Welcome to another Fairy Tale on Tuesday!
Fireflies are lovely to behold! Children love them as do I.
I spent many a summer as a child chasing fireflies at night, fluttering about much like the fae. Absolutely delightful! 🙂
Fabulous photo of Fireflies/Hotaru in Japan credited to Hiroyuki Shinohara in Public Domain.
Fireflies are really not flies, they are part of the Beetle insect family, (not the band from the 60’s.) So what lights these brilliant beetles up? Lucirferin, is the light-emitting compound found in beetles that generate bioluminescence. The male firefly lights up to attract a mate.
Does this mean 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beetles may have been referring to Lucirferin in Fireflies?
No, The name Lucy was based on a classmate of John Lennon named Lucy O’ Donnell. The lyrics were based on the 1865 literary fashion of the novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Read more on the Wiki resource section below.
Below: US Cover sheet for the song in 1967 in Public Domain Wikipedia
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, It is still a great Beetle’s song that has stood the test of time. Just a bit of pop culture for you.
Speaking of fireflies,
Today I’m sharing an old Japanese Fairy Tale with you. It is called The Fire Quest, a tale of the Firefly Queen, from the book Green Willow and other Japanese fairy Tales written by Grace James, illustrated by Warwick Goble Published in 1912 by Macmillan and Co. London, England.
The Fire Quest
The Wise Poet sat reading by the light of his taper. It was a night of the seventh month. The cicala sang in the flower of the pomegranate, the frog sang by the pond. The moon was out and all the stars, the air was heavy and sweet-scented. But the Poet was not happy, for moths came by the score to the light of his taper; not moths only, but cockchafers and dragon-flies with their wings rainbow-tinted. One and all they came upon the Fire Quest; one and all they burned their bright wings in the flame and so died. And the Poet was grieved.
“Little harmless children of the night,” he said, “why will you still fly upon the Fire Quest? Never, never can you attain, yet you strive and die. Foolish ones, have you never heard the story of the Firefly Queen?”
The moths and the cockchafers and the dragon-flies fluttered about the taper and paid him no heed.
“They have never heard it,” said the Poet; “yet it is old enough. Listen:
“The Firefly Queen was the brightest and most beautiful of small things that fly. She dwelt in the heart of a rosy lotus. The lotus grew on a still lake, and it swayed to and fro upon the lake’s bosom while the Firefly Queen slept within. It was like the reflection of a star in the water.
“You must know, oh, little children of the night, that the Firefly Queen had many suitors. Moths and cockchafers and dragon-flies innumerable flew to the lotus on the lake. And their hearts were filled with passionate love. ‘Have pity, have pity,’ they cried, ‘Queen of the Fireflies, Bright Light of the Lake.’ But the Firefly Queen sat and smiled and shone. It seemed that she was not sensible of the incense of love that arose about her.
“At last she said, ‘Oh, you lovers, one and all, what make you here idly, cumbering my lotus house? Prove your love, if you love me indeed. Go, you lovers, and bring me fire, and then I will answer.’
“Then, oh, little children of the night, there was a swift whirr of wings, for the moths and the cockchafers and the dragon-flies innumerable swiftly departed upon the Fire Quest. But the Firefly Queen laughed. Afterwards I will tell you the reason of her laughter.
“So the lovers flew here and there in the still night, taking with them their desire. They found lighted lattices ajar and entered forthwith. In one chamber there was a girl who took a love-letter from her pillow and read it in tears, by the light of a taper. In another a woman sat holding the light close to a mirror, where she looked and painted her face. A great white moth put out the trembling candle-flame with his wings.
“‘Alack! I am afraid,’ shrieked the woman; ‘the horrible dark!’
“In another place there lay a man dying. He said, ‘For pity’s sake light me the lamp, for the black night falls.’
“‘We have lighted it,’ they said, ‘long since. It is close beside you, and a legion of moths and dragon-flies flutter about it.’
“‘I cannot see anything at all,’ murmured the man.
“But those that flew on the Fire Quest burnt their frail wings in the fire. In the morning they lay dead by the hundred and were swept away and forgotten.
“The Firefly Queen was safe in her lotus bower with her beloved, who was as bright as she, for he was a great lord of the Fireflies. No need had he to go upon the Fire Quest. He carried the living flame beneath his wings.
“Thus the Firefly Queen deceived her lovers, and therefore she laughed when she sent them from her on a vain adventure.”
“Be not deceived,” cried the Wise Poet, “oh, little children of the night. The Firefly Queen is always the same. Give over the Fire Quest.”
But the moths and the cockchafers and the dragon-flies paid no heed to the words of the Wise Poet. Still they fluttered about his taper, and they burnt their bright wings in the flame and so died.
Presently the Poet blew out the light. “I must needs sit in the dark,” he said; “it is the only way.”
The End
Firefly folklore:
Hotaru the Japanese word for Firefly and Hotaru no Hikari means “Glow of a Firefly.”
In the Tarot the firefly is represented by the Star card.
The Souls of the Dead are represented as Fireflies in Japanese Folklore.
In Ancient Chinese folklore, Fireflies were once captured and placed in paper lanterns for light at night. The firefly represented the soul of a deceased scholar reading at night.
The Firefly was a harbinger of death in Victorian times if one flew into your house. Victorians, loved their macabre.
If a Firefly alights upon your shoulder, it will bring you good fortune.
Source & Reference:
- Inspiration of 1967 Beetle’s song, Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#Background_and_inspiration
- James Grace, Goble Warwick, Green Willow and other Japanese Fairy Tales Published in 1912 by Macmillan and Co. London, England.
- Britannica Online https://www.britannica.com/animal/firefly-insect
- Wigington, Patti. “The Magic & Folklore of Fireflies.” Learn Religions, Feb. 11, 2020, learnreligions.com/the-magic-and-folklore-of-fireflies-2562505.
- Featured illustration by Warwick Goble, Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales 1912.
Val is a writer of enchanted tales, folklore and magic. Once chased by Vampire Pumpkins! 