Aurora elders from watching or interpreting the messages of ancestors they believed were transmitted through an aurora. "[[Bulfinch's Mythology]]" relates that in [[Norse mythology]], the armour of the [[Valkyrie|Valkyrior]] "sheds a strange flickering light, which flashes up over the northern skies, making what Men call the 'aurora borealis', or 'Northern Lights' ". There appears to be no evidence in [[Old Norse literature]] to substantiate this assertion. The first Old Norse account of "norðrljós" is found in the Norwegian chronicle "[[Konungs Skuggsjá]]" from AD 1230. The chronicler has heard about this phenomenon from compatriots returning from [[Greenland]], and he gives three possible
Aurora Borealis (painting) Aurora Borealis (painting) Aurora Borealis is an 1865 painting by Frederic Edwin Church of the aurora borealis and the Arctic expedition of Isaac Israel Hayes. The painting measures and is now owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Aurora Borealis" is based on two separate sketches. The first incident was an aurora witnessed by Church's pupil, the Arctic explorer Isaac I. Hayes. Hayes provided a sketch and description of the aurora borealis display he witnessed one January evening. Coinciding with Hayes' furthest northern movement into what he named Cape Leiber, the aurora borealis appeared over the peak. Describing the event,