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When the English Witnessed Battles in the Sky
- olivermarks 6y agoCarrington Event 1859 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event Interesting how perceptions of what was happening were so different then compared to this earlier event
- magicsmoke 6y agoThe industrial revolution has irreversibly changed how society and we as individuals within that society perceive and describe things. Less analogy to lived and experienced phenomena in the form of tales and myths and more mechanical breakdowns of shape, size, dimensions, and scientific measurements needed for reproduction in a factory. Makes you wonder how future societies would describe phenomena among their members
- Izkata 6y agoA youtuber I follow has recently started a series where he takes a myth or supernatural subject and splits it into two parts: the first he presents it as a total believer, with the idea that the viewers pick it apart, then in the second he picks it apart. You reminded me of the one on the Mothman sightings, where in the second part he made a really good point that if you ignore all the naming, the eyewitness descriptions sound like a man with a jetpack and red goggles.
- coeneedell 6y agoDo you mind if I ask who?
- core_dumped 6y agoI second this, sounds really interesting!
- Izkata 6y agoArmoured Skeptic, the two Mothman videos are these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN_fBBDydO0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN_fBBDydO0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYOu7MLZ_Dg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYOu7MLZ_Dg
- dvh 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over...
- arcticbull 6y agoHonestly, this sounds like it could be ergot poisoning. It's about the right era -- the last major outbreak of ergot poisoning was in 1926. Ergot is a type of fungus that infects rye and other grains, and has a ton of negative health effects, especially if consumed for a long period of time. However, acute ingestion leads to powerful hallucinations. Lysergic acid is the precursor for a ton of ergoline alkaloids, and of course, LSD. All their descriptions sound an awful lot like a mushroom or acid trip. tl;dr: IMO they were probably high on wacky loaf.
- robotresearcher 6y agoFrom the fine article: > On the night of March 6, 1716, people all over England witnessed a bloody war unfolding in the sky. > the aurora was bright enough to read by Aurora. Visible across the country. Rare in England, hence the amazement.
- mark-r 6y agoIs "aurora" a term used at the time, or was it added later by people who thought they knew better?
- dredmorbius 6y ago'Aurora borealis" seems to have begun appearing in print at rougghly this period: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=aurora+borealis&year_start=1600&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=10&case_insensitive=true&direct_url=t4%3B%2Caurora%20borealis%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BAurora%20Borealis%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Baurora%20borealis%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BAurora%20borealis%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BAURORA%20BOREALIS%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=aurora+boreali... References prior to 1714 (daate attributions may be inaccurate): https://www.google.com/search?q="aurora%20borealis"&tbm=bks&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:1600,cd_max:1714&lr=lang_en&gws_rd=ssl https://www.google.com/search?q="aurora%20borealis"&tbm=bks&...
- mark-r 6y agoThe question is one of revisionist history. Did the people writing of the event at the time recognize it for what it was? Or did a later transcription of the event substitute their current understanding and lose the confusion surrounding the original?
- pierrec 6y agoI wonder if Robert Jordan was inspired by this when he wrote The Great Hunt (spoiler follows, I guess!) The protagonist experiences a hallucinatory battle with his arch nemesis, then learns that it was somehow projected in the sky: "In the sky?" Rand said in wonder. "Both of you," Moiraine said. "Your battle took place across the sky, in full view of every soul in Falme. Perhaps in other towns on Toman Head, too, if half what I hear is to be believed." This then ruins his plans of keeping a low profile. Those books had some fun ideas.
- mcphage 6y agoThis article reminded me of the exact same thing!
- Sonnengewitter 6y ago'The Great Hunt in the Sky' is an ancient European myth which has existed perhaps since the pleistoscene. It has manifested in a lot of interesting ways; Johnny Cash's 'ghost riders in the sky', santa and his reindeer, Wagners ride of the Valkyries, Note: most of the etymological research on this was done in what is now modern germany, but this myth was equally prevalent in france, british isles, scandinavia etc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt
- oso2k 6y agoCash's "Riders in the Sky" is based on Native American mythology [0]. Cash felt it important to highlight Native American history and struggles [1]. "Riders in the Sky" was only one of many such songs. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Ghost)_Riders_in_the_Sky:_A_Cowboy_Legend#Overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Ghost)_Riders_in_the_Sky:_A_C... [1] https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/american-indian-rights/where-are-your-guts-johnny-cashs-little-known-fight https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/american-indian-rig...
- Kye 6y agoI didn't know about that. Do you happen to know which tribe's mythology inspired him to write this? The wiki says "possibly Apache" and doesn't cite where that possibility came from. I've been trying to learn more about the people who have been here longer than my people since learning what they're still going through and how little I learned about that growing up beyond stereotypes.
- michaelsbradley 6y agoPossibly related to the phenomenon researched by Peratt, et al, albeit a much more recent occurrence: Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High-Current, Z-Pinch Aurora as Recorded in Antiquity https://plasmauniverse.info/downloadsCosmo/PerattTPSv31-2003clr.pdf https://plasmauniverse.info/downloadsCosmo/PerattTPSv31-2003... Related publications: https://plasmauniverse.info/NearEarth.html https://plasmauniverse.info/NearEarth.html
- Jaruzel 6y agoLarge solar storms. When they happen, they cause the Auroras to appear at lower latitudes than typical. They happen so rarely in a persons lifetime, that people are very unlikely to see one more than once, if at all.
- perilunar 6y agoI thought this was going to be about the Battle of Britain.