Historical Interpretationsof the Northern Lights

VISUAL 5 (still): Old Drawings with Goats
[Fade on image of Aristotle’s interpretation of the aurora.]

Aristotle: “Exhalations of fiery vapors that form various chasms.”The writings of Aristotle, who lived over two thousand years ago in Greece, are the earliest known records of a sound scientific attempt to discuss the northern lights, although he described the patterns using fantastical terms such as “light torches,” “barrels,” and even “jumping goats.”

VISUAL 6 (still): Drawing with People in Nuremburg, Germany Watching Aurorae, 1591

Throughout history there has been a great deal of superstition about the northern lights. When they were seen in the middle ages in Europe they were interpreted as a flaming heavenly castle or a marching army. The red northern lights were then seen as the bloodstream from the battlefield.

VISUAL 6 (still): Drawing with People in Nuremburg, Germany Watching Aurorae, 1591

Throughout history there has been a great deal of superstition about the northern lights. When they were seen in the middle ages in Europe they were interpreted as a flaming heavenly castle or a marching army. The red northern lights were then seen as the bloodstream from the battlefield.

In the polar region it is a much more frequent phenomenon, and people knew that it could not always be followed by misfortunes, but there are fascinating beliefs in the polar region too. Kids in Northern Norway used to believe that if they waved with a napkin to the northern lights the lights would come and take them away. The Eskimos of the Hudson Bay area of Canada tell this story: The ends of the land and sea are bounded by an immense abyss, over which a narrow and dangerous pathway leads to the heavenly regions. The sky is a great dome of hard material arched over the Earth. There are holes in it through which the spirits pass to the heavens. Only the raven and the spirits of those who have died violently have been over this pathway. The spirits who live there light torches to guide the feet of the new arrivals. This is the light of the aurorae. They can be seen there, feasting and playing football with a walrus skull.

VISUAL 8 (still): Playing Football with Walrus Skull

While these ideas may seem strange to us, they are all reasonable ideas given what people of those times knew about, given their fear of such uncontrollable forces as war, diseases and death, and given the dramatic display of the true northern lights.

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