wandering ghosts hoping for prayers to reach heaven or farfadets (a kind of trickster male fay). They are associated often with hellfire.
Yeah, I thought they were the same thing as foxfire (or faux fire maybe), which seems like a similar thing. Foxfire comes from decaying organic matter, and swamps and cemetaries would provide plenty of that.
you may want to dig slightly deeper holes, then...just a thought....
The English myth surrounding the lights is said to be the spirit of a Irish (some stories say English) trickster named William. Who is condemned to wander the world till the end of days.
The story goes that a man named William having lived a rather sinful life. Was as a result when he died was sent to Hell. He managed to convince the Devil to allow him a second chance to try to redeem himself. But he squandered his chance & behaved. Even worse in his 'second life' then he had in his first getting into all manner of Evil.
As a result when he died for the second time he could neither enter Heaven or Hell. & was forces to rome the world for eternity as a lost soul. The Devil took pity on him & gave him a few coals from the fires of Hell to light his way with as he wandered.
Will is said to continue to wander the earth to this day causing trouble, mischief & mayhem wherever he goes. & the coals from Hell are said to be the source of the lights known as the Will - o' - the Wips. Warning people of his approach so they can avoid his presence.
I was playing liszt transcendental étude 5 when watching this
🌟 SUPER COOL!!! 🌟
"Careful now! Or Hobbitses go down to join the dead ones, and light little candles of their own."
"Don't follow the lights"
Lygtemænd.
I ended up thinking about this quote to.
I was thinking about that the entire Time 😉
Imagine you're travelling alone in the woods with your lantern, and then this person keeps following you in the darkness, continuously calling you an imp...
That's a regular Wednesday night for me.
You again
The real question is how are you also here
WE are synchronizing
That's me in the Witcher ttrpg 😂
In german they are called "Irrlichter". It's a combination of the words "verirren" (to stray) and "Licht" (light) as they are lights that lead away from a safe path.
There is also the less common word "Sumpflicht" which combines the words "Sumpf" (bog) and "Licht" (light).
And also "Irrwisch", but I'm not sure, if the "wisch" part is just onomatopoeia for a fast movement or degraded slang for light.
Habe grade ein ähnliches Kommentar geschrieben bevor ich deins gesehen habe sorry.
The dutch Dwaallicht means the same, mein hochlandige geschwister!
Very similar to our Swedish "Irrbloss". Sort of like "stray/lost" + "flame/light". Sort of, haha.
@@MrRealyLP Alles gut ^^. Je mehr Kommentare, umso besser!
It's so fascinating that these "lights" are almost found in every country and culture and in different climates. From what's observed they appear during rainy seasons, after the rain, or some such, and appear in bogs and wetlands, marshes and swamps. Deforestation and urbanizing areas have minimized the phenomenon, so far. So yeah, I echo the sentiment "glow on"...
I think deforestation and the intrusion of agriculture and herding into wetlands make the lights. Disrupting the environment changes the environment to cause more anaerobic decay and more release of compounds like phosphine creates the lights.
Later on, urbanization kills the lights by completely building canals, or by partially restoring the wetlands with retention ponds.
@Lesteryay Trippy I'm not sure if you've scanned through some of the other comment, but there are many terms referring to the same phenomenon from Japan, France, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Finland, Chile, Argentina.... I'm willing to bet the list goes on.
EDIT: I scrolled even farther, and read there are terms for this same phenomena in Bengali & Ifugao (I may have spelled that incorrectly, my apologies), Brazil, Britain & Germany.
So, I won that bet (with myself). Unwrapping a fruit chew rn. Mmmm.
I feel that they little lights may not be supernatural.. probably completely natural. Decomposing vegetation could be found the world over. Anything decomposing will emit gases.
Where are the photos?
In Bengali, we call them "Aaleya" and I have heard stories about them usually from fishing communities, attributing them to the souls of dead fishermen, who can be either malevolent and lead to drowning or helpful and help avoid drowning. Love this channel and the work you guys do!
Ahh, finally!! I was scouring the comments to find out what they're called in India and Bengal's where we have our marshes!
Thank you :)
@@scurryfunge9581 You might also be interested to know that in the Rann of Kutch region, where there are salt flats, similar phenomena have been observed called "Cheer Batti". I don't know if there is any folk or supernatural explanation associated with it, though.
@@UrnaM92 Thanks! I dug around and found a Wondermondo article on the same. Cheer Battis apparently mean "ghost lights" in the local Kutch-Sindhi dialect and the phenomenon has even been documented by one Jugal Tiwari, a local biologist around 2010 in the Banni Grasslands.
The denizens do believe that the lights lead people astray, if followed.🙃
Definition is different as per religion. Bengali Hindus think they're some kind of spirit as you mentioned. Muslims think they're some sort of malevolent jinns.
@@oishofaizee7969 This is so fascinating, I had no idea. Thank you so much for sharing. Do you know of any literature or stories on this?
In south Louisiana, we call them feu follet which are supposedly the souls of unbaptized babies
I've heard this term in the Houston area from a Cajun when I was talking about the legends of Brazoria County.
I came here to say this, fellow Cajun viking.
I was playing liszt transcendental étude 5 when watching this
We also call them like that in France ! Though it’s more around cemetery trickster like creature for us.
In Chinese folklore, they are called "鬼火", or 'ghost fires', when the Lord of the underworld comes up to the surface, his underlings light up the way for him with their lanterns.
im reading a lot of wacky assumptions and folk-stories in this comment section and people from all over the world. Lol phillipines, france, japan, everyone calls it something different and has their own guess on what it is. I never actually heard of these, being from England. But yeh. I read somewhere its to do with combustion of gases or whatever, idk. As long as no one has brought something to back up the claims, it looks like something taken straight outa horror books. Remind me of scooby doo idk about you guys
Here in Brazil they are called "Boitatá", and they are sayd to be snakes made of fire. The name is made of two tupi-guarany words "boi" fire and "tata" snake.
Tupi-guarany is the main linguistic group of Brazillian indigenous populations.
So the current word for ox used to mean fire? Thats weird. Just like how the current word zombie meant ghost.
@@Yrvo12345 "boi" only means "ox" when you are translating from portuguese to englidh. Tupi-guarany is a linguistic branch of indigenous languages.
Just here to do my part to help inflate the numbers of a yt channel that really deserves it
How rare it is to find nice people on UA-cam nowadays, immediately warmed my heart
Bump
Eyyyy
This is one i and my friends have actually seen. So i have a love for this one. It was during summer and we had been out in the woodlands and swamps of southern alabama all day. We started heading back around twilight. Once we got back on the main road; a long two-lane road cutting threw the swamp, we saw a bluish-white orb. It floated about 3 or 4 feet off the ground and was about 200 feet a head of us in the center of the road. It seemed to stay in the same position and distance and was there until my Aunt drove past it looking for us. She said she never saw anything and about a month later we were talking about it to another group of friend when we saw it again. Ill never forget it and that made me believe in the supernatural.
This is so cool! I love reaidn stories like this, thank you for sharing it
*reading
In Ifugao we call it "Banbannilag". It is usually seen in rice terraces and path walks. If you seen it, there's a possibility that you'll go crazy.
Amazing how so many cultures have such similar stories.
This channel starts with exhaustive research combined then brings raconteur lecturing and a stylized animation department. This is so worth watching.
(How about fireflies lifting glow worms?)
That would be cute
@@camillastacey4674
Or the true explanation is scientific in which case.... blinded me with science.
@@ChrisConnolly-Mr.C-Dives-In There seems to be many cultures (judging by the comments section) that observe this phenomenon that wouldn't necessarily be backed up by this singular explanation. To what, do you think, can we owe all of those to?
@@noahmartinez7088 I am not sure, I can only begin to guess. Maybe there is something about human sensation and perception that goes across cultures. Or maybe there is something that science is not yet able to explain. What do you think?
This is one of the most underrated yt channel, also I’d love to see a vid on the grim reaper.
In Germany they are called "Irrlichter" which roughly translates to "stray/roaming lights".
I like how the "Flight of the Green Woodpecker" is used as a measure of speed.
Loved how it was assumed the reader would know exactly what that would look like.
@@camillastacey4674 To be fair to him, the people that he was writing for probably would have, or would have known someone who would.
Flight of the Green Woodpecker could be a new name for liszt transcendental étude 5 (feux follets), since it is much harder than flight of the bumblebee
I had an experience with floating oddities like these wisps. I was walking one night with my brother, and we encountered a cluster of 20-ish floating orbs of lights. They made no sound and hovered 16-18 ft above us, moving at about 8 mph. Just a bunch of orbs in red, yellow, green, blue, silver, orange, and purple, with a speck of white within each. Like the wisps, I'll never know what those lights were.
did they make a sound?
Christmas tree making its escape. But jokes aside that sounds so cool.
Maybe somebody near was blowing soap bubbles? Was it sunset, bubless could catch last rays of sunshine and appear to glow? Maybe sounds funny, but that could be one possible explanation.
LSD will make you see tons of colors
Chinese lanterns?
Back in the 80s a friend of mine encountered one while playing in our local creek.
Probably a polluted creek. I believe that these lights are the result of a mixture of methane and phosphine gasses. Phosphine is the ignition source, and it should not really exist without human intervention. Cool your friend saw it though.
Could you do a monstrous about fairies? I think they count as monsters, with all the conniving things they do. What do you think?
I think the fae would need a bunch of episodes, as there are many types. There's even more than one type of pixie.
They’ve covered a few different types of faeries already.
Still, a general fae episode (or, better yet, a fae series of episodes) would be awesome. Just saying.
My late father, who always had a skeptical mindset, used to tell us about the time when he was young during the 40´s and he was one night in his hometown Sahuaripa, here in Sonora Mexico, when in a vacant lot next to the street he saw a blue light floating still over the ground in one place, when he approached the hovering light and was about to reach it, it suddenly disappeared,. Always we thought it was a "Fuego Fatuo" (Ignis Fatuus) and his footsteps disturbed the ground and ended the natural phenomenon.
Some older parts of the British isles also have them as ghostly apparitions of those drowned in bogs and marshes who appear to lure travellers to their deaths in the bogs, so a less nice version of tricksters. Tolkien has them in the dead marshes in lord of the rings.
Oh and Dr. Z, your sneeze is cute and funny!
It made me seriously wince for the poor sound guy, who the Dr was apologizing too. Sound guys have headphones on and listen to the live recording at like 200-300% volume to try and pick up any background noise, so they can get rid of it. Often times sound guys will even set up their sound so that the low and high frequencies are even louder, since those are usually the ones that background noise occupy.
You can actually hear the mic clip, because her sneeze was that loud. It maxed out the microphone, plus it was a high pitched noise. That means the sound guy just got a deafening, wall-shaking sneeze right into his ear, probably loud enough that his ear was ringing afterwards.
@@MatthewSmith-sz1yq Going on the messages below it was her poor Director who got the brunt of it and they now set up a sneeze warning system lol. Forgot it was as you said likely higher as she is fairly quiet spoken. I love they put the bloopers in though as its more humanising.
I guess the ghosts don't wanna be lonely.
Annnnnd that sneeze is now my new ringtone.
Here in Spain we call them “fuegos fatuos” (directly derived from the Latin name you mention in the video, ignis fatuus)
That reminded me of alvaro fuego fatuo
Same for Italian, "fuoco fatuo"
In the Netherlands they are called dwaallichten, "Wander Lights". Blue light generally tends to be electricity or gas.
It's Marsh gas usually.
@@itarry4 Yes, but it needs an ignition source. Probably phosphene. Swamp methane won't burn by itself.
'Het Dwaallicht' is also a great Belgian novella by Willem Elsschot, which has no connection to the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon - but still. Have you ever heard of the mythological explanation that they're the souls of dead children, as said in this video? I haven't.
@@darnbricks Nope, me neither. Ik vind Willen Elsschot een geweldige schrijver trouwens.
@@Bacopa68 Ignition source could be the rotting plant matter. Chemical reactions during rotting process generate heat which is sometimes able to cause spontaneous ignition. In the past wet hay was know to catch fire this way, completely on its own.
After many years of reading about the Will-o-the-wisp, my husband and I were very startled to encounter one when out for an evening drive, in Ontario, Canada. It hovered at the edge of the paved road, and ignited with a powerful light, that had the intensity of magnesium when it burns, but with a blue cast, *as our car passed through it!* To say that we were startled would be an understatement. It was not identifiable with anything we had ever encountered before, and certainly nothing like the color or size of a firefly. It was more as if an orb of air, 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) in diameter had caught fire, burning with a dazzling brilliance, then was suddenly gone. We felt nothing as the car went through it, and it left no mark on the hood where it impacted, leading us to assume that, despite it's intensity, it had no heat. I grew up spending every summer at a cottage near a swamp, and I have never encountered anything like this in fifty-five years. Our swamps in the area are filled with "swamp gas" or the gas produced by decomposing vegetation, but it has never to my knowledge, or that of anyone we know, ignited. If the explanation was that mundane, there would be many more encounters with the Will-o-the-wisp. No one that we know has ever experienced anything like what we saw that night... and we cannot hazard a guess as to what it was. It simply *was* for a few moments, and then was not! We are delighted that we had the encounter, and that there are still many mysteries flourishing in this amazing world!
We Bengalis also have Will O' Wisps, they are known as "Aleya/Atoshi".
According to legends, Aleya are the ghosts of the dead fishermen who died while fishing and appear as strange hovering marsh lights. The Aleyas confuse fishermen, make them lose their bearings, and sometimes even lead them to drowning if one decides to follow them moving over the marshes. There are also good Aleyas who help fishermen avoid dangers.
These beliefs were widespread in the Sundarban delta, across India and Bangladesh where this natural phenomenon is commonly observed.
Maybe it's not that nobody's seen them recently, but that nobody who's seen them has made it back to tell us about it
Because they have forgotten the legends. They don’t know never to follow the flames.
Many, many people have seen floating lights in recent times. I don't know why she made that claim, other than to distance the show from the numerous accounts that are experienced more commonly as paranormal phenomena.
No, I saw them in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in 2000. So did my sister and our cousin. We believed it to be a phosphorescent plant or gas given off by one.
I have seen one! I was camping in the Lake District UK in 2021, I was wondering afterwards if there was any folklore that matched with what I saw and that’s how I found out about will o the wisp, it was a blue glowing light leading me away from the tent. It had also been raining a lot on the trip but it was a dry clear night when I saw it
I saw one yesterday right where I live, 50-75m from my house, so here's a recent encounter report ;) And yes I am cursing a lot right now I did not have my phone to document.
There has been a lot of rain lately, over 100mm during a couple of weeks, and the ground is already always swamp-like in that direction. Yesterday was the first warm and sunny day and sighting was around 23:10 local time (Sweden).
It fits well for the conditions described in the video. The "flame" was yellow/orange though not blue. It lasted for 2-3 minutes. I went there just now when there was daylight but ofc nothing to find (was half exptecting to find burnt ground..)
I will keep an eye out tonight (and have my phone ready..) but given how rare this appears to be there is probably not much hope.
I have never seen anything like it before, I can understand how it gave birth to the folk tales in the old days.
They are called “santelmo” in general in the Philippines, rooted on Spanish colonization. But each ethnic group has their own indigenous names for them. In our ethnic group, we call them “allawig”, & we believe they can be brought by fire owls. In some places, they are also described as some sort of vapors from blood that touched the ground.
My dad told me once that when he and his cousin were walking home with his uncle, they walked past this field. He saw a "little candle light" following them. He had his cousin look, too, and the two boys nervously kept looking back at the little light as they walked on.
He has alzheimers now, so I can't exactly talk to him about the experience or tell him the theory of where the light might have come from...
My dad was not religious or superstitious, so it was very interesting to hear him tell me that story. The only other story he had of something supernatural was when he swore he saw the Cipitio as a young boy at night. He said he saw it racing into his neighbor's garage.
These stories probably took place between 1938-1945.
Fascinating!, can you please explain what Cipitio is?
@@cosmicgirl7288 Cipitio is a legendary character from Salvadoran folklore revolving around the Siguanaba and Cadejo legends. He is generally portrayed as an 8- to . ( copied from the Internet)
I saw one of these when I was 16 on Halloween night in a open field, it was 60 feet away from me and was roughly the size of a basket ball with a faint orange core that was surrounded by a flickering white flame that rose off it like smoke, it glowed but didn't put off any light on the ground and it also seemed to phase in and out of reality by flickering really fast, almost like a film being played really slow on a old fashioned movie projector, I watched it slowly float across this field for almost a minute then without warning it shot off into the treeline at the edge of the field so fast it left a trail of light in the sky that faded away seconds later.
Sounds a lot like descriptions of the ball lighting.
Here in Brazil, the elders call this "Bola de fogo", "Fireball". And the most common color described is bright yellow, orange or red. My grandfather described that its warm and really floats!
In Portuguese it is called "fogo fátuo", a translation of the latin expression that appeared twice in this video.
something similar can also be found in the philippines! the "santelmo" (from spanish "san elmo" and english "st. elmo's fire") is a mysterious, often malevolent spirit that appears as a fireball and appears at night, usually appearing to 'fight' another of its kind or follow the person who sees it. a story told to me by a relative warns to bury a dead body at once, lest it be struck by lightning and attract a santelmo that would follow you.
Interesting. When a plane flies through clouds with a certain electrical charge, this charge is diffused onto the nose of the plane and the pilots experience this as a blue electrical discharge across the windshield. Search for "St Elmo's Fire Airplane cockpit" in UA-cam and you'll see it.
Those things I know as fuegos fatuos, which is Spanish for ignis fatuus and it's related to ghosts who left an unknown treasure buried somewhere. Apparently, it's also called luces de muerto (deadman's lights) and they're known to be seen near cemeteries, at least in my country...
In Danish it's a Lygtemand (Lampman) - small creatures that carry a small lamp to lure people into swamps for them to perish.
To protect your self from them you should turn your cap / beanie inside out.
Don't point at one because you will draw him to you if you do.
they don't like rude people
Dr. Emily indeed is a very engaging host and fantastic storyteller!!
I love the monstrum series!! It's a very engaging and unique representation. And I really enjoy it. 😇😇
*will-O’-the-wisp babe, oh baby it’s blue flame~*
In Vietnamese folklores, these are called ma trơi. They are belived to be souls of sodiers and warriors who died without proper burials and appears to call for their friends and family. When I was small, I was told to never approach them when I walked by the cemetary at night because they can take children with them as "companion"
In Australia we have Min Min Lights, famous around the towns of Winton and Boulia. I actually visited both towns but since we didn't head out into the outback at night we had no hope of seeing them :(
And then there were the ghostly blue flames as described from a distance by Jonathan Harker in the novel; Dracula, as a mysterious coachman takes him on a midnight ride through the Carpathians to The Count's castle. His host would later tell that they indicated the locations of buried treasure.
I remember
I forgot about that.
In Australia they are known as Min min lights,I've actually seen one from a distance . Always wanted to visit Brown mountain or Hessdalen to witness their lights.
Allow me to give proper recognition to the Will-O-Wisp diagram from the AD&D Monster Manual from 1977 at 1:03 . Well met.
Monstrum, you always make my day.
Heyya! In India, they're called "Kacch Prakash" which basically means mysterious glow. There are many stories of lone lights or groups of lights encountered by people in the middle of forests or paddy-fields late at night. They're usually associated with a visual representation of wandering souls. So essentially ghosts. However, there are several regional variations to this.
There are stories in the region that I'm from, for example, where some lone traveller will spot a distant flame in a paddy-field next to the road they are travelling on, on a cold winter's night. As the traveler approaches the flame thinking it to be some kind of campfire, the flame will move away and lead the traveler astray until they're lost. Sometimes, they're never heard of again.
Wow! I didn’t realize that there was so much history and legit legends behind will o the wisps...
They happen everywhere humans encroach upon freshwater wetlands. Humans cut down trees adding to carbon release, we drain land that's still kind of swampy, we move in grazing animals that up the nitrogen levels, and thus the remaining swamp cannot reprocess phosphorous and in the absence of oxygen from excess waste, the swamp starts producing methane. Compounds like phosphine ignite the methane. Healthy swamps do not do this.
I'd love a monstrum about the Klabautermann, it's a goblin-like little creature dressed in sailor's garb that lives on ships in northern Europe, depending on interpretation he's benevolent and helps out around the ship, but may be a bit mischievous and play pranks, sometimes he's a bit more malicious and causes problems on purpose. But seeing him is pretty much always an omen of death and shipwreck. I grew up on tales about him and he scared the chap outta me lmao
Idk how this channel popped up on my main page. But I'm glad it did. I love the ones about creatures and their lores. Coming from someone that enjoys games like castelvania, witcher, and so on i am absolutely obsessed with this stuff. keep up the good work.
In my region, north of Argentina, it's call "Luz mala", and it is quite common to hear about it...
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luz_mala
I've always found these to be beautiful and magical
In Japan they're often called Kitsunebi or "Fox fires" and may also have played a part in the Tale of the Peony Lantern, which is the story that long story short, ends in people seeing a "ghostly light" in the distance and saying it's Otsuyu and her peony lantern. As a side note, your sneeze is so cute!
I saw a canwyll corff, in the garden of my great uncle, while his coffin was in the house in Snowdonia North Wales. I saw it the day before his funeral. Uncle John loved his garden, and I believe that it was his spirit taking a last look over his beloved garden.
I was 12 at the time, & I thought of uncle John, as a grandfather to me. I ran into the house to tell my father ( who was on vigil) of the canwyll corff of uncle John, but when we came back out. It was gone!
It floated about the garden approximately 2 feet off the ground, no sound no flickering. It was beautiful! BTW we don't have fireflies in this country.
Here in Philippines we have Santelmo/Santermo("Apoy ni San Elmo"/"St. Elmo's Fire").
Absolutely loved this! We definitely need some more Monster/Creature folklore videos like this.
"Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus..."
That's what I was thinking 😆
I love how Jay uses this as an explanation for him blowing stuff up with the noisy cricket, even though they all seen him using it.
Nah, no reason to invoke Venus, though you are not half wrong. The source of the light is a phosphorous compound that ignites the methane. And it is human encroachment on swamps that causes the effect. Stable swamp biomes don't release much methane and have complex chains of bacteria and plants that assure that every precious atom of phosphorous gets recycled. Logging, draining swamps for grazing, and farming afterwards create the conditions for the lights.
BTW: "Phosphorous" is "morning star" in English. AKA Venus.
*"HOW TO IDENTIFY ALLEGED SIGHTINGS:*
*1. Pie plates, or as reflections in the atmosphere.*
*2. Dry cleaning bags filled with marsh gas, or*
*3. Mass insanity."*
- Firesign Theatre, "Everything You Know Is Wrong"
@@Bacopa68 Dude...it's a quote from "Men In Black"...
i just found your channel, i really enjoy all the stories!! Keep telling all these stories there Amazing!!
9:58 Bless you Dr. Z.
That was one of the cutest sounding sneezed I've ever heard from a person it was almost like a puppy
love reading in the comments all the different ways the will-o-the-wisp is called around the world!
here in Brazil they're called "fogo-fátuo". The term comes from the Latin mentioned in the video, and the word "fátuo" isn't very commonly used. it means "short lived", "cocky" or "foolish", while "fogo" means "fire", so: "brief fire", "cocky fire" or "silly fire"
Whether it was deliberate or not, now I see the reason the reason of the existance of the fairy Pyro Jack in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.
He certainly combines the concepts of the Jack-O'-Lantern and Will-O'-the-Wisp, so yeah. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking of him.
@@albatross1688 You have a point. If I recall it right,there is a old demon based on Will-o'-the-wisps which appear on SMT If...
@@joshuaarceo9938 Is that so? I'll have to look that up. I enjoy the way SMT and Persona present various deities and mythological figures, so I'm certainly interested in seeing what they may have chosen for the Will-o'-the-Wisp.
You rock, you are fantastic, you are a kick ass presenter. I thought I knew what the Ignis Fatuus was. I thought I had a good understanding and then you just come in like "YO HERE'S A TON MORE TO LEARN!" Anyway, I'm only half way through the video, I had to pause it and say thanks. This is really helpful for my current project.
In Java they known as "Lampor" while harmless they usually poped up in large number. It used to be a common things to see in rural area in the past but very rare to see today. Some old folks say that If u came close to it u can see the actual form of it as a toddler with lil flame floating above the head
I've seen one of these phenomena. But not in a swamp. On the mountain on my farm. In the barbeque area. It was late at night, during the dry South African winter months. I can't explain it. Nothing was burning. No smoke. Just a very bright blue flame above the barbeque place. And after quite some minutes, it vanished instantly.
In philippines we have this same thing it's a red ball of fire we called it "Santelmo" it appear in places where accidents will happen like a bad omen.
we have the same thing in the northeast of Brazil! They are red flames that will float around and lead you to gold mines and treasures.
Awesome! How are they called there?
@@triccele they're called "boitatá" from tupi guarani (a native language) that translates to wisp of the night!
@@gecgec9617 eu nem imaginava que o boitatá fosse um Will-o’-the-Wisp, bom saber!
Ohhhh Wisp from Animal Crossing seems to be based on them. The fragments that he loses if frightened look just like the Will-O'-The-Wisps
The music chosen for this episode is *chef kiss*
In Japan they have similar type of floating flames, usually near old graveyards. Some have claimed that there are gases released from freshly buried bodies (before cremation became the norm). Often they are associated with ghostly apparitions or are signs of foreboding to warn people that they are treading in places they should not be.
People who used to work in Hawaiian plantations also reported seeing glowing balls that seem to disappear once you catch up with them.
Been binge watching these awesome documentaries! Better late than never!
Just like many other languages derived from Latin, in Italian as well they are called "fuoco fatuo".
I cannot think of much related Italian folklore about them, despite our good dose of swamps, but the most common story is that they are ghosts just wandering around, usually accompanied by other types of otherworldly apparitions
Can’t help after watching about the fascinating folklore of Willo-the-wisp without thinking of the great Kenneth Williams and one of my favourite afternoon cartoons, what a voice!
Each country has it's own name for it not even borrowing words. So I guess it's real.
Love love this series! Thank you for the beautiful storytelling you all do around the history, myth and science! I would love to see one on the fae / faries!
World of Warcraft: Night Elf Campaign
I see will-o-the-wisp & more
Hi there Dr. Emily Z... Here in the
Philippines we have here "SANTELMO" just like will-o-the-wisp, but i dont know if SANTELMO & W.O.T.WISP is the Same kind of Ball of fire...
Please do an episode on changelings! Love the show.
“Perhaps then, dare i say it, luminescent owls?”
*trey the explainer has entered the chat*
But what about luminescent basking sharks?
Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well
One magic is undeniable: The visuals together with the narration. Both are true magic! 🧚🏿♀️🧚🏿♀️🥰 While I enjoyed this video I thought your style would lend itself to magnificent fairytale readings!
George Maxwell, a British officer stationed in Malaya, saw these things but it was hovering on top of a hill. And then they move, at great speed, over his position. The locals, however, attributed these as manifestations of another creature Monstrum already covered in the past: the penanggal.
I've been hoping for this one!!! Thank you Monstrum, keep being awesome!
If cats had a mythology, laser pointers would certainly fill a similar role to will-o'-whisps
Another awesome video Dr.Zarka, keep up the awesome work! Also, cutest sneeze EVER!
In Cornish traditions there is a fairy called Joan the Wad, a wad being a bundle of sticks for burning, it's thought she's named for this reason.
Also in Hastings, England, there is a story about the witch Hannah Clarke who fell in love with a smuggler, and would use her lantern to guide him safely across the marsh at night. When he got lost on the marsh, Hannah went looking for him and believed the wispy lights to be his spirit or him under enchantment, so she collected them in her lantern, took it home, and it never left her side. That was roughly 18th century.
In China will-o'-the-wisps are called “鬼火”(literally "ghostly fire"). From what I heard of, in China, ghostly fires were mostly spotted in wild cemeteries(places where poor people who can't afford a proper burial ditch corpses, the remains are usually poorly buried or not buried at all, thus creepy places). Thus in Chinese(and Japanese) culture, ghostly fires are mostly associated with the dead and Afterlife. Human remains do release phosphorus gas, which match with the scientific explaination. Modern encounters with will-o'-the-wisps became rare were due to improved burial condition and the implement of cremetising.
This is intriguing. I always thought that 1) they were proven to be igniting swamp gas and 2) were still common sights at swamps. The fact they were cool to the touch and appeared only for a certain period in history and have ceased appearing is very fascinating. It puts a damper on the swamp gas theory.
Will of the wisps aren't only found near bogs. They often even happen in forests, far from water.
Yeah but that doesn't fit the sciencey explanation so we can't talk about that
I saw it once next to a cascade. A stream of freshwater cutting through rocks.
Wow these episodes just keep getting cooler and cooler.
Every Halloween Tracer is referred to as Will-O’-The-Wisp and I never understood. Now it makes perfect sense. A trickster... and you can always see her chest piece as she runs through time. Thanks for teaching me things like this!
finally, a "monster" that exists in Hungarian folklore too (we have such a lack of ghosts, cryptids and the like), but a version of this exists called the lidérc
sometime after the Second World War, we in Croatia also had stories about these lights. They always appeared in pairs. They would follow people for a while and fly away. In our country, people called them "Duplers". These were believed to be the souls of fallen soldiers, and I think they were yellow in color.
I am from the Mizo tribe of Northeast India. We have a similar type of phenomenon in our folklores. Brave warriors who sleep in the forest (We're a tribe living in the mountains of lushai hills) see these strange line of lights that appears in a distant. There's usually a lot of them, in a line, blinking all the way. Those near it cant see it. We call them "Traumei chherchhi"