“The Tale of Willy-The-Wisp” As told to me by my Great Grandfather.
It is Shamhain (Halloween) once again and today I decided to share a little story my great grandfather told me when I was very young! The story about Will-o-the-Wisp or as my great grandfather called it "Willy-The-Wisp." There are countless different versions to the story, each one different but have similar plots, but this was the one I heard from my great grandfather! My grandfather was born and raised in Dublin Ireland and had LOTS of rich old stories to share! Sadly I can barely remember the majorities for I didn't quiet understand them, but this one story perked my interested because I was really into ghost stories at that age! This was one of the last stories I ever heard from him, because about two months later he suffered a stroke and lost a big chunk of his memory...he forgot all the old stories he told me! whines But thankfully this one story stayed alive with me and so I wanted to share it with y'all! smiles My grandfather told me this story when I asked if we could carve pumpkins, my great grandfather laughed and said "Pumpkins is it? Didn't you know that pumpkins are not native to Ireland? The original Jack-o-lantern as yee called it, is actually a turnip! Have I told you the story about Willem O'Hare, the only man in all the world who tricked the devil and won?" I shook my head no and he asked, "Well today he is called Willy-The-Wisp, the ghost light you see floating around the moors at night!" This excited me and so we sat down and he told me the story! giggles Afterwards we carved turnips into Jack-o-lanterns and had a ball doing it! Hope you enjoy the story, despite it not being furry! smiles
P.S. I tried to tell the story in the accent of my great grandfather to add to its richness! =^_^=
"The Tale of Willy-The-Wisp" As told to me by my Great Grandfather.
Long ago there was a poor blacksmith by the name of Willem O'Hare. Willem, better known to his friends as Willy The Hammer, for he was always hard at work in his forge hammering red hot iron into horseshoes and mending broken wagon hitches. It was back breaking work and earned him little enough coin to keep himself fed and with a roof over his head. The ground went sour and his crops withered to ash before harvest came, his wife took sick to the heart and died from the loss of their wee babe who died in his crib before he was barely three weeks from his mother's womb. Willy buried them both in the O'Hare family plot in the church cemetery; both mother and babe are now together in the hereafter.
Willy was tired, tired of being poor, tired of struggling to live another day and just tired of being tired from shaping iron into form every day of his life! "THE DEVIL TAKE IT ALL!" He cried out one day, when it all came to a head and he could no longer bare to see another rod of hot iron! "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" He screamed up to God and shook his fist. "First you took me hearing, I can barely hear from hammering iron all these years! You took me crops and left me nothing too keep me wife and meself fed! You took me babe! He starved to death because me wife was too starved to give milk! You took it all away from me! I curse you and if the devil himself were to appear before me, I'd trade him my soul for three things! THREE THINGS you denied me in my prayers!" He sealed his curse with a spit and stopped his foot on the ground. The devil upon hearing Willy's venomous ranting to God, couldn't resist such an offer and not long after Willy sealed his curse, the devil appeared before him in a flash of fire and brimstone.
"I have heard your words and have come to make a deal! Name these three things you feel your immortal soul is worth and it shall be yours!" The devil said to Willy in a voice of malevolence. Willy was surprised the devil had heard his words and had come in person to strike a deal. He was reluctant at first but he was desperate and he was tired of living a life of poverty, a lifetime of wealth was very tempting and Willy felt in his heart it wasn't worth losing his immortal soul...but suddenly, an idea popped into his head! I'll have to be cleaver and keep me wits about meself, else the devil will drag me soul to hell before I can enjoy meself! Willy thought to himself and with a sly smile he thought up his three wishes, one was original, the second and third he'd changed to suit his strategy.
"I'm tired of being poor and having nothing to keep meself fed and happy! Perhaps if you were to fill me only good boot with as much gold as it could hold come morn, that be me first wish!" Willy told the devil who smiled back with a wicked grin. "Your wish is simple enough and you shall have it! Granted! Come tomorrow morning your boot will be filled with as much gold as it can hold! Now your second wish?" Willy then replied, "I'd like a new hammer for me forge, but a hammer that once you take in hand and used, it will not stop hammering until I tell you too!" The devil found this wish very unusual, but he had little understanding of the wants of mortals and so granted Willy's second wish. The devil reached into the red hot coals of the forge and pulled out a marvelous hammer that sparkled with as if it were made of silver and gold. The devil gave Willy his new hammer and requested he make his final wish! "I'd like a new chair for me house, but a chair that once you sit in it, it you can never get up from it unless I say you may get up!" The devil was suspicious at first about this last and very unusual wish, but with a shrug of his shoulders he granted Willy his new chair and said before vanishing into a puff of fire and brimstone. "I give you until the end of your days to enjoy your wishes, but come the day you take your last breath, you must give the devil what is due!" With an evil laugh that echoed throughout the land, the devil was gone.
That night Willy took his only good boot and with his pocket knife, he cut a big hole in the bottom of it and hanged it up above the highest rafter he could find in his house. Willy chuckled to himself as he looked at the boot and said, "Let's see how much coin you can spare you old fool!" That morning the devil took a shovel full of gold and sent it to appear in Willy's boot. The devil sensed that the boot wasn't full yet and taking another shovel full he sent to Willy's boot and once again he sensed the boot wasn't full! Many hours later, the devil shoveled, shovel full upon shovel full of gold into Willy's boot and it was yet still not full! "How much can one boot hold!?" The devil snarled exhausted from all the shoveling he had done and when he was out of gold, he appeared outside Willy's house that so over full with gold, the windows and door gave way. "I'VE BEEN TRICKED!" The devil cried and stomped on up to Willy who was busy hammering away at a horseshoe. "You violated the trust of our deal and thus your soul is forfeit to me!" Willy nodded his head and said meekly, "Tis you are right, I thought I could trick the almighty devil himself and have lost, my soul is yours but I hate to leave when I have unfinished work that needs to be done! If you could but help me finish this one last job, I'd go with you gladly!" The devil was charmed by Willy's good sportsmanship, he gladly offered to help him finish up his work and took up the new hammer he gave Willy and started hammering away.
It wasn't long till the devil figured out he was tricked once again, as much as he wanted too, he couldn't stop hammering and working the forge! Nonstop the devil hammered horseshoe upon horseshoe and didn't stop hammering even till the last shred of iron was shaped into a horseshoe! "STOP! STOP! I DEMAND YOU MAKE ME STOP!" The devil cried out and Willy only shook his head no, "I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING! JUST MAKE ME STOP!" The devil cried out again as he was desperate and knew Willy would have him hammer till doomsday if he could! "If you give me lets say, forty years of life, I'll agree to make you stop!" The devil without a second thought cried out, "GRANTED! GRANTED! NOW MAKE ME STOP!" Upon that Willy told the Devil to stop hammering, the hammer red hot from working nonstop melted into molten iron as it hit the floor and the Devil vanished instantly in a puff of fire and brimstone!
Forty years later to the day, the Devil returned and said, "Willem O'Hare! A deal is a deal! No more tricks, no more extensions and no more nonsense! Your soul rightfully belongs to me and I shall have it now!" Willy was getting up in years, his bones ached and cracked and he said to the devil, "Fair enough old devil, but alas, I'm not as young as I used to be! If you could but have a set for a while and give me time to regain my strength, I'll go with you gladly!" The devil grumbled to himself with annoyance he had to wait a little while longer and without thinking he took a set in the chair Willy had wished for.
"NO!" The devil roared out as he found he had yet been tricked once again by the cleaver mortal! Once he took a set he discovered he was unable to get up on his own free will! "LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" The devil demanded and on that note Willy got up slowly, took some red hot tongs that were heating in the fire, reached over, took the devil by his nose and stretched it across the room! The devil cried out and screamed in agony as Willy stretched out his nose. "I GIVE UP! I GIVE UP! YOU CAN HAVE YOUR RETECHED SOUL! I PROMISE I'LL NEVER LAY HANDS ON IT! I SWEAR IT! PLEASE LET ME GO!" Willy laughed and released the devil by his nose that snapped back into his face. "You may get up you old devil but go and remember that it was Willem O'Hare who bested you at your game!" The devil instantly vanished into a puff of fire and brimstone and he never returned.
Willy had tricked the devil and won, but fate would play even a crueler trick on ol'Willy! Willy died at the age of a hundred and ten, but when he reached the pearly gates of heaven, St. Peter told him because he cursed God and made a deal with the devil, he was never to enter the kingdom of heaven! Willy was heartbroken he would never get to rejoin his wife and wee infant in heaven, but it was very cold and dark in limbo and decide that hell might not be such a bad place after all. "Tis I'll be warm at least!" he said to himself as he made the long journey down to hell.
As he approached the gates of hell he heard the devil cry out, "SHUT THE GATES FOR HERE HE COMES!" Upon that note the gates to hell slammed shut and blocked Willy's way in. "But Devil, you won after all! I'm not allowed into heaven, my immortal soul is yours!" The devil quickly replied, "I promised to never touch your soul and even if I hadn't of promised it, I wouldn't allow you in here anyway! Go away Willy!" Willy pounded on the gates and yelled out, "But it is very cold and dark in limbo! How can I go when I cannot see where I lay me feet?" Upon hearing that the devil took an ember of hell fire coal and threw it over the gates. "HERE TAKE IT! NOW JUST GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK!" Willy looked down at the hell fire coal and tried to pick it up, it burned colder then ice and stung his hand! He dropped the coal and looked around for a way to carry it. He had nothing on himself except his pocket knife and a ripe turnip he had planned to eat for dinner before he died.
Taking his pocket knife he carved the turnip into a lantern and set the ember of hell fire coal that burnt colder then ice but brighter then a normal lantern within the heart of the turnip! Willy then made his long journey back to limbo where he walks even to this day!
So you if you are out on the moors at night and you see the wisp of glowing ghost light, that be ol'Willy, known in life as Willy The Hammer, but now in death he is Willy The Wisp, wandering around in limbo, always looking but never finding a place to rest his immortal soul! Learn this lesson and know it well, when you make a deal with the devil, you always lose even if you had won!
"In loving memory of my great grandfather John Anderson Sr. 1901-1995" I always loved that Halloween story he told me when I was nine years old!