The Northern Light

In Nordic literature a remarkable discussion of the northern light appears in Kongespeilet (The King's Mirror) a thirteenth-century Norwegian chronicle. It is described in vivid detail as the following translated excerpts demonstrate: These northern lights have this peculiar nature, that the darker the night is, the brighter they seem, and they always appear at night but never by day, most frequently in the densest darkness and rarely by moonlight. In appearance they resemble a vast flame of fire viewed from a great distance. It also looks as if sharp points were shot from this flame up into the sky; these are of uneven height and in constant motion, now one, now another darting highest; and the light appears to blaze like a living flame. Three different theories for the origin of the northern light were suggested in this book. Numerous naturally occurring heavenly phenomena have been observed and enjoyed as long as the Earth has been inhabited, but hardly any of them has stirred man's imagination, curiosity and fear as much as the northern light. The northern light is certainly one of the most spectacular of nature's phenomena.

In Nordic literature a remarkable discussion of the northern light appears in Kongespeilet (The King's Mirror) a thirteenth-century Norwegian chronicle.

1 The Northern Light in Folklore and Mythology.- 1.1 The Enigmatic and Mysterious Northern Lights.- 1.2 The Northern Light - A Vengeful Being.- 1.3 The Northern Light - Flames from the Realm of the Dead.- 1.4 The Northern Light in Mythology.- 1.5 The Northern Light as an Omen of War, Disaster and Plagues.- 2 The Northern Light in Norse Literature.- 2.1 Local Peculiarities are Reflected in Mythology.- 2.2 Norse Literature.- 2.3 The Northern Light - Reflections from the Shields of the Valkyrjes.- 2.4 The Saga Literature (Old Norse Prose Narrative) Describes Many Light Phenomena.- 2.5 The Edda Poems as Referenced in International Literature on the Northern Light.- 2.6 Impact of Fritz's References to the Poetic Edda.- 2.7 Traces of the Northern Light in Edda Literature.- 2.8 In Norse Literature - Only Meager References to the Northern Light?.- 3 The Northern Light - A Source of Inspiration.- 3.1 The Northern Light and the Midnight Sun - Characteristic Manifestations of the Polar Sky.- 3.2 The Northern Light an Inspiration for Writers.- 3.3 Twentieth Century Norwegian Poems Touching on the Northern Light.- 3.4 Colourful Descriptions of the Northern Lights.- 4 Accounts of Northern Lights in Scandinavia - From the Viking Era to the Renaissance.- 4.1 Old Known Auroral Records.- 4.2 How Ancient Philosophers Regarded the Northern Light.- 4.3 The King's Mirror Gives the Vikings' Theories About the Northern Light.- 4.4 An Ancient Arabian Description of the Northern Light in Scandinavia.- 4.5 Olaus Magnus' Reference to the Greek Scholars.- 4.6 The Famous Astronomer Tycho Brahe Observed the Position of Auroral Coronas with Great Accuracy.- 4.7 Absaløn Pedersson Beyer Made the First Drawings of the Aurora in Norway.- 4.8 Confusing Descriptions of the Northern Light by Peder Claussøn Friis.- 4.9 Petter Dass Did Not Mention the Northern Light.- 4.10 Norway's First Historiographer, Thormod Torfaeus Discusses the Northern Light.- 5 The Northern Light in Scandinavia During the Eighteenth Century.- 5.1 Suno Arnelius Wrote the First Scientific Treatise on Aurora in Scandinavia.- 5.2 Jonas Ramus Associated the Northern Light with Magnetism.- 5.3 Jens Christian Spidberg, the First Scandinavian who Wrote a Book on the Northern Light.- 5.4 Johan Heitman - A Layman's View of the Northern Light.- 5.5 Ludvig Holberg Recommended Heitman's Book.- 5.6 Peter Møller's Reactions to Heitman's Book.- 5.7 Joachim Frederik Ramus - The First Norwegian Natural Scientist who Wrote an Auroral Paper.- 5.8 Anders Celsius Set Out on a New Course in Auroral Research.- 5.9 Olof Peter Hiorter - The Northern Light and the Compass Needle....- 5.10 The First "Artificial Northern Light" was Produced by a Poet.- 5.11 Lars Barhow - An Active Observer of the Northern Light.- 5.12 Erich Pontoppidan - The Northern Light is "an Electrical Phenomenon".- 5.13 Gerhard Schøning Compiled Literature of the Northern Light.- 5.14 Erich Johan Jessen-Schardeboll Describes the Geographic Location of the Northern Light.- 5.15 Torben Bergman Measured the Height of the Northern Light.- 5.16 Johan Carl Wilcke - The Center of an Auroral Corona is the Axis of Its Magnetic Field Line.- 5.17 Johan Ernst Gunnerus Suggested that There Must be a Northern Light Around Venus and Mercury.- 5.18 Maximillian Hell's Expedition to Vardo in Norway.- 6 Scientific Auroral Experiments Beginning in the Nineteenth Century.- 6.1 Christopher Hansteen and Hans Christian Ørsted Inspired Auroral Research.- 6.2 Anders Jonas Angstrom, the Northern Lights Come from Luminous Gas.- 6.3 Karl Selim Lemstrom, the Northern Light was an Electric Discharge Between Earth and the Sky.- 6.4 Erik Edlund's Theory of the Northern Light.- 6.5 Sophus Tromholt Investigated the Periodic Occurrence of the Northern Light.- 6.6 The Statistical Occurrence of the Northern Lights.- 6.7 Adam Paulsen Launched the Cosmic Theory.- 6.8 Svante Arrhenius Expands de Mairan's Theory.- 6.9 The Concept of the Auroral Ring.- 7 Norwegian Auroral Pioneers in