Jack of the Lantern

This story is not a retelling of the first version I read of that Irish tale. Over the years, I've read several versions. But if I remember correctly, the first version I read stated that Jack was a surly turnip farmer, who could pinch a penny until it screamed. My retelling here originates from a version I heard from another seasoned story-teller. I much later learned that the assistance of a saint or a good spirit was a common variant in the Jack 'O Lantern story. Of course, this is MY version and I alone am responsible for adding my own bits. Practically every story-teller will add her/his own flair to a tale. I have given the story a Neo-Pagan flair--which the original storyteller did not--and I had originally planned to tell it to a bunch of older children at a CPC Samhain. The children, however, decided they would rather play a Halloween game inside rather than listen to a story around a bonfire in the chilly October night. (Through no fault of mine, the event program started late.) Confronted with a much older audience than I planned, I decided to throw in one or two humorous adult details, such as the "prostitutes in the town." To my delight, the story was a such a hit with the adults that I decided to record this version pretty much as I told it back then.

If you retell this story to your Pagan child, you probably want to leave out the "prostitutes in the town." That's one of the humorous adult details I added. There were noooo ladies of the evening in the other storyteller's version. Originally, I planned to say, "mean to small dogs, the town's children, and even stole treats from the wee toddlers." For a version more suitable to children, please check CPC Holidays: Pumpkin Stories.

Parents and other adults, always adjust this story for the individual kids you are retelling it to. Please see More About the Spirit of Jack to get a handle on how many different ways the story about the spirit of Jack O' Lantern has been told.

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Pumpkin Stories

Story #1: Jack of the Lantern

The tale of Jack O' Lantern is an old, old story, that goes back to the British Isles, and it has been told many different ways. This story about Jack O' Lantern is only one type of folklore about the Lantern Men or Will o' Wisps. They were spirits: either faeries or ghosts. In the USA, the name Jack O' Lantern is the label that seems to have stuck.

A long time ago in Ireland, there was a fellow known as Wicked Jack. Wicked Jack was a very bad man. He was a highwayman, a robber, and a murderer. He was often quite cruel. When in town, he kicked small dogs and was mean to children without any reason. He cheated at card games. Sometimes, he grabbed treats from the wee tots. (Yes! He even stole candy from a baby.)

Wicked Jack liked that everyone was afraid of him.

As a highwayman, Jack was often not content to simply rob travelers; he often slit their throats and tossed their bodies in the woods.

One Autumn, on a bright, crisp day, Jack was seated under an apple tree resting his eyes, enjoying the sunshine on his face, when someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

He was astonished to see a powerful spirit with horns standing there. Wicked Jack knew who this spirit was--the leader of the Wild Hunt, the Lord of the Greenwood. If the Master of the Hunt collected someone, he would spirit that person away to his lair; later that person would become one of the spirits who rode under the command of the Master of the Hunt.

The spirit said gruffly, "Come along, Jack. You've been murdering too many people in my woods. I'm collecting you now. You're coming with me."

Wicked Jack was a crafty fellow, full of tricks. Jack looked up in the tree and said, "Alright then. But before we go, could I have that last apple up there in the tree? I bet it's a long trip to where we're headed and I'm awfully hungry. It looks like a tasty treat. We could share it."

Indeed, high up in the tree was one bright red apple, still hanging on the branches. Perhaps, this seemed like a reasonable request, for the spirit scrambled up the tree. Some say, Jack pulled out his knife and carved a magic sign at the tree's base. Was it a rune or sol-kross? Some folks even said Jack might have set an old iron key at the tree's base. Whatever it was, it trapped the spirit up in the tree.

The spirit up in the tree howled in anger--and screeched, in rage, and then let out another howl.

Yet, Wicked Jack said, "You thought you had me. Now I've got you! Master of the Hunt, you won't be collecting me."

The spirit screeched and screamed, but Jack just laughed hard.

"Clever Jack, full of tricks!" snarled the spirit, "Fine! I release all claims on you!"

"Glad to hear it," answered Jack, "but you--you can just stay in that tree." And off he went, chuckling to himself as the spirit howled.

It'd be nice to say that Jack had learned his lesson and decided to change his wicked ways. But he did not. He was still a murderer and a robber and a card cheat. He still kicked small dogs and was mean to small children. If anything, he was worse then ever.

Jack believed that he could do whatever he pleased with no consequences.

Years passed and, of course, Wicked Jack died, as all mortal men must. His soul journeyed up toward the bright and shining land. But the guardian of the gate stopped him when Jack arrived.

"Wicked Jack? What are you doing here? You are not welcome here. These are the pleasant plains and beautiful fields meant for kindly souls. You've done many evil deeds and you're not even the least bit sorry about it. No--You can't come here. You've been a highwayman, a murderer, and a robber. You're a card cheat and a bully--always full of mean tricks. You've shown no kindness or charity to anyone. You've been wicked and mean your whole lif! Why, you even kicked small dogs for no reason."

Jack wandered off, searching for somewhere else to go. Eventually, he found his way down to the underworld, to the realm of the Mighty One, the Lord of Shadows, the Master of the Wild Hunt.

When he demanded entrance, the Lord himself came.

"You!" screeched the angry spirit. "You trapped me in that tree for two years, until I could grow the bark back over that sign you carved. What are you doing here?"

Jack answered, "I have no place to go."

"You have the notion to come to my realm? And ask for entrance here after what you did to ME?? Be gone! I have no use for you!"

Jack said, "BUT where am I to go?"

"I care not. Off with you to the Outer Darkness!"

Thus, Jack wandered off into the Outer Darkness between the worlds. There were terrible things there in the darkness and the cold. The dark faerie of the Unseely Court wandered here, the night hag, the banshee, and there were more terrible things still in the darkness. But Jack was a tough old dog. And he wandered for many years, all over the British Isles and many lands, and in time all over the world. Jack saw many frightening and terrible things.

Then one night, as he sat lonely and sad, a gentle faery spirit passed him. The faery spirit took pity upon old Jack, there sitting alone in the dark.

She plucked an Autumn vegetable from the field. Maybe it was a pumpkin or a gourd, some say it was a turnip. She hollowed it out, carved a face, and placed a glowing light inside.

"Here, Jack," and she handed him the glowing lamp, "this will light your way in the dark and protect you between the worlds."

THAT is the reason why--even today in America--we hollow out pumpkins and carve on faces to frighten away malignant spirits. The Irish custom, of course, was to place a lit candle in a hollowed-out turnip.

If you put Jack's lantern outside your home, he'll know that you know his story--the story of Jack of the Lantern.

2007, 2022

There are lots of versions of this story about the wandering spirit from the British Isles, sometimes called Wicked Jack, Wicked John, Stingy Jack, or just Jacky.

The earliest version recorded in the USA--that I know of--was published in 1880. It was probably brought by Irish immigrants to America. At that time, the story was not specifically attached to Halloween.

Likewise, there are published references to Americans carving faces into pumpkins and illuminating the carved pumpkins with candles since 1850.

Earlier in the British Isles, the turnip was used instead to fashion Jack-o'-lanterns. There is a lot more information about this on Wicca: Jack O' Lantern.

Story #2: Jack's Old Lantern
[An alternative tale to the one above.]

Well--in autumn when the nights first got cool--Jack liked to change the colors of the leaves on the trees before Old Man Winter caused them to turn brown and drop from the trees. Jack would paint them in colors of red, yellow, and orange, laughing all the time.

Yet, the most fun Jack had was playing in the farm fields. He would dash through the corn rows and make the dry stalks shiver like something much bigger than little Jack was passing through.

He played out in the moonlight and dark nights. Jack Frost especially liked running through pumpkin patches late at night, where the pumpkins had been turned orange. The October moon, when it was full, was big and round and as golden as a pumpkin. He would run up and down the rows in and out among the pumpkins playing hide and seek with his own shadow, and sometimes he would snap pumpkin vines.

Little Jack was a mischievous boy, full of tricks.

But Old Man Winter worried about his son, Jack, out there at night playing by himself. You see, Jack wasn't actually alone out there in the trees and farm fields. Other things walked abroad at night. The ghosts and goblins and other spirits wandered freely. Late autumn was when the dividing lines between the realms grew weak and thin. Not everything that was out and about was friendly towards Old Man Winter. A body doesn't get to be the king of winter without making a few enemies--and some of those enemies might have long memories.

Though Jack had tricks of his own, Old Man Winter decided he had to give Jack something to help keep him safe. He sat and thought and thought in his icy cave.

Then suddenly the answer came to him. Old Man Winter reached out his long hand and plucked an orange pumpkin from the fields [rather like this one here]. Then, he cut it open. He hollowed it out, and threw the seeds in the fields. He carved a face with a big toothy grin.

Then he grabbed a light and put it inside, and gave the pumpkin to Jack and told him he could use this lantern to light his way in the dark--and none of the ghosts and goblins would ever bother him, because they'd be scared of the light. From that time on, a carved pumpkin with a light inside was known as "Jack's Old Lantern."

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For another telling of this folktale suitable for older children, see Jack and the Devil as retold by S. E. Schlosser www.AmericanFolklore.net/folktales/md5/
(Schlosser's book, Spooky Maryland, has a different Worchester County tale of Jack O'Lantern.)

How to Make a Pumpkin Jack O' Lantern

How to Make a Turnip Jack-O-Lantern

Some things for folklorists and storytellers

In 2009, I located a Southern USA version of this tale in Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus, his songs and sayings, 1880. Among folklorists, Jacky-my-lantern is characterized as tale type 330, "The Smith and the Devil." My retelling of Harris's Southern tale can be found at: Jacky-My-Lantern. If you want to read Harris's orginal Jacky-my-lantern, here is a direct link to the text. Though that Southern version derives from the Irish folktale of "Jack O' Lantern," it did not become attached to the American holiday of Halloween. In fact, I've never seen Harris's story referenced in any book about Halloween.

Here is another USA version of the same tale about the Jacky-my-lantern: "Wicked John and the Devil." Interestingly, St. Peter makes an early appearence in this version disguised as a lame begger to offer "Wicked John" or "Jacky" redemption via three wishes. Instead, Jacky wastes his wishes on having a chair, sledge-hammer, and thorn bush enchanted/blessed which he eventually employed for practical jokes. The Devil is tricked in a manner similar to Harris's version of the tale.

For those interested in Irish folklore and charms involving Jack O' Lantern, as well as directions on how to carve a turnip as the Irish did, please see How to Make a Turnip Jack O' Lantern. The pumpkin was a New World vegetable, and was not used in the old country of Ireland. It's assumed that some unknown Irish immigrant, having brought with him traditions involving the old Irish holiday, carved the first American Jack O' Lantern from a pumpkin--as no one really knows precisely when the practice began in the USA.

Shmuel Ross discussing the "inside scoop on jack-o'-lanterns" wrote:

People had been carving gourds or pumpkins and using them as lanterns long before this practice was associated with Halloween. In 1850, for example, poet John Greenleaf Whittier mentioned the practice of his boyhood in "The Pumpkin": "When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, / Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!"

We don't know exactly when and why these lanterns became associated with Halloween in particular, though we do know it was in North America. But by the start of the 20th century, the connection was firmly established.

--Shmuel Ross, Halloween Traditions The inside scoop on jack-o'-lanterns and other Halloween traditions, Infoplease.com (Information Please Database), 2007, acessed 10/6/13

American author Washington Irving described Ichabod Crane being harried by the ghost of a Hessian know as the "Headless Horseman"

Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash - he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider passed by like a whirlwind.

...

The tracks of horses' hoofs deeply dented in the road were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin. --"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" 1917.

More About the Spirit of Jack

When a story is traced by folklorists as it passes through time, there appear minor and major revisions to that story. Different variants will clearly be the same story, but the story is not always the same, as details change. Sometimes the changes and details are minor. Is Jack a blacksmith or a farmer? Other times, the changes are more significant, as they are comments about which vices are deplored by the listeners. Is Jack a spendthrift, a drunkard, a miser, a criminal, or simply someone with a mean sense of humor?

Jack often ended up wandering in the darkness because he was far too clever with a powerful, supernatural being than he ought to have been.

There are numerous variants of this story. What follows are notes about some of the variations.

1. There are numerous versions of what tricks Jack played on the Devil. In traditional Christian versions, the Devil was often trapped by a cross. A cross may be carved into the bark of a tree (usually either apple or oak). Jack might lay a small cross or crosses at the base of the tree in order to trap the Devil. The reason for the Devil climbing the tree also changed. In some versions, the spirit climbed into a tree to retrieve an apple, the last apple of the harvest. In another version, "Stingy Jack" claimed that he had hidden his life's savings in a treasure box inside a hollow near the top of the tree.
2. In another version, Jack's money purse contained a small cross. The spirit was trapped after Jack suggested that the Devil transform himself into a shilling so that they can cheat the pub owner out of the price of their drinks.
3. As he enjoyed gambling, it is said Jack had whittled his own special pair of dice. In a game of craps with the Devil, the Devil threw "snake eyes." Jack, with his special dice, rolled a six. Each die showed a three and they landed to form a tau (like a capital "T") cross.
4. Other versions had the spirit trapped through enchanted chairs or bespelled hammers. He might also have also been trapped in an enchanted thorn bush or some sort of enchanted fruit tree. (The enchanted fruit tree harked back to having a cross or magic symbol carved into the bottom of the tree.)
5. Other times, Jack escaped the clutches of the Devil by wriggling out of a sack that he'd been collected into. Then Jack substituted a large and vicious dog in his place inside the sack.
6. Jack wasn't always a blacksmith; sometimes he was a lazy, though shrewd, farmer. Sometimes he practiced criminal behavior: as a slick con man or a murderous thief. Other times, he was just a cheapskate sluggard who constantly sponged off of others. Generally, Jack was considered a disreputable character and was disliked by his neighbors.
7. In an African American version, Jack was known, in life, as "Big Sixteen." Big Sixteen was a powerfully strong slave, who tricked the Devil into opening the back door to hell so that Big Sixteen could whack him in the head with a nine pound hammer. Sixteen was the number of his shoe size, indicating how large and powerful he was. Big Sixteen was not described as indulging in vices as others were who became the Jack O' Lantern spirit.
8. An Irish variant said that the lantern spirit was known, in life, as "Stingy Jack," a black-hearted, lazy, glib-tongued liar. This miser, who would never part with so much as a copper to help someone else, was perfectly willing to talk someone else out of his last shilling for a drink.
9. One Southern USA variant said the Jack O' Lantern spirit was known, in life, as "Wicked John." Wicked John was a blacksmith with a vicious streak when it came to humor and practical jokes.
10. In another Southern USA variation, "Jacky" tended to be especially mean-spirited when drunk.
11. In some variations, Jack might succeed in tricking the Devil on three separate occasions. (Three being a favorite number in folktales.) During the first two occasions, Jack often requested simply an extension of his time on earth. On the third occasion, Jack required the Devil to promise to never claim Jack's soul. Other variations state Jack only bargained with the Devil for another year, but the Devil, vengeful at having been embarrassed by Jack's trickery, refused Jack entry to hell upon Jack's death. In seeking entrance into heaven, Jack was still refused entry for being a greedy and immoral man and thus his name was not written in the "Book of Life."
12. An interesting piece of English folklore was that the Devil claimed all unharvested fruit (apples, blackberrries, etc.) unpicked by October 11. Another English custom--to assure a good crop of apples next year--was to leave the last apple on the tree at harvest time for the apple tree man. The apple tree man was an English faery spirit who guarded the apples and the orchard. (Jacqueline Memory Paterson, Tree Wisdom, the Definitive Guidebook, 1996, p. 51) Interestingly, the apple also represented passage to the Celtic Otherworld in other legends.
13. The Devil exhibited some of his own vices in these tales. In one version, the Devil was easily swayed into joining Jack for one last pint of ale before they departed for hell. In another version, the Devil had the vice of greed for hoarded gold. The Devil likewise, in other versions, participated in the vice of gambling with dice and cards; playing cards are known as the "Devil's pasteboards." In an 1880 version, the Devil indulged in the vices of gluttony and "talking politics."
14. In Southern tales, Jack had defeated the Devil, but not in a way acceptable to mainstream Christianity. Jack did not defeat the Devil by being pious, humble, or repentent. Jack defeated the Devil because he was a "Hellraiser" in his own right. Jack was often sent away from hell with a lit coal and an admonishment, "I won't be letting you in, because I've had too much experience with you. Take this fire and go raise hell somewhere else."
15. In most tales, it was the Devil who provided Jack with the light for his lantern. When Jack was told to go off and wander the darkness betwixt and between, he often was said to plead with the Devil, "Give me a light, for mercy sake." In mockery--for the Christian Devil has no mercy--the Arch-fiend tossed Jack a coal from Hell's hearth fire. Jack caught the light in a turnip. (A freshly hollowed out turnip does make a cheap fire-proof holder for a lit candle.) In this version, Jack was an eternally condemned spirit.
16. In other variations, a benificent spirit--or even the Christian God--provided the turnip with the light inside to Jack. In this version, I use the motif of a benificent spirit handing Jack a light to guide him. Sometimes a saint gave Jack the light as a kindness and grace. In these cases, the light not only represented protection, but perhaps hope for redemption. Other versions include a saint or a "wise and good man" who helped Jack to prevail over the Devil.
17. Supposedly there was a version in which Jack tangled with the Grim Reaper rather than with the Devil. There are similarities between folktales about cheating Death and cheating the Devil. In this version, Jack succeeded in tricking the Grim Reaper into giving him eternal life. However, somehow Jack lost his head in the bargain. Jack therefore wandered the earth with a carved pumpkin as a replacement. (This story sounds somewhat reminiscent to Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I have not read this version, I have only seen it summarized in the Jack O' Lantern Wikipedia article, accessed October 29, 2010.)
18. Yet, in some versions of folklore, Jack O' Lantern was never human and never involved with the Devil or the Grim Reaper. He was a trickster spirit. In Cornish folklore, Jack O' Lantern and Joan the Wad are the king and queen of the piskies, piskeys, or pixies. Jack O' Lantern and Joan the Wad are some of the many faery folk credited with causing ignis fatuus (foolish fire), also known as "Will o' the wisp," the phenomenon of mysterious flickering lights seen at night, which mislead travelers. Dr. Jonathan Couch in his History of Polperro (1871) recorded the following verse requesting assistance from Jack O' Lantern and Joan the Wad to avoid being hopelessly lost.

    Jack o' the lantern! Joan the wad,
    Who tickled the maid and made her mad;
    Light me home, the weather's bad.

19. The names of other faery spirits were associated with ignis fatuus. Names for these lights included "Will 'o the Wisp" (Lincolnshire), "Ellyden" (Wales), "Hobbledy's Lantern" (Warwickshire), "Hob and his Lanthern" (England), "Jenny-wi-t-lantern" (Northumber), "Lantern-Man" (East Anglia), "Peg-o-Lantern" (Lanscaster), "Spunkie" (Somerset). As you can see, most of the terms for these lights involve a specific name: Will, Hob, Jenny, Peg. Presumably, these are names of different faery spirits who are supposed to be carrying a lantern or faery light. "Hob" definitely is a common name of an English faery who was a well known trickster spirit. "Hobbledy" is another form of "Hob." Alternatively, some of these names may be just random personifications. For example, the "Wisp" held by "Will" meant a small bunch of straws, often used to light a candle. Likewise, the word "Wad" in the name of the Cornish queen of the piskies/piskeys/pixies meant "torch." In any case, the flickering light was not always a hell fire carried by some soul damned by the Christian God. That interpretation is only valid in some versions of the tale. In other versions, the light in the lantern is "faery fire" or "elf-fire." Mind you, someone traveling in the dark probably ought not to follow this supernatural light, as it will quite likely lead the traveler off the track. The Latin name for these lights is ignis fatuus, meaning "foolish fire." In other words, a traveler would be a fool to follow this flickering light seen off in the distance.
20. NOLA (New Orlenes, LA) folklore in the USA has preseved other information about "Jack o'lanterns." In this folklore, Jack o'lanterns have retained the faery-like nature of a trickster spirit: "Jack o'lanterns (swamp lights) are said to lead searchers to buried treasure. (Negro.) They are very mischievous and delight to harrass animals, particularly horses, whom the cause to shy, or to resist the rider's directions. They follow hunting parties, misleading the dogs. They are usually unseen by humans." Storyville New Orleans: Superstions, Colloquialisms, Customs Notice that they liked to tease horses as the piskies/pixies liked to do in folklore of the British Isles.
21. The earliest known use of the term, "Jack O' Lantern," is in mid-17th century England, when it was used to simply denote the night watchman or "Jack with a lantern." Perhaps that was how the name, "Jack O' Lantern" became identified with a carved turnip lantern. Jack O' Lantern was the night watchman on guard against malicious spirits. Perhaps...perhaps not. Yet in Newfoundland and Labrador in eastern Canada, both the names "Jacky Lantern" and "Jack the Lantern" refer to the ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp legend rather than the custom of placing a light in a carved vegetable (turnip/pumpkin). In the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean off the northern edge of South America, the "Jacakalantan" likewise is a mysterious light that appears to folks, then suddenly vanishes after misleading them to a desolate spot far from their intended destination.

Copyright September 2013 Myth Woodling

In October 2013, I came across and hand held, battery powered Jack ' Lantern pumpkin designed to be carried during the evening hours of Halloween trick-or-treating. The flickering illumination from the small bulb inside seemed to be a clever imitation of the bobbing, hand held Jack 'o Lantern lights in folklore. Photo by Thoron Woodling, October 2013

Sources and Further Reading

The Piskeys: Joan the Wad and Jack O' Lantern

Will-o-the-Wisp

Storyville New Orleans: Superstions, Colloquialisms, Customs

Wicked John and the Devil

Jacky-My-Lantern

The Tale of Jack O' Lantern, A Read-aloud story from Catholic Update

Big Sixteen

A Tale for Carving Pumpkins
Folktales and Stories
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