Welcome listeners to another episode of Beyond the Unknown. Im your host Joli, and Im Quinn, and today, we are taking you on an enlightening journey, quite literally, into the folkore surround the Northern lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis. Inspired by the recent unusual worldwide phenomenon of Northern Lights being visible across the entire globe, we decided to dive deeper into the darker side of what is typically seen as a colourful and beautiful once-in-a-life time sight.
Today, I wanted to explore the celestial phenomenon known as the northern lights in much greater detail. If you were lucky enough, you found yourself awake in the wee hours on May 10th, or rather the morning of May 11th. What you would have witnessed was a global phenomenon of Northern Lights being seen even in the most Southerly hemispheres. Living in the North, I am quite used to getting to see this magical sight. But this, was something on another level altogether. Describe the dome and the reds. I had never seen this dome-like effect,and I had definitely never seen the lights to the south, my husband would always remind me NOPE You gotta look north, but above our south facing view of the barns, I started to see a green glow. Andsure enough, the sky exploded from there, quite literally. Watching this unfold infront of our eyes, I thought to myself, that seeing such a sight as this in the sky, the glowing greens or especially the most ominous reds, might have actually been something quite terrifying at one time or another. I actually thought to myself, is this it? Is the world ending? Imagine seeing this at a time where we didn’t have the scientific explanation we now agree upon.
So what exactly are the Northern Lights?
The Northern lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, are a natural phenomenon characterized by colorful lights dancing across the night sky in the Earth's polar regions. This breathtaking display is caused by charged particles from the Sun, primarily electrons and protons, colliding with gases in the Earth's atmosphere. When these charged particles collide with the gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen, at high altitudes, they emit light of varying colors, creating the mesmerizing auroras. The colors produced depend on the type of gas particles involved and their altitude in the atmosphere. The Northern lights are predominantly seen in regions close to the North Pole, such as Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Iceland, although they can occasionally be observed at lower latitudes during periods of heightened solar activity.
Not surprisingly, many cultures have a variety of views surround this captivating phenomenon.
Many Indigenous cultures had positive views and feelings associated with the lights. For example, some Indigenous teachings describe the northern lights as torches held by spirits tasked with leading the souls of the recently decreased over the abyss and to a land of brightness and plenty. Whereas some say that these are guiding lights or torches held by their ancestors to help guide them home. To communicate with people on Earth, they believed the Northern Lights made a whistling sound, which was to be answered by humans with whispers. Some Inuit tribes hold beliefs about summoning the Aurora to communicate with deceased relatives. Whereas others, in Northern Geenland, saw the lights as spirits playing celestial games. The Northern lights are referred to as Arsanitt – literally meaning the kickball game.
The Vikings also viewed the lights on favorable terms. According to their teaching, Odin, the chief god and ruler of Asgard, would pick up soldiers who died during earthly combat and take them to Valhalla, his home. The Valkyries, which are female warriors on horseback with spears and shields, were taked with guiding these soliders to Valhalla. It is believe that these lights are the reflections of the Valkyrie’s armour. Alternative versions state that the lights are viewed as a Bifrost Bridge which guided the fallen warriors to the final resting place in Valhalla.
Although it is generally accepted that these lights are spirits, what the spirits are doing and what their intentions are vary across many legends. And naturally, there are many Indigenous cultures who view them as something to be feared. For example, the Sámi indigenous Finno-Ugric people of northern Scandinavia, did not believe that the lights were telling stories of heroism and bravery; instead, they were to be feared as tthe appearance of the Northern Lights was a bad omen. Kind of the way sailors have their “red sky at night sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailors take warning”. They viewed the lights as souls of the dead, but that you shouldn’t talk to them or try to get their attention by for example, whistling or waving. If the lights were alerted to your presence, they would reach down, grab you and take you into the sky, never to be seen again. Or ….worse…they might slice your head off !! To this day, many descendents of this tribe stay inside when they see the lights to be on the safe side and recall being taught as children about the risk of being grabbed or having your head cut off. This folkore was thought to perhaps originate in order to teach children not to stay out too late…but I think it stems from a genuine fear for what these lightst might mean, because in a similar vein, for other Northern Indigenous groups, it is long a tradition, that those who see the lights while dog sleading must cut their dogs ears, as a bleeding ear for some reason was seen as a protection against these lights.
As the name implies, the Nothern lights are typically seen ….well…to the North. So what happened on May 10th 2024? Why was this seen all around the world? I will come back to that in just a moment.
Not unlike what we just experienced this May, this ins’t the first time the northern lights have been viewed outside of the North so to speak. These occasional sightings on earth have created many historical tales, myths and folkore.
For instance, in the late 18th century, the onset of the French Revolution threw the country into turmoil. In the weeks before the monarchy was overthrown, a bright red aurora was seen in the skies over England and Scotland and locals reported hearing huge armies battling in the skies. The frightened onlookers believed it foretold of impending war and death.
So why were these seen outside of the North then and again now?
Well, before May 10th, I don’t know about you, but I was inundated with headlines about a severe “Solar storm” or “solar flare”. I really didn’t understand what this meant, and the more I looked into it, the more afraid I became.
What I was able to learn was that a solar flare, also known as a solar storm, is a sudden and intense release of energy on the Sun's surface, resulting in a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. These phenomena occur due to the complex interplay of magnetic fields within the Sun's atmosphere. When the magnetic energy stored in the Sun's atmosphere is suddenly released, it triggers a massive explosion, ejecting charged particles, such as electrons and protons, into space. This eruption can lead to various space weather events, including geomagnetic storms and disruptions in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar flares can vary in size and intensity, ranging from small, localized bursts to large, powerful eruptions capable of impacting communication systems, satellites, and even power grids on Earth. Scientists monitor solar activity closely to predict and mitigate the potential impacts of solar flares.
However, all of the headlines talked about massive disruptions to our satellites and electrical grids and kept referencing something known as the Carrington Event…do you know what this is?
Jo – Real Guess
Not quite // Good guess! // How did oyu know?
Basically, The Carrington Event was the most powerful geomagnetic storm on record which occurred in September 1859, named after British astronomer Richard Carrington who observed the associated solar flare. Auroras were observed as far south as the Caribbean and telegraph systems worldwide experiencing significant disruptions, including sparks and fires. It was interesting though, I read about a story of telepraph operators having a full communication of several lines completely powered by the geomagnetic storm, as their power supplies had technically been cut by the storm itself. Apaparently they went on for two hours without their battery supply. If a similar event were to occur today, it could have devastating effects on modern technology, potentially causing widespread power outages, disrupting communication networks, and damaging satellites. To put things into perspective, without getting to technical, there is a scale that rates the intensity of these flares. The intensity of the flare that caused the Carrington event was ranked at 40, whereas the one we just had ranked a 1 or 2.
So when is the next severe solar flare expected to happen? And do you really need to be worried? Well, the top scientists agree that we can’t predict these flares, but luckily, whenever it happens, scientists generally believe that even the most intense flares, like the Carrington event, really generally do not have devavstating impacts on human life so to speak. In theory, we would be able to survive. It is just that we have become so dependent on modern technology, which could face outages in severe solar storms, that we would almost have self-made impacts but our basic human needs to survive, food, water, light, would not be affected. That being said, scientists don’t even think our modern technology would face the same impacts that were faced by early technology being used in the 1800s. They don’t even think our consumer electronics would actually get affected.
So there you have it, the somewhat darker version of the history and folklore surrounding something typically considered to be magical and spectacularly stunning. Did you see the light show on May 10th into May 11th? What do the lights represent to you? Reach out and let us know!
