Aurora Borealis

Like many others have an app on my phone which identifies stars, constellations and planets. As the day ends, it is somehow deeply relaxing to be walking outside, staring up at a night sky covered in infinite tiny pinpricks of light whilst the dogs are snuffling around me in the grass, tails always waggling.

Usually I turn in slow circles, orientating myself by looking for the planets, the Great Bear and Orion the Hunter and then working out other constellations, stories and wonders with the help of my phone.

However it is not only the stars and moon in the night sky which have been a source of wonder during these early months of the year. Large swathes of colour from green to pink and shades of red, violet and yellow and blue have sometimes danced across the skies in the direction of due north.

These lights, now known as the Northern lights, have, over time, been called many names and explained in many heroic tales. In Old Norse mythology, the lights were a rainbow bridge, ‘Bifrost’, to the realm of gods where Odin, Thor and Loki resided. The Bifrost separated the world of the living from the world of the dead. A 12th century Viking, Snorri Sturluson, contributed to the medieval text, The Prose Edda, and explained it as follows:

“The gods made a bridge from earth to heaven, which is called Bifrost? You must have seen it. It may be that you call it the rainbow. It has three colours.”

In another Norse legend, the Vikings believed the Northern Lights were the reflection of the Valkyries’ armour as they led fallen warriors to Odin. The Valkyries rode their horses across the sky, carrying the chosen warriors to their eternal glory in Valhalla, leaving trails of light behind them.

In another story, these beautiful skies were considered a sign of good fortune for those lucky enough to see them because they were the result of the gods playing. This belief was supported by the fact that the Northern Lights often appear in times of great change, such as during the changing of the seasons, which the Vikings also believed was a time when the gods were most active.

Today, we know that the Northern Lights are actually caused by charged solar particles colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field which creates a dazzling display of light. Furthermore, as now, the sun enters an 11-year solar cycle, with periods of intense activity followed by a quiet phase.

During its active bursts, the sun releases charged particles that travel through space at speeds of around one million miles per hour. Some of the particles are captured by the Earth’s magnetic field and collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in the atmosphere which is what creates the colours. Oxygen atoms glow green while nitrogen atoms emit purple, pink, and red. These atoms and molecules then shed the energy they gained from the collision, emitting light at various wavelengths to create colourful displays in the night sky.

The best displays tend to be further north but from time to time at Highclere, we are treated to a beautiful light spectacular. The Greeks called the north wind Boreas, but it was Galilieo Galilei (astronomer, physicist, engineer) in the time of the Renaissance who combined the word Aurora, meaning dawn with Borealis to give us words to describe what still lifts our spirits today

If the Vikings saw the Aurora Borealis as a symbol of the power and majesty of the gods, one of the best places to see nature’s light show is Norway – the coast, the sky, the islands and the cliffs…gazing at “ silent glowing northern lights.”