'They'll come down and chop your head off'

Wayne Broomfield has been listening for that crackling for years.

"I have a fascination with the northern lights," he said.

Broomfield is a photographer from Makkovik, N.L., and has shot the northern lights from Nunavut to Nunavik, Que., Labrador to Antarctica. He's heard the folklore and stories, and remembers the fear of the lights when he was growing up.

Here is Wayne Broomfield's story, and the legends he's heard, in his own words.*

Wayne Broomfield remembers playing a game of chicken with his childhood friends under the northern lights. (Wayne Broomfield) Post image on Pinterest: Wayne Broomfield remembers playing a game of chicken with his childhood friends under the northern lights. (Wayne Broomfield)

Wayne Broomfield remembers playing a game of chicken with his childhood friends under the northern lights. (Wayne Broomfield)

Growing up, as kids, there's a game that we used to play where we would all go out to whistle to the northern lights. And whistling makes them dance. But if they're down too low, you know, our parents used to always tell us, "They'll come down and chop your head off."

So we would play a game, where we would all go out, 10, 15 of us, and just start whistling. And whoever stayed out the longest would be the bravest and win the challenge.

We truly believed it, because you know when you whistle, they really do come down.

This is something your parents and your grandparents told you, so of course you believed them.

Other parts of the North, they believed that you could inhale the northern lights and they would kill you.

Some people say it's the spirits of children who were stillborn.

The northern lights over Nain, N.L. Wayne Broomfield says the Vikings thought the lights were the manifestation of their gods. (Wayne Broomfield) Post image on Pinterest: The northern lights over Nain, N.L. Wayne Broomfield says the Vikings thought the lights were the manifestation of their gods. (Wayne Broomfield)

The northern lights over Nain, N.L. Wayne Broomfield says the Vikings thought the lights were the manifestation of their gods. (Wayne Broomfield)

Or you go back to the days of the Vikings, when they thought it was the manifestation of their gods.

If they came down too low in other areas, they were like omens: they were spirits from past elders who were trying to reach you, or they were bad spirits, so they would take you.

I've always tried to listen to that crackle that they say that you hear — the myth of the crackling northern lights. You hear legends about it, what it is, but I have never ever witnessed it.

They say it's the spirits that are trying to communicate with you.

Different legends about how Inuit are playing a game of kicking a walrus skull around, and that crackling is when they're running across the real-cold, frozen snow. That's what the crackling sound is.

They're just so special and so unique. Just the way that they move across the sky, just cover and light up the sky.

It's just an absolutely amazing phenomena.