Viking Magazine - August 2018 - 14

24 hours, which is how we get day
and night. Earth's axial tilt, which is
about 23.5 degrees, plays a big role.
It's slightly tilted relative to the sun. If
it were not tilted, we'd have roughly
12 hours of light and dark and no
seasons. When the northern hemisphere
is tilted toward the sun, we get warmer
temperatures and longer daylight, also
known as summer.
These variations are less dramatic
at the equator and more extreme
toward the ends of Earth-particularly
above the Arctic Circle and below
the Antarctic Circle, which results
in the midnight sun in summer and
polar nights in winter. While there are
more penguins than people to enjoy
the midnight sun in the Antarctic, the
Arctic Circle is a different matter. A few
million people live north of the Arctic
Circle, soaking up the midnight sun
from Alaska to Scandinavia, Canada to
Russia, Finland to Greenland.
A large portion of mainland Norway
lies above the Arctic Circle, and it's one
of the most populous Arctic regions in
the world, with some 470,000 people.
The islands of Jan Mayen, Bear Island
and the Svalbard archipelago are
even farther north. In some spots, like
Svalbard, the sun stays high above the
horizon for months on end.
In locations farther south, the
midnight sun spends more time hovering
just above the horizon, swimming in
the reddish-golden shades of sunset and
sunrise. Those colors are courtesy of
what's called " scattering. " When the
sun is lower in the sky, its light moves
through more atmosphere than it does
during the day. This means that there
are more molecules to " scatter " the
light, which in turn influences the color
of light we see. Blue and violet have
shorter wavelengths and so get scattered
more easily by those molecules in the air,
leaving red, with its longer wavelength,
to steal the show.
14 VIKING AUGUST 2018 sonsofnorway.com
MYTHS & MAGIC
While science tells us a lot about the
midnight sun, there's also mythology
and tradition to consider. Back in the
day, the Vikings' old Norse calendar
tracked how high the sun was in the
sky, and it only featured two long
seasons: winter and summer, which
seems about right given the extreme
contrasts of each. Summer was the time
of year when the Norse goddess Sol was
thought to be at her most active,
riding high in the sky on her horsedrawn
chariot.
This engraving
shows a man
jumping after
a woman (an
elf) into a
precipice. It
represents the
Icelandic legend
of Hildur,
the Queen of
the Elves.
Strange and magical things tend to
happen during those long-lit nights. In
Iceland, for example, the time around
the summer solstice is said to be when
the huldufólk ( " hidden people, " or
elves) come out. It's an enchanted time
when cows talk, seals turn into humans,
and people are advised to roll around
naked in the dewy grass at midnight in
order to stay healthy for the coming year.
Finnish folklore, meanwhile, holds
that midsummer is a magical time for
young maidens to cast love spells. In
one such spell, the woman gathers
seven types of flowers to put under her
pillow at night, and as she sleeps she'll
see her future husband in her dreams.
Another spell has her climbing up to a
high point late at night and listening to
the coming sounds of morning-with
the belief that her future spouse will
arrive from that same direction.
The moral of the story? Whether
you're looking to appreciate Earth's
axial tilt, play a round of golf at 1 a.m.,
find your future husband, or hone your
" golden hour " photography skills,
there's plenty of magic to be had under
the midnight sun.
For some cool midnight
sun activities, check out
the Sons of Norway blog
(sonsofnorway.com/blog)
on August 1.
ENGRAVING BY JOHANN BAPTIST ZWECKER (1815-1876)
http://www.sonsofnorway.com/blog http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - August 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Viking Magazine - August 2018
