The Origin of the Jack-o'-Lantern
Wales
A popular legend giving the origin of the jack-o'-lantern in Wales deals with the idea of a stupid devil: A long time ago there lived on the hills of Arfon an old man of the name of Sion Dafydd, who used to converse much with one of the children of the bottomless pit.One morning Sion was on his way to Llanfair-Fechan, carrying a flail on his shoulder, for he had corn there, when whom should he meet but his old friend from the pit, with a bag on his back, and in it two little devils like himself. After conversing for some time they began to quarrel, and presently were in the midst of a terrible fight. Sion fell to basting the devils with his flail, until the bag containing the two little ones went all to pieces, and the two tumbling out, fled for their lives to Rhiwgyfylchi, which village is considered to this day a very wicked place from this fact.
Sion then went his way rejoicing, and did not for a long time encounter his adversary. Eventually, however, they met, and this time Sion had his gun on his shoulder.
"What's that long thing you're carrying?" inquired the devil.
"That's my pipe," said Sion.
Then the devil asked, "Shall I have a whiff out of it?"
"You shall," was Sion's reply, and he placed the mouth of his gun in the devil's throat and drew the trigger. Well; that was the loudest report from a gun that was ever heard on this earth.
"Ach!�tw!�tw!" exclaimed the smoker, "your pipe is very foul," and he disappeared in a flame.
After a lapse of time, Sion met him again in the guise of a gentleman, but the Welshman knew it was the tempter. This time he made a bargain for which he was ever afterwards sorry, i.e., he sold himself to the devil for a sum down, but with the understanding that whenever he could cling to something the devil should not then control him.
One day when Sion was busily gardening, the evil one snatched him away into the air without warning, and Sion was about giving up all hopes of again returning to earth, when he thought to himself, "I'll ask the devil one last favor."
The stupid devil listened.
"All I want is an apple," said Sion, "to moisten my lips a bit down below; let me go to the top of my apple tree, and I'll pick one."
"Is that all?" quoth the diawl, and consented.
Of course Sion laid hold of the apple tree, and hung on. The devil had to leave him there. But the old reprobate was too wicked for heaven, and the devil having failed to take him to the other place, he was turned into a fairy, and is now the jack-o'- lantern.
- Source: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends, and Traditions (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1880), pp. 204-205.
- The episode of the man tricking an ogre (here the devil) into putting a gun into his mouth is classified as a type 1157 folktale.
- The motif of a mortal selling his soul to the devil is epitomized in the Faust legends.
- Return to the table of contents.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/willowisp.html#sikes204
http://zombiegames01.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/jack-o-lantern1.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment