Will-o'-the-Wisp Archives

T.W. Cook (1815), after a drawing by Pether taken on the spot in Lincolnshire, 1811. Source: Polehampton, Gallery of Nature and Art (1815, Vol IV, opp. p.494).

Articles from antiquity on the matter of the ignis fatuus:

• Anonymous "Y." (1862), Letter to The Times
• Anonymous (1834), The Courant and Times
• C. Leeson Prince (1891), Notes and Queries
• E.G.R. (1855), Notes and Queries
• Ethel Rudkin (1938), Folk-Lore
• F. Ramsbotham (1891), Royal Meteorological Society Journal
• Henry Duncan (1847), Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons
• J. H. Humfrey (1862), Letter to the Times
• Jabez Allies (1840), Worcester Newspapers
• James Motley (1848), Tales of the Cymry
• John Aubrey (c.1697), Natural History of Wiltshire
• John Brand (1777), John Brand on Will With A Wisp
• Julian Jackson (1841), What to Observe
• L. Blesson (1832), Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal
• R. Overton (1839), Will with a Wisp
• R. S. Kirby (1820), Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum
• Richard Chambers (1830), Observations on Ignes Fatui
• Robert Southey (1849), Common-place Book
• T. L. Phipson (1862), Letter to The Times
• Thomas Lamb Phipson (1862), Phosphorescence
• William Derham (1729), Of the Meteor Called the Ignis Fatuus
• William Fulke (1563), Fulke's Meteors
• William Kirby (1843), An Introduction to Entomology

All of the quoted content in these articles is in the public domain, but since they took many hours to transcribe please credit this site if you use them anywhere.