I have chosen the name Ignis Erraticus (erratic fire) to represent this collection of names concerning the Will-o'-the-wisp lights because it is more descriptive and packs less of a punch than the Ignis Fatuus (fool's fire.) Both of these names were coined around the early 19th Century in Europe and were never used among the Latin speaking peoples. The term Ignis Lambens (lapping flame) may have also been coined in a like manner, I am unsure of it's origin at this point in time. This term has been generally applied to the phenomenon of coronal discharges of electricity, more frequently know as St. Elmo's fire. Very often this term is used in vague attempts at filing unknown phenomena into a "believable" category. This process of exchanging one "unknown" for another "unknown" is very common within the scientific community. Whenever a borderline issue arises that may be viewed as a "supernatural" phenomenon, scientists are often the first to use these techniques to reassure us that we live in a "natural" world which fits neatly into a compartmentalized world-view. Unfortunately, many visual sightings of this nature are thoroughly discarded in favor of keeping the filing system tidy. Legends concerning St.Elmo's fire at the turn of the century were not distinguishable from many Will-o'-the-wisp legends, one such religious version has Christ as being the bearer of the wandering lantern.

Many attempts were made in the late 19th Century at classifying the Will-o'-the-wisp into the category of burning gases. During this time gas lighting was the most popular form of residential lighting. My Webster's dictionary also contains this etiological legend. Our contemporary assumption that St.Elmo's fire describes (and has always described) the coronal effect is rather shallow. Bio-luminescence today is called Fox-fire if seen on logs above ground, in mines it is called Jack-o'-lanterns. Our (human) language is ill equipped at dealing with concise phenomenological descriptions due in part to cognitive selectivity and the ambiguity of language. Dr. David J. Hufford has addressed these issues at length. All of the following names are related in many ways to the phenomenon of language, cognition and ambiguity. These issues must be considered when interpreting personal experiences involving ambiguious encounters with anomalous phenomena such as erractically moving lights at night.

All of the below names represent beliefs and elaborative narritive traditions concerning such luminous anomalies. Absolutely none of the these belief traditions can be positivly distinguished from the autokinetic sensation of movement as well as a multitude of other related visual and perceptual illusions of motion. In fact, in 1857, a Dr. G. Schweitzer had discovered the autokinetic sensation, which he had coined as "Sternswanken" meaning "swinging star." He began his study by collecting written narrative accounts from individuals who had witnesed, first hand, --stars, planets and terrestrial lights moving in an erratic manner. Many of the written accounts Dr. Schweitzer collected concerning erratically moving terrestrial lights were refered to by the observers as "Irrlichten," which is German for the Will-o'-the-wisp. Many of the below names are very important when considering the fact that the observers are reporting "real" visual and perceptual phenomena. Here are a few Dutch names that are very revealing: Dwaallicht --wandering light; Wildelanteern --wandering lantern; Spooklicht --spook light; Dwarloch --wandering light; Dwaalster --wandering star; Wandelende Kaars --wandering candles. These names alone decry the fact that the legends concerning the Will-o'-the-wisp have had, and do have a relationship with visual and perceptual illusions of motion, especially when viewing lights at night. To quote Rene Descart,

"There is nothing so far removed from us, to be beyond our reach, or so hidden that we can not discover it."