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Chapter 4. The Sky Connection 106
Figure 4.3. Aurora Borealis–Souls flying
time,” a crack between this world and the Otherworld. Such “cracks” are common
in Germanic folk medicine and folk magic, such as making magic on the sand at a
point in between the levels of the tide or in a cave. 24 This concept continues to figure
in modern native herbalism of northern Europe and will be discussed at length in
later chapters.
The eddaic and sagaic writings do not contain anything directly pertaining to
the “lights of the sky,” but there is much in Finnish, Saamí, and modern (germanic)
Scandinavian folk lore mostly revolving around the idea that the aurora borealis was
“souls” flying to the Otherworld, and that the reddish hues often seen were bloody
battles either between warriors or noaides (shamans). 25 There is a body of folklore,
particularly among the Scandinavian Lapps (Saamí), and in modern northern Germanic
folklore which at least concerns the phases of the moon for operations such as
blood-letting, slaughtering animals, planting, harvesting, other farm chores, building
24 In The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland by Ernest Marwick (Rowman and Littlefield, New
Jersey ) pp. 48-52, 1975.
25 There is a body of lore among the Saamí describing the ”fire Lapps,” but unfortunately,
not much of this has been translated into English. The term ”fire Lapp” refers to the noaide as he
battles other shamans, and the fire refers specifically to either the ”will-o’the-wisp (doubtful) or
the aurora borealis (most probable).