Perilous marsh lights

In Estonia, as in much of the world, flickering marsh lights were said to lead unwary travellers to their doom. All the stories describe the sootulukesed in identical terms. A faint glow that suddenly appears in the dark, beckons one forward, and then vanishes to reappear further away, enticing the wayfarer ever deeper into the marshes, to their death by drowning and entering the spirit world.

Image from Spooky Isles

So it went for a man called Sant - according to a story written down in 1937 - who was walking by night, apparently mistaking the marsh lights for the hostel where he intended to sleep. The next morning locals found him in the middle of a bog or soo, buried him there, and named the place after him, as Sandisoo.

In Estonian myth, bogs like other landforms have their guardian spirits, humanlike and not especially friendly. Writing in 1931 a witness to the flickering lights describes how as a child he tried to approach them, and as soon as he came upon one it would disappear, a typical tale. His mother called out to him, warning him of the bog spirits, and to come back to dry land immediately.

The witness knew of an old man, Jaak, who was walking at night with another man who left his sight. In the pitch black, Jaak deviated from the path and felt something seize his legs, and pull him into deep water. He was lucky to catch onto a felled tree, and called for help. A passing gentleman pulled him out of the bog, back onto the path. Although he could see nothing, Jaak swore it was a bog spirit, a soovaim or puuk that nearly did for him.

The word puuk is connected with Puck, a Welsh woodland spirit or puca, a goblin-like fairy that leads travellers astray, also with flickering lights, to then disappear, leaving the traveller lost in the forest. (A puuk is also Estonia’s most dangerous animal.)

Autumn is when the sootulukesed are most likely to appear, which makes sense. They can only be seen on a dark night, and in winter, snow covers the ground. They can also appear after the spring thaw, and another tale tells of a man riding his horse in the season of apple blossom, in evening twilight, and seeing a light.

Leaving his horse on the bridle path, and thinking to find money buried under the flame, the man rushed forward, only for it to vanish. Spying another light further on, he tried again, this time into knee-deep marsh water. The glow remained, and he dug and dug under it, finding nothing. He looked around him in gathering darkness, and saw a score of lights or more all around, and of a moment became struck with fear, and fell to thinking. It was not possible for all of them to signal buried treasure. It had to be the presence of bog spirits.

“The man began to believe that the claws of the bog spirits were pulling him down. There was nothing else to do but try to get out of the bog and back to his horse on the path. Alas, he did not arrive anywhere. No time did he have to wave out in the direction of home. Nor did he pluck up the courage to prevent the bog spirits coming after him.”

These tales and writings come from southeastern Estonia, documented in Marju Kõivupuu’s 2023 book Estonian Mythology for the Beginner. All this makes rather grim reading, and the moral of the story is clearly to avoid bogs at night, and to not get tricked by any marsh lights that you happen to see.

Besides Estonia, the buried treasure theme is found in myth across Scandinavia, especially Finland, in the other Baltic states, and in Ireland (perhaps, brought by Vikings).         

The will-o’-the-wisp is a rare phenomenon nowadays, most boglands having been drained. Those who read JRR Tolkien will have come across “the dead marshes” in The Lord of the Rings, in which the slain in a battle of ages past still lie under water each holding a candle, luring any passersby brave enough to attempt the crossing to join them. Tolkien was well known as a fan of Nordic mythology.

The scientific explanation is at least as interesting as the folklore. Organic decay in bogs can give off phosphor in either gaseous or liquid form, which on contact with air emits a faint blue-green glow, a cold flame. Any nearby emissions from stagnant water of marsh gas or methane can ignite, thus an ephemeral, flickering light. Anyone getting too close to the phosphor can shut off the chemical reaction inadvertently. Even so, no one has managed to reproduce the sootulukesed in a laboratory.

Regardless of their cause, the old pagan has been known to use the marsh lights to dry his gold coins and other treasures. Being careless, he is likely to have spilled a few here and there. Undaunted by the bog spirits, archaeologists have unearthed ancient artifacts in these sacred places, in Estonia and across northern Europe.