Lantern man
{{Short description|Paranormal creature in England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
A lantern man is an atmospheric ghost light described in the folklore of The Fens of East Anglia, with sightings around Wicken Fen and other areas.{{Citation | last = Underwood | first = Peter | chapter = Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire | title = This Haunted Isle | year = 1984 | publisher = Harrap | publication-date = 1984 | isbn = 9780245542329 }} According to the stories, first collected by folklorist L.F. Newman,{{Citation | last = James | first = Maureen | chapter = Of Strange Phenomena: Black Dogs, Will o' the Wykes and Lantern Men | title = Cambridgeshire Folk Tales | year = 2014 | publisher = History Press | publication-date = 2014 | isbn = 9780752466286 }} the lights are believed to be evil spirits who attempt to draw victims to their death in the reed beds.{{Citation | last = Codd | first = Daniel | chapter = Inexplicable Incidents, Bizarre Behaviour and Peculiar Places: John Clare's Will-o'-the-Whisps | title = Mysterious Cambridgeshire | year = 2010 | publisher = JMD Media | publication-date = 2010 | isbn = 9781859838082 }}{{Citation | last = O'Dell | first = Damien | chapter = More Tales from the Fens: Wicken Fen | title = Paranormal Cambridge | date = 15 November 2011 | publisher = Amberley | publication-date = 2011 | isbn = 9781848681385 }} Newman writes that the spirits are attracted by the sound of whistling, and that a way to evade them is to lie face down on the ground with your mouth in the mud. The phenomenon, which seems to be a variation of will-o'-the-wisp folklore, is now dismissed as sightings of combustible marsh gas.
Encounters
A local fisherman recounted to parapsychologist Peter Underwood how he had once thrown himself to the floor to escape the attention of a lantern man which had been drawn to his whistling.
Another local man recounted how he had attracted the attention of a lantern man while whistling to his dog while walking on the fen. The man had taken shelter at the home of a friend, who hung out a horn on a long pole to distract the spirit. The following morning the horn was found to have been burnt up.