Pooka, Turnips, and Will-o-wisps

So. Through some of Mary's suggestions, I have discovered even more facts that I find interesting relating to hobgoblins. If you're tired of this nonsense by now, I suggest you skip this post. However, I find it most interesting.

Mary referred me to some articles having to do with Old Manse, a house where Hawthorne lived with Sophia right after they were married, and later Emerson lived there. Emerson wrote one of my favorite essays of his there. This essay, "Nature," holds many parallels to an essay by Nietzsche of the same subject. Since, Emerson and Nietzsche did correspond, and were fond of each other, I think this similarity makes sense.

So I went to look into this story by Hawthorne, and he too mentions hobgoblins.

"And, what was strangest,neither did our mirth seem to disturb the propriety of the solemn woods; although the hobgoblins of the old wilderness and the will-of-
the-wisps that glimmered in the marshy places might have come trooping
to share our table-talk and have added their shrill laughter to our merriment. It was the very spot in which to utter the extremest nonsense or the profoundest wisdom, or that ethereal product of the mind which partakes of both, and may become one or the other, in correspondence with the faith and insight of the auditor.

So, amid sunshine and shadow, rustling leaves and sighing waters, up
gushed our talk like the babble of a fountain."

(A beautiful feeling for the newlyweds.)

I have not finished this story yet, however my general feel is that Hawthorne as well did not attach too much fear to hobgoblins.

I then began to poke around trying to learn about will-of-the-wisps, remembering some harsh battles (which I always lost) with them in the game Oblivion. I have compiled a list of things I learned today as a result.

1) a. Will-o-wisps are lights that appear in marshes, and lead unsuspecting innocents to their deaths.

b. There are a few different stories explaining will-o-wisps. One is that an evil blacksmith was refused admittance to heaven by St. Peter, but given a second chance at life. However, he blew it. The devil too refused him admittance, but gave him one coal. Another version, the Irish version I am told, has a man sale his soul to the devil in order to pay off his tab at the pub. However, once the tab is paid off, he tricks the devil into going up a tree and the carves a cross on the trunk so that the devil cannot climb back down. In return for removing this cross, the devil gives up his claim on the man's soul. However, once again, both heaven and hell refuse to take him after death, so he runs around playing tricks on those lost in the marshes. He sees around by building a lantern out of a turnip, and then putting a light inside it.

c. Jack-o-lanterns and will-o-wisps descend from the same legends. From turnips to pumpkins, and from Will to Jack.

2) a. I learned that not only is Shakespeare's Puck a hobgoblin, but he is also a Pooka where he gets his namesake. (A Pooka, like a hobgoblin, is generally seen as a dishonest and mischievous character.)

b. Puck also shares characteristics of the will-o-wisp, however. Will-o-wisps also range from mischievous to malicious in legend. He is seen as a hobgoblin, who might do your chores and bring you luck if you don't cross him. And as a light that might guide you to safety or to doom.

c. Puck, however is also in the tradition of Robin Goodfellow. Robin Goodfellow is often portrayed a satyr. This in part because hobgoblins and will-o-wisps had evolved, culturally speaking, into malicious creatures and were often synonymous with Satan. Of course, you did not want to use his name so you said, Robin Goodfellow. I know from past research that the satyrs, once associated with lust and hedonism, were later portrayed as demons by the Church leading to representations of Satan as a satyr. Probably didn't help that the words are similar (or maybe followed from that?)

I don't know what all I am trying to say here. One thing is that I wish as I was exposed to Hawthorne and Shakespeare, I could have been exposed to more of the legends these two pulled their inspiration from.

Another thing is that I am constantly surprised by connections in the world.

Another thing I wonder, is why Hawthorne chose hobgoblins and will-o-wisps specifically. Obviously these must have been prominent legends in New England at the time. Probably why both Hawthorne and Emerson draw upon them. They both seem to rely on a mischievousness ranging from cute to dangerous. So much so that the two legends, plus the slightly different legend of the pooka, are all combined in the single character Puck.

Will-o-wisps seem to be more associated with the wilderness, especially marshes. Whereas hobgoblins, I don't think travel much. They seem to plague the home. However, Hawthorne identifies them with the "old wilderness". He doesn't seem to talk about them with much fear, regardless. He seems to think the magic of the spot holds its own sort of immunity, and even if they were to interact with the couple it seems that it would be in a friendly sort of way (sharing laughter with them). Of course, Hawthorne isn't making a wide reaching statement, his use of hobgoblins and will-o-wisps is meant to help describe how isolated and wild the Old Manse is. The wilderness does not disturb the newlyweds, and they do not disturb it.

However, you see a very different story in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Next stop, finishing Hawthorne's Old Manse story, rereading Sleepy Hollow since tis the season anyways, and then maybe rereading "Midsummer Night's Dream" after all these years.

(I also ordered a collection of Kipling's works including "Puck of Pook's Hill," which cost only $1, and sparked my interest)