posted on Mar, 6 2007 @ 12:02 AM
Well,well. These things can sometimes be confusing.Usually because there
is so many different versions or studies on so many different creatures or entities,that sometimes different stories can cross.
Now as far as Will o Wisps are concerned I can say this....
There can be alot of speculation on where the name originated, Will O Wisp, or Will of the wisp may have came from the term willow wisp.
Much of it depends on which story youve heard or which study you follow.
Here is one story.
There is in my travels a story I once heard where a beautiful women who was being lied to by a man she was in love with(he was having an affair on his
wife).When the man was found out by his wife he called the woman a witch. The word of this spread and soon the woman was taken deep
in the forest and tied to a tree and stoned to death.
This act of betrayal and deception angered the spirits of the earth and
forest.The womans spirit battered and in dispair left her body and entered the tree to which she had been tied.Not thinking anything of it the
townsfolk left the site taking the remains of the maiden with them.
Now the maidens spirit was sad and her spirit wept for her broken heart and she hated the man whom had used her and destroyed her heart.
so the tree began to weep,and weep and weep,over time a great and deep pond grew around the tree,and it became known to few as the great weeping
willow. As the tree wept it is said that she started to change and turn into a dryad (a human/tree.hybrid).
Soon the deep pond became a safe heaven for all forest folk and creatures.The Sad dryad kept a close watch over her forest. .
Never forgetting what had happened to her, the dryad hated human kind and had suffered them first hand,For this she would forever have them suffer by
her hand rather then have anything innocent in her forest be ruined by them.
Okay this is where it gets a little separated in things.
It is said that villagers would often hear this women singing in the woods,accompanied by guiding lights.which guide them to the dryads
water(pond,lake,river)to drown. Or they would hear a woman singing or crying and go looking for her. sometimes flashes can be seen further and further
into the woods. The person or people would be lured into the woods where they would get lost
Some say the lights themselves are singing and are little faeraes,whom in this case are helpers who try to lure the men to the dryad with the song of
seduction,or something similar..
Aswell the story of the witch/dryad can differ.
Sometimes it will be children being lured away,In this story it is usually a woman searching for her lost children whom dies near the tree weeping and
is searching for them still.
drunken men whom are walking home from the pub/bar whatever.
Also there are other stories that are totallydifferent from this tale.
aswell simply early explainations for fireflys LOL
[edit on 6-3-2007 by toraylin]