Stingy Jack of the Lantern

Stingy Jack was a miserly old drunkard who lived long ago in Ireland, or so the story is told. He was a tricky, silver-tongued n’er-do-well who, besides a good drink, enjoyed tricking and deceiving people.

One late evening, under an autumn moon, Jack stumbled along a well-worn path towards home after another night at the pub. He encountered a malevolent, twisted and misshapen black shape lying across the path.

As Jack slowly approached, fear in his heart, the shape moved.  It turned and looked at him and began to rise from the shadows.

It was the very Devil himself, grinning a nasty smile, which gleamed sickly in the moonlight and made Jack’s skin crawl with gooseflesh and a shudder.

The Devil had heard about old Stingy Jack’s conniving ways with his slick, silver tongue and wanted to see for himself just who he thought he was.

Jack realized that it must be his time, that he was soon to be done here on Earth this night, and the Devil had come to collect his dues. Jack’s soul would be the payment and Jack knew it unless he thought quickly.

With some shrewdness to buy more time, Jack made one final request from the Devil. He asked if he could have but one more drink before he was brought down to the fiery pits of Hell and cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity, and invited the Devil to join him for a drink at the nearest pub.

The Devil thought this over and decided that a drink could do no harm and agreed.

Throughout the night at the Brazen Head pub, Jack and the Devil drank heartily until just before sunrise and were both well inebriated from the whiskey, women and wine.

True to his name, Jack told the Devil that he was unable to pay for the evening’s indulgence and asked if he would pay the barkeep for the drinks instead.

The Devil was very upset and angered by this outrage, since it was Jack who invited him to join in this revelry in the first place.

Jack suggested to the Devil that he simply turn himself into a silver coin in order to pay the tab and then when the barkeep turned his back to the till, that he could simply return himself back into his original form and they could continue on their way, as easy as that.

The Devil thought this through and agreed just to be on their way before the sun rose in the eastern sky, and transformed into a shiny silver coin.

Jack, however, snatched up the coin at once and placed it into his pocket, next to the silver crucifix that he carried there.

The Devil was furious at having been tricked like this but was unable to transform himself back due to the crucifix.

In short, Jack was mighty drunk from the night of drinking and only made the Devil agree that he wouldn’t take his soul that night but allow him one more year of life.

Knowing he had fell for Jack’s trickery but unable to do anything about it, the Devil agreed. At that, Jack threw the coin up into the air where it disappeared into nothingness.

Now Jack lived a good year that year, knowing the Devil couldn’t touch him. He did whatever he wanted to, assured he was safe from the Devil.

Precisely one year later, Jack was again stumbling down the same darkened path when he saw the black shape rise up from the path that he recognized immediately as the Devil.

A cold shiver moved up Stingy Jacks spine just then, and the gooseflesh tingled up and down his arms.

The Devil spoke. “Stingy Jack, we made a deal, I promised you another year of life, and now it is done. You must come with me now.”

With a shudder, Jack remembered the deal and how he had tricked the Devil a year prior, and knew he wouldn’t fall for that again. So, Jack tried once more to let his silver-tongue save his soul.

After some discussion, Jack had only one request from the Devil before he went.

He told the Devil that he was an old and tired man, and very hungry. Could he have just one apple from the nearby apple tree before he went to his eternity?

Again, the Devil cautiously thought this through and couldn’t see the harm of one apple, so Jack deftly climbed to the very top of the apple tree to pick the ripest, most succulent apple.

Quickly thinking, Jack pulled out his knife and carved a crucifix into the trunk of the tree before the Devil could climb back down, trapping him in the apple tree.

The Devil was livid with rage at this and howled, knowing that Jack had tricked him, once again.

This time, being of a clearer head than a year ago, Jack made the Devil promise that he would cause him no harm or trouble for ten years, and that he would never take his soul when he did die.

The Devil realized he had been not only tricked, but now trapped in a tree as well. He hung his head in shame at having been fooled and bitterly agreed to Jack’s proposition.

Seven years later, Jack, having indulged in the life of whisky and wine, succumbed to the toll that the alcohol and decadence had taken upon his body.

As Jack ascended towards Heaven he did so with a smile, knowing he had cheated the Devil, not once but twice and felt certain of his place in Heaven.

However, when Jack reached the Gates of Heaven, St. Peter told him that because of the deceitful and drunken life he had lived, he was not to be allowed into Heaven and was thus cast out and sent back.

Jack, cast down through the clouds and the spirit world, found his way at the Gates of Hell, where he summoned the Devil.

The Devil instantly appeared and said to Jack, “Stingy Jack, we agreed to a deal and I made a promise I cannot break, I cannot claim your soul and you cannot enter the Underworld.”

At this, Jack was suddenly very frightened. “Where shall I go?” he asked the Devil.
“Back the way you came,” the Devil replied and pointed over Jack’s shoulder.

Jack turned and looked back to see that the way back was very, very dark.

The Devil, knowing how twice Stingy Jack had tricked him, and wanting to be done with him, tossed an ember from the very Furnace of Hell to him to light his way out.

With that light to guide him, Jack climbed back out of Hell to wander the plane between night and day, between Heaven and Hell, in the dark and the cold for all eternity.

As he held the ember in his spectral hand, he saw it start to fade. Jack knew that if the light went out he would be in the darkness for the rest of time.

So, Stingy Jack hollowed out a turnip from his pouch and fashioned a crude lantern to light his way with.

If you see a ghostly light on the darkened paths in the deepest of night under an autumn Moon, that is Stingy Jack wandering the Earth alone for all time with the light from the pits of Hell in his turnip to guide him.

(When the Irish arrived in America they found that pumpkins were easier to carve than turnips. The folklore tale of Stingy Jack tricking the Devil and becoming ‘Jack of the Lantern,’ came to be known as the ‘Jack O’ Lantern’ pumpkin that we know today)

Old silver-tongued Stingy Jack—a life of trickery and deceit enabled him to trick the Devil, not once, but twice, but the path that got him there was what ultimately sealed his fate.

So, this All Hallows Eve, think twice about Stingy Jack’s eternal fate before you go and boot his lantern in on the neighbor’s front stoop there, Matey.

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