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Matthew Rosenthal
English 1012
Professor Caroccio
2 March 2014
Northern Lights: Mythical and the Scientific Perspectives
Different cultural groups have varying perspectives on natural
phenomena that may complement or confuse each other. Analysis of these
perspectives provides insight not only into the natural phenomena
themselves, but also into the nature of human understanding. Competing
viewpoints illuminate the phenomena they describe as well as the ways in
which people make sense of their world.
The aurora borealis has been explained in various tales in Eskimo
culture. Eskimo people come from various Northern continental regions.
Since the aurora borealis, or more commonly, the northern lights, are
only seen in the northernmost regions of the earth, Eskimos have
observed this phenomenon regularly, and many folktales have been
created trying to explain why the sky bursts into a spectacular light show.
One Eskimo tale about the northern lights explains the sky as a great
dome of hard material arched over the Earth (). According to the tale, a
hole in this material allows spirits, especially those who have died
violently, to enter the heavens. On the way to the heavens, torch-wielding
spirits called sky-dwellers act as lighthouses, guiding the way for spirits
to travel safely (). The Eskimos claim to see the sky-dwellers feasting and

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playing football with a walrus skull (). The noises that accompany the
northern lights are said to be spirits communicating with humans. Another
Eskimo group from Greenland believes that the spirits in the sky are
children who died at birth; these children in the sky are dancing in circles,
causing different colors and patterns in the aurora ().
The Eskimo account of this phenomenon gives an explanation as to
why the aurora borealis happens. It ascribes human-spirit intention to this
natural occurrence by proposing that we see the northern lights because
these spirits are acting of their own volition to help humans make a
passage to heaven. The explanation is conveyed through the language of
human myth, folktales, and love stories.
The northern lights are explained much differently through a
scientific perspective. The scientific name for the northern lights is aurora
borealis, aurora being caused by the collision of solar gasses with
magnetic fields in the Earths atmosphere. The chemical reactions that
occur in those magnetic fields when they combine with the solar gasses
generate currents of charged particles, which, when met with Earth
gasses like oxygen and nitrogen, create the dazzling auroral light.
Scientists have also determined that various colors and patterns in the
aurora are produced depending on the type on ions being charged, as well
as the altitude in which these processes occur.
The modern astronomical account of the aurora borealis explains the
mechanism behind this phenomenon. It explains how it occurs using

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precise, scientific jargon in the language of astronomy, and attempts to
dispel any myths associated with the aurora. The search for scientific truth
is always to demystify phenomenon that would otherwise be explained
through mythical tales and folklore. The explanations of science appear to
be transparent facts.
The differing perspectives of the traditional Eskimo culture and
modern day astronomers cannot be reconciled. The two accounts are too
disparate; not even with a stretch of the imagination could we transpose
elements of the Eskimo tale to the modern day scientific explanation of
the phenomenon.
The Eskimo rendering is a folktale that uses the language of religious
tradition, making reference to spirits who guide the way to heaven. In this
way, the Eskimo story reflects the cultural beliefs of the Eskimo people,
such as a belief in the afterlife and the ability of humans to make contact
with the transcendental by seeing the lights and hearing the associated
noises. The myth emphasizes the centrality of humans in the universe. It
places personified spiritual forces at the center of the phenomenon of
northern lights. It is able to explain why northern lights occur by providing
a plausible reason that would appeal to people who have faith in the story:
humans are being guided toward a desirable afterlife. Even where it
attempts to address the physical composition of the northern lights, the
Eskimo story gets it wrong, presenting the atmoshpoere as a hard shell (as
compared with the modern scientific model of various gases). Above all,

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the physical composition of the northern lights is not important to the tale;
what matters to the Eskimo story is why humans see the lights.
In contrast, the scientific explanation is presented in a completely
different lexicon, in terms of particles, gases, magnetic fields, and spectra
of color. It decentralizes humans as part of the explanation and focuses
instead on phenomena that are believed to exist whether or not humans
are there to witness them; the northern lights are an objective reality and
truth. There is no mention of why the gases and magnetic fields are
aligned in that particular location, or why they interact in just that manner
to produce the visual display. To scientists, the mechanism of aurora
borealis is the object of study, and humans play no part in their account of
this phenomenon, except to define the elements involved. The scientific
explanation relies upon knowledge of and belief in a mechanized universe
of atoms interacting randomly.
To consider both Eskimo and scientific explanations of aurora
borealis simultaneously complicates the matter because of their vast
differences. The two stories are not compatible. However, reflecting on
both accounts reminds us that they are just thataccounts, versions, or
renderings of what we all perceive to be roughly the same thing: beautiful
lights in the northern sky. The traditional Eskimo tale, to a modern,
Western mind, would appear to be a sentimental story that makes humans
feel better about their condition. To believe it, one would have to be fully
indoctrinated in that culture, which supports the idea that there is an

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afterlife and peoples souls may live eternally in a heavenly sphere.
Likewise, the scientific explanation requires a prejudiced understanding of
the universe in terms of particulate matter. One has to believe that gases,
chemicals, and magnets exist in order to accept that scientific perspective;
it takes faith of a religious nature to accept that these forces and particles
exist. It so happens that modern western culture subscribes to these
beliefs and considers them to be more valid than the religion and folklore
of the past. However, it is important to recognize that science is a culture
just as much as Eskimo is a culture. Science uses the language of protons
and electrons while Eskimo culture uses its own folklore. What makes the
scientific explanation more right than the Eskimo account is that science
recognizes its shortcomings and admits to being in a constantly evolving,
imperfect state. Whereas the mythology of traditional cultures implies that
it is the final explanation for a phenomenon, scientific inquiry claims to be
always evolving. Thus, it provides space, within the subjective paradigm
of science, for refinement.