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The Will O' The Wisps

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William Forsell Kirby
The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country
John C. Nimmo, London
1895
Estonia
The Will O’ The Wisps: marsh lights, deception, wandering, spirits, night, danger, liminality, folklore, mystery, illusion
Public Domain (copyright expired)
n/a

The Will O' The Wisps

A farmer was driving home one winter evening from Fellin across the Parika heath, when he suddenly saw a little blue flame on one side, and his horse stopped short and would not move. It was as if he had been stopped by a ditch. He dismounted, and found not a ditch, but an open pit; and he could not drive round it, because there was deep water on all sides. Presently he saw a light flare up like a torch, and then another, till many of them were flitting about everywhere. In consternation, the farmer cried out, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what's going on here tonight?" The horse sprang forward, as if somebody had stuck a pin into him, and the farmer had only just time to tumble on the sledge, when they went off at full gallop; and the farmer could say that the name of God had occurred to him just at the right time.

Folktales, Fairytales, myths, legends, stories, fantasy

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