Most descriptions of the Northern Lights in both classical and medieval chronicles from across the world tend to emphasise the fieriness of the sky by using an array of expressions which help to convey that idea: “torches”, “red clouds”, “bloody rain”, “fiery flashes”, “red armies” and “fiery dragons”. This variety is reflected, for example, in Seneca’s description, in which ignis (‘fire’) emerges not only as the chief motif, but also as the substance which makes up the phenomenon. Seneca also highlights the radiant effect of flashes of light across a night sky, typical of aurorae, that unnatural opposition between darkness and light, night and day, which “emit only enough light to disperse the darkness and give the illusion of daylight”. For Pliny those marvellous occurrences were harbingers of misfortune, and he goes further by acknowledging the prophetic power of what he refers to as trabes “beams” which, in his view constituted “the most alarming possible cause of terror to mankind”.

In what is perhaps one of the most celebrated and evocative accounts in Old English literature, the entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 793, the sack of Lindisfarne by the Vikings is deliberately associated with “fyrenne dracan” (fiery dragons) flying in the sky. In the Annals of St-Bertin for the year 859, the observation of an aurora borealis, described as “acies in caelo” “armies in the sky”, heralds the destruction and burning of the monastery of St Valery and nearby cities at the hands of the Danes. In the Frankish Chronicle of Flodoard of Reims, the plague that hit Reims in 934 was announced by armies that were seeing in the sky resembling a fiery serpent. In Chinese official histories (History of Tang and History of Sòngshǐ), "red vapour" or "red cloud" (chìyún) together with serpents are the most common descriptions of northen lights. In both Western European and Chinese annals, appearances of northern lights are associated with invasions, punishment, famine and divine disapproval. 

This talk will look at references to aurorae in a range of early medieval chronicles, from Continental Europe to the British Isles and Chinese official histories, shedding light on astronomical knowledge in the early medieval period. Furthermore, it will explore the religious, allegorical symbolism attached to the phenomenon and its prophetic role as harbinger of disasters.