at resembled the flames of burning gases. The first accurate account of the
northern lights is in the book "The King's Mirror", a fourteenth century book wrote by the
Vikings of Norway. In contrast to the belifs on Middle Age Europe, the aurora, in "The King's
Miror", was said to be a natural phenomenon and was named "Nordurljos", or northern light. In
time central European scholors were influnced by the Vikings philosphy and soon adopted it.
The first research began in 1716, by a English astronomer named Edmond Halley. In
March of 1716 a bright aurora was seen througout central Europe. Edmond Halley observed it
from his home in London. He began to put ideas and theriories together. In his documents he
writes that the theory of the aurora was based on experince and observation and contravened
prevailing speculation and dogmatic belief. Edmond Halley was a pinorrer of scientfic reserach on
the northern lights. Halley's therios, ideas and reserch gave him support for the freedom of
thought during the Enlightenment which lead to scientist and phiolosphers to start to convey more
interest in the study of the aurora.
After Halley the Norwegian scientist Kristain Bikeland published a theory of the aurora
and supported it by doing experiments. Kristain Bikeland proposed that electrically charged
particles poured out of the sunsopts with velocities that enabled them to impinge the atmosphere
in the polar regions, guided by the Earth's geomagnetic field (National Geographic). His theory
was held well into the twentieth century.
Through time the northern lights have inspired writers, musicians, astonomers, philosphers
and artists. The Norwegian author Knut Hamsun thought that the aurora was a heavingly
weeding among the stars. In his poem "Snow" he writes "Flaming lights on the sky. A night of
northern lights. A wedding ...