364 



RURICOLA ON THE AURORA BOREAI.IS. 



earlier date, assigned in this note to the phenomenon, is more than 

 thirty years prior to the publication of the " Faerie Queene," and of 

 course more than 150 years prior to the date mentioned by Collins's 

 editors. 



With submission, however, to the writer of the foregoing note, to 

 whom I feel obliged for many curious observations in his edition of 

 White's Selborne, several examples of the meteor in question are 

 recorded in the English annals at much more early periods than he 

 supposes. For instance, the phenomenon is described by our historians, 

 Matthew of Westminster and Florence of Worcester, as having occurred 

 in the years 555, 567, 743, 77^ 926, and 979. The terms which they 

 employ for describing it are respectively " appearances, as it were of 

 lances, seen in the air from the north as far as the west " — " fiery 

 spears seen in the air " — " fiery beams seen in the air, such as the men 

 of that age had never before beheld " — " seen in the heaven after sun- 

 set red signs and horrible " — " fiery rays seen all over England in 

 the northern quarter of heaven " — u a cloud seen at midnight all over 

 England, sometimes blood-red, sometimes of the colour of fire ; and 

 afterwards being disparted into rays, and changed into sundry colours, 

 it disappeared about day-break." And in some of the instances they 

 speak of the phenomenon as portending future events ; according to 

 Spenser's remark, " that it prodigious seems in common people's sight." 



The reader who is desirous of seeing the original Latin of these 

 extracts, if the works of the annalists are not easily accessible, may 

 refer to an article in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1756, by the late 

 eminent antiquary, Dr. Samuel Pegge, whose observation on the last 

 cited example is as follows: — " These lights, it seems, were seen all 

 over England, and lasted till very late in the night ; at first it was one 

 body of light (nubes), but changed its colour from red to white, or 

 rather fire-colour ; afterwards was disparted into rays or streamers of 

 various colours, just as the Aurora borealis is known very often to do." 



The foregoing examples of the northern lights, as recorded by our 

 early annalists, occurred at times before the Norman Conquest. For 

 examples since that period I refer to the Saxon Chronicle, as edited 

 and translated by the Rev. Dr. Ingram, Oxford, 1823. 



" A. D. 1098. Before Michaelmas the heaven was of such a hue, 

 as if it were burning nearly all the night," p. 318. 



"A. D. 1117. Also in the night of the 17th day before the calends 

 of January was the heaven seen very red, as if it were burning," 

 p. 338. 



