174 
NATURE 
[Dec. 29, 1870 

EARLY MENTION OF THE AURORA BOREALIS 
“THE explanation given by Mr. G. Henry Kinahan* of the 
superstition prevalent in Ireland regarding ‘‘ showers of 
blood ” is extremely interesting, and to a great extent the true 
one; but any student of Irish history must feel how difficult 
it is to apply it to the interpretation of not a few prodigies re- 
corded in the earliest chronicles. The word ‘‘blood” is fre- 
quently met with in accounts of wars, in such a manner as to 
make it quite impossible to construe it into an allusion to the 
Aurora ; nor is it in many places capable of a duai meaning, for 
instance, the ‘‘Chronicum Scotorum”*+ under A.D. 531, says, in 
relating the drowning and burning of Muircertach Mac Erca,— 
The king. Mac Erca, returns 
To the side of the Ui Néill; 
Blood reaches girdles in the plain ; 
Territories increase afar. 
Mac Erca was killed by a fairy woman named Sin. 
words ‘*Blood reaches girdles ” 
Aurora cannot be meant. Under 
(A.D. 497)— 
The 
are not very clear, but the 
an earlier date it is related 
The battle of Seghais— 
A certain woman caused it ; 
Red blood was brought over lances 
By Duisech, daughter of Duach, 
The further we go back, the obscurer it becomes, and the greater 
the difficulty in attaching a consistent meaning, especially such 
an one as a record of auroral appearances. In Dr. Lynch’s 
**Cambrensis Eversus,” vol. i., it says :— 
‘© A.C. 673.—Fionachta succeeded: his father in the throne. 
During his reign an enormous quantity of wine fell like fleeces 
of snow from the sky.” 
“A.C. 561.—Elim Ollfinachta . . . . succeeded ... . He 
was called Ollfinacha, because snow, which fell during his reign, 
tasted like wine.” 
The first of these quotations might be explained by saying that 
an Aurora was visible during the falling of snow, which appeared 
red from reflection, but this will not do for the second. Under 
A,D, 604 (Chron. Scot.) occurs— 
Great was the ved sorrow 
Over the chieftains of Erinn all— 
Aedh Slaine, with multitudes, 
Aedh Roin, Aedh Buidhe, were slain. 
Here ved sorrow means a ‘‘ bloody sorrow,” but I cannot see in 
this any reference to an Aurora. 
For a more direct and satisfactory record of an auroral 
appearance, the following are given in Chron. Scot. : 
**A.D. 659; A.D. 660—Darkness on the Kalends of May, at 
the ninth hour; and in the same summer the sky was seen to 
burn.” 
“A.D. 670.—. . . . A thin and tremulous cloud, in the 
form of a rainbow, appeared at the fourth watch of the night of 
the fifth day before Kaster Sunday, stretching from east to west 
ina clear sky. The moon was turned into blood.” 
“© A.D. 680.—. . Loch nEchach was turned into blood.” 
Perhaps this was caused by reflecting the colour of an Aurora. 
The ‘‘ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’’ contains the next later obser- 
vation :— 
“A.D. 685.—This year it rained blood in Britain, and milk 
and butter were turned into blood. The Chron. Scot. follows with: 
**A.D. 688.—The moon was turned into the colour cf blood on 
the festival of Saint Martin(11th November)” This is singularly 
corroborated by the ‘‘ Brut y Tywysogion” (The Chronicles of 
the Princes. )$ 
“A.D. 688.— . . 
Britain, and in Ireland.” 
“ALD. 689.— . a battle against the son of Penda. 
Bloody rain fellin Lagenia.” (Chron. Scot.) 
“A.D. 690.— . the milk and butter turned to blood.” 
(Brut y Tywy.) 
ASD 6Q2—" 1% te 
(Brut y Tywy.) 
Ve now come to a most perplexing record of phenomena, 
which cannot, I am afraid, be explained ; they occurred in 
“A.D. 714.— . it rained a shower of honey upon Othan 
| * See Nature, December 8, 1870. 
+ Published underthe direction of the Master of the Ro!ls. Translated by 
W. M. Hennessy, M.R.I.A., 1866. 
t Showers of Blood are mentioned as having taken place in Tit. Liv. Book 
42, Sect. 20. It says: ‘‘ There wasa report of its having rained blood for 
hree days at a town in Italy.’ And in Pliny, Book 2, Chap. 56, ‘‘ It 
rained blood when M. Acilius and C. Persius were Consuls.” 
§ Published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. 
the Rey. John Williams Ab Ithel, M.A,, 1860, 

. it rained blood in the island of 
the moon turned of a bloody colour. 
‘Translated by 

Bec; a shower of silver upon Othan Mér; and a shower of 
blood on the Foss of Laighen.”’ (Chron. Scot.) 
If the shower of blood means an Aurora, what do the other 
showers mean? What is a shower of honey ? 
The auroral hypothesis will not satisfactorily apply to the 
following :— 
“A.D. 734.--_. This year the moon was as if it had 
been sprinkled with blood.” (Anglo-Sax. Chron.) 
But it may to the following :— 
“A.D. 744.—This year a ved crucifix appeared in the heavens 
after sunset.” (Flor. Wor. and in Anglo-Sax. Chron., under 
A.D. 743.) 
An Aurora is undoubtedly meant in the next record :— 
og eal). 03)— This year dire forewarnings came 
| over the land of the North-humbrians, and miserably terrified 

the people; these were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings, 
and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air.”* (Anglo-Sax, Chron. ) 
This may be taken as the ear/iest direct mention of an Aurora 
Borealis in England. ‘‘ Fiery dragons” are not more inapplic- 
able to the phenomenon than the term ‘‘ merry dancers,” till 
very lately used in the Orkneys. 
The next mention of “ blood,” whether as a celestial phenome- 
non or not, I shall leave for others to say is :— 
“A.D. 811.—This year wasa ycar of prodigies. . . . . It 
was in it, also, cakes were converted into blood, and blood used 
to flow from them when being cut. .”’ (Chron. Scot.) 
Digressing for a moment, I am here reminded of what an Irish- 
woman told me. She said that in Ireland a man, for masticating 
the sacramental wafer, had a flow of blood from his mouth until 
he was well-nigh drowned. This blood-tradition seems not to 
have entirely lost its hold on the Irish peasantry, although 
appearing in so many garbs, 
A column of light is recorded to have appeared, but very 
few will accept it as an Aurora Borealis :— 
“ALD. 819.—. heaven afterwards revealed the deed 
by means of a column of light.” (Florence of Worcester.) 
“A.D. 850,—. a column of light shot up to heaven, 
and remained visible to the inhabitants of that place [Repton] for 
thirty days.” (Flor. Wor.) 
The next in chronological order is :— 
** A.D, 866.—Loch Lebhinn was changed into blood, so that it 
became clots of gore, like the lights of animals, all round its 
edge.” (Chron. Scot.) I may here remark how difficult it is to 
say what this record really means, especially when it states that 
the Loch became ‘‘ clots of gore.” 
** A.D. 878.—It rained a shower of blood, which was found in 
lumps of gore, and blood on the plains of Ciannachta. . . .” 
(Chron. Scot.) 
Perhaps the following may refer to an auroral appearance :— 
*“A.D, 890.—The heavens appeared tobe on fire at night on 
the Kalends of January.” (Chron. Scot.) But not so the 
next :— 
“A.D. 898.—Aideidh . . . [was slain] in treachery 
: . «a shower of blood was shed in Ard-Ciannachta.’» 
(Chron. Scot.) This looks very much like a repetition of A.D, 878, 
The next observation does not occur till 
“© A.D. 938.—The sun was of the colour of blood, from the be” 
ginning of one day to the middle of the day following.” (Chron. 
Scot.) I shall not attempt to say what this was caused by, as I 
cannot conceive the sw being visible during the zight. The 
Chronicles I have had access to do not mention the word 
“blood,” nor any miracle connected with natural phenomena 
since this date, that would afford the least ground for surmising 
that an Aurora Borealis was meant, till 
A.D. 944.— When it records:—‘‘ Two fiery columns were seen a 
week before Allhallowtide, which illuminated the whole world.” 
(Chron, Scot.) Knowing under what various forms Auroras 
appear, it may not be at all extravagant to suppose this ‘‘ fiery 
column ” to have been such a phenomenon ; however, this is not 
so convincing as the next on record ;— 
““A.D. 979.—That same year was seen a dloody cloud, often- 
times in the likeness of fire; and it was mostly apparent at 
midnight, and so in various deams was coloured. When it began 
to dawn, then it glided away.” (Ang.-Sax. Chron.) 
* In “ The Philosophical Grammar” by Benj. Martin, 1738, there is given 
a list of fiery meteors, and among them are the various forms of the Aurora 
Borealis :-—*‘/gnts Pyramidalis, the pyramidal fire, when it resembles a 
pillar of fire standing upright; Draco Volans, a flying dragon, when the 
middle parts be thicker and broader than the ends; Cafra Saltans, a 
skipping goat, when it appears to have a skipping motion, to be sometimes 
kindled and sometimes not,” (Pages 204, 205.) 
a” 
