We know in the present day that the aurora borealis, generally known as the “northern lights” happens when electrically charged particles from the solar zoom into Earth’s ambiance. The phenomenon is mostly witnessed throughout fall and winter months at high-latitude locales, together with Alaska and northern Canada.
But whenever you witness the lights streaking throughout the sky, reaching a peak of as much as 620 miles, it’s simple to grasp how so many cultures got here to develop mystical tales about them.
The aurora, with its hanging colours and dance-like actions, appears otherworldly. The lights gave some communities consolation and happiness, whereas others dreaded their reappearance, contemplating them a foul omen.
15 Myths and Folktales About the Northern Lights
1. When they witnessed the lights, many Inuit, the Arctic’s Indigenous peoples, believed they have been spirits of the lifeless enjoying a recreation with a walrus cranium because the “ball.” The Inuit of Nunivak Island within the Bering Sea had their very own flipped tackle this story, believing that it was walrus spirits enjoying with a human cranium.
2. Indigenous Greenlanders believed that the lights have been dancing spirits of youngsters who had died at delivery.
3. For Wisconsin’s Fox Native Americans, the aurora gave them a way of foreboding—representing their slain enemies making ready for revenge.
4. In Alaska, some Inuit teams noticed the lights because the spirits of the animals that they had hunted, particularly beluga whales, seals, salmon and deer.
© Brad Josephs
5. In Norse mythology, the lights have been the spears, armor and helmets of the warrior girls often called the Valkyries. They rode on horseback, main fallen troopers to their remaining resting place at Valhalla.
6. The Inuit of Hudson Bay dreaded the lights, believing they have been the lanterns of demons pursuing misplaced souls.
7. In Finland, a mystical fox was thought to have created the aurora, its bushy tail spraying snow and throwing sparks into the sky.
8. Some Algonquin peoples believed their cultural hero, Nanahbozho, relocated to the far north after he completed creating the Earth. He lit massive fires, which mirrored again to his folks within the type of the northern lights. This allow them to know he was pondering of them, even from distant.
An inukshuk on Hudson Bay, Canada. Inukshuks might have been utilized by Native Arctic peoples for navigational functions. © Brad Josephs
9. In maybe one of the best oxymoron in British folklore, Scottish legend refers back to the lights as “Merry Dancers” engaged in bloody battle.
10. Native Americans of the Great Plains thought the sunshine show got here from northern tribes cooking their lifeless enemies in large pots over blazing fires.
11. Inuit in Point Barrow, Alaska’s northernmost spot, believed the aurora was evil. They carried knives to guard themselves from it.
12. In Estonia, one legend stated the lights appeared when whales have been enjoying video games. Another stated they have been sleighs taking visitors to a spectacular marriage ceremony feast.
© Eric Rock
13. Wisconsin’s Menominee Native Americans noticed the lights as torches utilized by benevolent giants to spear fish at night time.
14. Fishermen in northern Sweden took the lights as omen, believing they mirrored massive colleges of herring in close by seas.
15. If you whistled on the aurora, some Native Americans believed it could sweep down and take you away. Clapping your fingers, nonetheless, would trigger the lights to retreat, retaining you protected. Meanwhile, in northern Scandinavia, the Sami folks hid indoors through the gentle present.
Look for the northern lights and study Arctic cultures on Nat Hab’s Northern Lights & Arctic Exploration in Churchill, Manitoba this winter.
By Marsea Nelson, WWF Guest Blogger