Below is a series of incredible photographs of the aurora borealis (northern lights), one of which forms the outline of a phoenix, a mythical fire-eating bird common in a variety of ancient mythologies.
With wings spread, the striking profile of a ferocious emerges into the night sky, all captured by photographer Hallgrimur P Helgason. The images quickly captivated stargazers at Kaldasel when they were posted and exhibited.
Hallgrimur said the bird appeared in the night sky an hour after he got there and started shooting.
“It’s really exciting to photograph the aurora, especially when they are as playful as they were that night. I must admit that I always get an adrenaline rush when the lights go off like this; that particular take was the best of the night, he said.”
Hillgrimur uses a tripod to position his camera when photographing the lights, and advises taking photos away from the city’s light pollution, never using flash.
He said that the northern lights were mainly showing up in green and yellow colors when he was photographing that night, but they also showed up in red and blue, suggesting that the aurora was strong.
The Northern Lights figure prominently in Norse mythology. One legend suggests that the lights were reflections or glows from the shields and armor of the Valkyries, warriors who chose who could die in battle and who could live to fight another day. Dying in battle seemed to occupy quite a bit of Norse mythology and the Aurora was also believed to be the “Bifrost Bridge”, a glowing, pulsing arch that led the fallen in battle to the warrior’s final resting place in Valhalla.
The indigenous Saami people believe that these lights are their ancestors visiting them. The Salteau Indians of eastern Canada and the Kwakiutl and Tlingit of southeastern Alaska interpreted the northern lights as the dance of human spirits. The Inuit who lived on the lower Yukon River believed that the aurora was the dance of animal spirits, especially those of deer, wolves, seals, salmon, and belugas. In Finland, a mystical fox was thought to have created the aurora, its bushy tail sprinkling snow and sending sparks into the sky.