Stingy Jack

How would you avoid the devil and the natural order?

Image: Jovan Ukropina.

Welcome back fellow reader!

It’s been a long week, I’m sure. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer and those noises from inside your house; I doubt it’s just your imagination. I’m sure you’re excited for our double creature feature that’s in store for this Terror Thursday. 

Just 3 more days until Halloween and it’ll be the night for all the ghouls, ghosts and monsters to come out to play. 

On the beloved holiday of Samhain, Hallow’s Eve or what we know now as: Halloween to the popularized day for candy, costumes, scare and gore; there are the monsters that lurk among the trick or treaters; or simply through the night looking for souls to take back with them at the night’s end. By this time, I’m absolutely certain, you would have carved your pumpkins, decorated your homes and even yourself for the night to come. 

Whether or not you spend the weekend partying or causing mischief; be sure to be wary of Stingy Jack and the other spirits who roam, they are very much attracted to the living; ensuring their night is full of ghoulish fun, daring haunts and terror that will definitely last a lifetime.

Origins of the Jack-O’- Lantern 

Unbeknownst and contrary to popular opinion: the pumpkin wasn’t the first Jack-o’-lantern. And the tale of Stingy Jack is where the origin starts of the usage of turnips and rutabagas as the first jack-o-lanterns of its time. Through the course of time, the folklore of this mythological figure slowly became associated with the Halloween decoration. Far from the memory, we will dive into the one rendition of the story of Stingy Jack, sometimes called Drunk Jack, Flaky Jack and many other names we know less about now, than they did all those centuries ago. 

The Irish legend of the cruel, mean-spirited and foul drunkard blacksmith by the name of Jack, who cared not for the wellbeing of anyone; neither woman nor child; not even the devil himself could reap this cruel man’s soul. Not held in high regard by any in this small village in Ireland, known to these people as deceiver, manipulator, and vile; to even envy the Devil in titles. Our tale begins long ago:

One fateful night, a night unlike any other, the Prince of Lies overheard the tales of Jack’s evil deeds and silver tongue. Ill-convinced, envious and curious of the rumors, he sought to find out for himself whether or not Jack lived up to his vile and foul reputation. Once the devil was upon the village, he laid upon a cobblestone path, rumored to be where Jack would walk, still as a corpse; he waited for the drunkard to wander down it. 

Typical and rang true, Jack, as drunk as he could be in his own fashion, wandered through the countryside when he came upon a body on the cobblestone path. The body was eerie and held a horrible grimace upon its face, as if they had died in some frightening plight or true to anger at their end. Leaning closer to the corpse, it would begin to laugh and Jack in that moment realised his end was upon him, as the devil revealed himself to the drunkard. The Devil had finally come to collect his malicious and rotting soul at last; realising this was his true end Jack gave one final request to the devil. 

One last drink. An ale from his most frequented pub before the departed to Hell. 

Finding no real reason to acquiesce to the request, Satan follows Jack to the pub and gives him as many alcoholic drinks as Jack could drink. When all was said and done, the thirst quenched, Jack turned to the devil with another request after falsely patting himself down for a rather non-existent coin satchel. “Pay the tab, would ye Old friend? I seem to have forgotten… me coin purse.” Jack slurs, drunk with a belly full of ale. Much to his surprise, the devil carried no money on him. Jack, bright with lack of sober thought, convinces him to turn into a silver coin with which to pay the bartender for the tab. Only to change back when he’s not wise to it all. 

Impressed by the nefarious tactic, the devil obliges. 

Remaining true to his name, shrewdly Jack sticks the coin, the transformed devil, into his pocket, which coincidentally also contained a crucifix. Aware and angry, the Devil demanded to be let out of the man’s pocket; the crucifix inhibiting him from escaping the form of the coin. 

With his chance at hand, Jack makes another request―A deal of sorts: In exchange for his freedom, the Devil must allow Jack to live and spare his soul for ten years. Irritated and coerced, Satan resigns in agreement upon the deal, and is released. 

Now, dear reader, you would think: This surely has to end there, doesn’t it? Oh no, no no. That would have been far too easy for Stingy Jack! Sly and clever, nefarious and never learning!  If we ended it here, where would the origin of the Jack-O-Lantern be if we just ended there? Our tale goes on and our favorite drunkard continues on his way. 

Just ten years to the day after Jack had struck his deal, he found himself―naturally―in the presence of the devil once again. Stumbling upon the Prince of Lies in the same setting he had found the devil the first time. At the first glance, it seemed Jack had accepted it was his time to go. As he was prepared to be taken to Hell, Jack asked for a last request: an apple to feed his starving belly. Foolishly, the Devil once again found no reason to refuse the man a mere apple! ( Fool me once, shame you. Fool me twice, now… Shame on the Devil. ) 

Convinced to climb the tree to fetch the apple from a nearby branch. “Higher! It has to be that one there!” He pointed to the apple on the higher, nearby branch. Turning his back to the tree as he began to –quickly but efficiently–  carve crucifixes from the fallen wood. Surrounding the base of the tree with them and, once again, entrapping the devil with an apple in hand in the tree. Once again having trapped the devil, Jack couldn’t help but smile with the demon demanding his release from the makeshift prison. 

As he did before, he made a second request: To never take his soul. 

Having no choice, the Devil agreed and was set free at last. 

Eventually when drinking took its toll and Jack finally died. Stingy Jack’s soul was prepared to enter Heaven, however when the gates did not open nor did the angels, or St. Peter greet him; he turned to Hell with nary regret. Aware of how he lived his life, he knew where he was going. However, with spite still fresh, kept his deal of the bargain; the revenge sweeter than accepting Jack into the likes of the Underwolrd. 

However, with the last request, the Devil gave him an ember to light his way in the world, eternally dark as he walks it. Forever doomed to walk the planes between worlds, holding a rutabaga he carved out; a face on its blank bulb, makeshifting it into a lantern. The only thing to light his way as he wanders. 

Since then, Jack’s ghost has been seen aimlessly wandering the countryside. Whenever the people of the village saw the mysterious light in the distance, they would say, “That’s Jack o’ the lantern.” 

Later, this will be synonymous with what we know as: Jack-o-Lantern. Fascinating, isn’t it? Especially with how those old lanterns looked like! Considering the belief, as the veil thins the dead are attracted to the living, and the face of the jack-o-lantern ward them off.

Or does it really just lure them to us? Lighting their way to find us faster without having to search?

See you in the next installment of our double creature feature! (: