Father Christmas Letters: 1926

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

That drawing and the Rory Bory Aylis part of the story makes me think that Tolkien might have seen the real northern lights.

However, I wasn't aware that one could see them in England. I've seen them, both coloured and white, on a summer night and in the "the days between the years" but that was considerably farther north than I am now. Does anyone know if the northern lights can be seen in England? Tolkien was quite familiar with the night sky and the constellations.

I am at least sure that there are some old chronicle reports of them being spotted in the area of the current Czech Republic (and people going completely "what the heck is that???", with some scientist guys rushing in to explain - of course it was something happening like once per half a millenium), which is still considerably more south than England, so I think, under certain circumstances, it should be possible. Rare, but possible.