Book 3 The Land of the Long Shadow Chapter 31

Suddenly a strange, unearthly glow flashed over the sombre scene,--a rosy radiance deepening to brilliant streaks of fire. The dark heavens were torn asunder, and through them streamed flaring pennons of light,--waving, trembling, dancing, luminous ribbons of red, blue, green, and a delicious amber, like the flowing of golden wine,--wider, higher, more dazzlingly lustrous, the wondrous glory shone aloft, rising upward from the horizon--thrusting long spears of lambent flame among the murky retreating clouds, till in one magnificent coruscation of resplendent beams a blazing arch of gold leaped from east to west, spanning the visible breath of the Fjord, and casting towards the white peaks above, vivid sparkles and reflections of jewel-like brightness and color. Here was surely the Rainbow Bridge of Odin--the glittering pathway leading to Valhalla!

Long filmy threads of emerald and azure trailed downwards from it, like ropes of fairy flowers, binding it to the earth--above it hung a fleece-like nebulous whiteness,--a canopy through which palpitated sudden flashes of amethyst. Then, as though the arch were a bent bow for the hand of some heavenly hunter, crimson beams darted across it in swift succession, like arrows shot at the dark target of the world. Round and round swept the varying circles of color--now advancing--now retreating--now turning the sullen waters beneath into a quivering mass of steely green--now beating against the snow-covered hills till they seemed pinnacles of heaped-up pearls and diamonds. The whole landscape was transformed,--and the shadowy cluster of men and women on the shore paused in their toil, and turned their pale faces towards the rippling splendor,--the heavy fishing-nets drooping from their hands like dark webs woven by giant spiders.