Posted on 12/12/2025 12:38:18 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: In a Finnish myth, when an arctic fox runs so fast that its bushy tail brushes the mountains, flaming sparks are cast into the heavens creating the northern lights. In fact the Finnish word "revontulet", a name for the aurora borealis or northern lights, can be translated as fire fox. So that evocative myth took on a special significance for the photographer of this northern night skyscape from Finnish Lapland near Kilpisjarvi Lake. The snowy scene is illuminated by moonlight. Saana, an iconic fell or mountain of Lapland, rises at the right in the background. But as the beautiful nothern lights danced overhead, the wild fire fox in the foreground enthusiastically ran around the photographer and his equipment, making it difficult to capture in this lucky single shot.
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Pinging the APOD list
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That fox is about to be slimed with a lot of ectoplasm.
From the Ballad of the Northern Lights
https://allpoetry.com/The-Ballad-of-the-Northern-Lights
“...There is a mountain round and low that lies by the Polar rim,
And I climbed its height in a whirl of light, and I peered o’er its jagged brim;
And there in a crater deep and vast, ungained, unguessed of men,
The mystery of the Arctic world was flashed into my ken.
For there these poor dim eyes of mine beheld the sight of sights —
That hollow ring was the source and spring of the mystic Northern Lights.
Then I staked that place from crown to base, and I hit the homeward trail....
...
Some say that the Northern Lights are the glare of the Arctic ice and snow;
And some that it’s electricity, and nobody seems to know.
But I’ll tell you now — and if I lie, may my lips be stricken dumb —
It’s a mine, a mine of the precious stuff that men call radium.
It’s a million dollars a pound, they say, and there’s tons and tons in sight.
You can see it gleam in a golden stream in the solitudes of night.
And it’s mine, all mine — ...”
Is the fox ready for adoption?
I can see some time travel explaining electricity to Ancient Finns, using fox fur to create static, with sparks, and the explanation being converted into this myth...
Gorgeous!
‘Foxfire’ can also be seen in the woods at night. It is a green glow from rotting wood.
I’ve spent a LOT of time, ‘in the field’ back in my Army days and it is SO COOL when you get to see it up close and personal!
Bioluminescence.
Mushrooms are the main reason for the glow on rotting wood, but lots of other wild critters use it too, for mating purposes as well as defense.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/foxfire-bioluminescence
Maybe the wild critters do use the mushrooms for mating purposes, but the kids aren’t right.
LOL! Well, candlelight IS kinda sexy...
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