Case file · Folklore / legend
Aqsarniit: the aurora as the dead at play
Many Inuit told Rasmussen and other recorders that the northern lights are the souls of the dead playing ball, sometimes with a walrus skull; whistling at them could bring them down.
1929 CE · 69.38, -81.80 · status: legend
The account
Children were warned not to whistle at the aurora. In some communities the lights were feared, in others welcomed as sign that the dead were happy.