A Will-o’-the-Wisp

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Okay, my name is Ruth, and I’m from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hi, Ruth.

Hello, Ruth.

Hi, I’m glad to be on.

I’ve been able to sing, I have a very nice voice for many years, and I always sang this song, and I’ve never realized that I didn’t know what I was. I didn’t know what the words meant.

It’s a song from Roger and Hammerstein, Sound of Music, and it’s the song about Maria.

So it says, how do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you say a name that means Maria? A flippity gibbet, a will of the wisp, a clown.

Now, there’s the place. I don’t know what a flippity gibbet is, and I sure don’t know what a will of the wisp is. So anything you can do to help me would be wonderful, because it’s kind of embarrassing to sing long songs you don’t know.

Yeah, I love the Sound of Music in that part of the movie where they’re theyre just trying to figure out how you solve a problem like Maria because she’s kind of kind of flighty or or just her behavior is more erratic than other people’s, right? And what’s really cool about this expression is that will of the wisp is rooted in some very, very old folklore and it has to do with this ghostly light that sometimes hovers over marshes and swamps. It’s probably swamp gas caused by decaying vegetation, and you don’t see it that much now. But hundreds of years ago, when there wasn’t artificial illumination, this was something that people talked about. And folklore about this glowing gas usually involved stories about a mischievous sprite or fairy who lured people into following that light at night. And they ended up in swamps, or they ended up in marshy ground, or going through briars and that kind of thing. And so a Will-o’-the-Wisp was a kind of supernatural trickster who bewitches people.

And earlier than Will of the Wisp, we have the expression Will of the Torch. And that refers to this fairy or sprite who’s luring people into the swamps. And Will of the Torch, or Will with the Torch, eventually became Will of the Wisp, or Will with the wisp. Here’s the key. The wisp is an old word that means a bundle of sticks or a handful of straw that you would light like a torch. And so this word, this expression goes from the sneaky sprite who’s luring people into dangerous places, and then more generally in modern times to an elusive goal or somebody who’s got that behavior that’s mysterious or confusing.

Here’s another cool aspect of that, Ruth. In parts of England, this glowing swamp gas was sometimes represented by another mythical figure, another character who carried a light to lure unsuspecting people, and that character was Jack of the Lantern. Does that sound familiar? Of course. Very true, yeah.

Yeah, it’s now memorialized in our glowing Jack O’ Lanterns, and there are so many different versions of these stories, but they all have to do with that kind of glowing swamp gas. How cool is that?

Fantastic.

That’s wonderful to know.

And wonderful to know that I’m not, you know, that I’m singing something, well, quite like the Maria in the story.

What a genius Rodgers and Hammerstein and music is for all of us.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

And you mentioned Fliberty Gibbet. That’s another fun word to say. In the 16th century, that meant a chattering woman or somebody who’s kind of flighty. And it’s probably just a nonsense word. But Will-o’-the-Wisp has that fantastic history behind it. The flippity jibbit might represent the sound of somebody chattering, doing that. You can’t even quite make out what they’re saying. They’re talking so much. Almost onomatopoetic.

Thank you so much for talking with us, Ruth. And take care of yourself.

Thank you, and all good health and safety to you, too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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