About
‘Aurora now had left her saffron bed,
And beams of early light the heavens o’erspread
When, from a tower, the queen, with wakeful eyes,
Saw day point upward from the rosy skies.’
-Virgil, The Aeneid
Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, and it is the name given to the goddess of the dawn in Roman mythology. Every morning Aurora flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of her brother Sol with a beautiful rainbow of color.
The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is another solar phenomenon which shares a name with the goddess. Although these shimmering rivers of light are only visible in the dark night sky closest to the poles, they occur when oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the earth’s magnetic field collide with the charged particles of the solar wind flowing from the sun’s upper atmosphere.
But the ancient stories behind the aurora borealis are more romantic. In Norse mythology, Freya was a warrior goddess, known for her beauty and wild passion. She was the leader of the Valkyries, the armored women who escorted the souls of Viking warriors to Valhalla. Freya rode a chariot pulled by two giant blue cats when the Valkyries flew off to battle. Traveling across the night sky, their armor gleamed and glimmered with reds, blues, and greens, creating the flickering displays of the aurora borealis.
Artist
Artist Heather Perry lives in a small town in northern Maine, where the woods and rugged coastline inspire her beautiful handcrafted designs. Heather approaches each piece of jewelry from her background in fine art sculpture, rendering incredible detail and depth in recycled sterling silver and gold. In her life outside of her jewelry craft, Heather often visits the ‘big city’ of Portland, Maine, with her son. They both enjoy music stores, Japanese restaurants, and other treats small-town life doesn’t offer.
