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 of [[Uppsala]] by [[Anders Celsius]] and [[Olof Hiorter]]. In 1741, Hiorter was able to link large magnetic fluctuations with an aurora being observed overhead. This evidence helped to support their theory that 'magnetic storms' are responsible for such compass fluctuations. [[File:Church 1911.4.1.jpg|thumb|[[Frederic Edwin Church|Church's]] 1865 painting "[[Aurora Borealis (painting)|Aurora Borealis]]"]] A variety of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] myths surround the spectacle. The European explorer [[Samuel Hearne]] traveled with [[Chipewyan|Chipewyan Dene]] in 1771 and recorded their views on the "ed-thin" ('caribou'). According to Hearne, the Dene people saw the resemblance between an aurora and the sparks produced when [[caribou]]