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STORY OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
An Inuit (Eskimo) Legend
Auroras - or Northern Lights - are believed to be the torches held in the hands of Spirits seeking the souls of those who have just died, to lead them over the abyss terminating the edge of the world.
A narrow pathway leads across it to the land of brightness and plenty, where disease and pain are no more, and where food of all kinds is already in abundance.
To this place none but the dead and the Raven can go.
When the Spirits wish to communicate with the people of the Earth, they make a whistling noise, and the Earth people answer only in a whispering tone.
The Eskimo say that they are able to call the Aurora and converse with it.
They send messages to the dead through these Spirits.
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Native Tales about the Northern Lights
We know today that the aurora borealis, commonly called the “northern lights” occurs when electrically charged particles from the sun zoom into Earth’s atmosphere.
The phenomenon is most commonly witnessed during fall and winter months at high-latitude locales, including Alaska and northern Canada.
When you witness the lights streaking across the sky, reaching a height of up to 620 miles, surely you can understand how so many cultures came to develop mystical stories about them.
The aurora, with its striking colors and dance-like movements—seems otherworldly.
The lights gave some communities feelings of comfort and happiness while others dreaded their re-appearance, considering them a bad omen.
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Here are just 15 such tales:
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1. When they witnessed the lights, many Inuit, the Arctic’s indigenous peoples, believed they were spirits of the dead playing a game with a walrus skull as the “ball.”

The Inuit of Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea flipped its take on this story believing that it was walrus spirits playing with a human skull.
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1. Indigenous Greenlanders believed that the lights were dancing spirits of children who had died at birth.

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1. For Wisconsin’s Fox Indians, the aurora gave them a sense of foreboding—representing their slain enemies preparing for revenge.

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1. In Alaska, some Inuit groups saw the lights as the spirits of the animals they had hunted, namely beluga whales, seals, salmon and deer.

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1. In Norse mythology, the lights were the spears, armor and helmets of the warrior women known as the Valkyries. They rode on horseback, leading fallen soldiers to their final resting place at Valhalla.

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1. The Inuit of Hudson Bay dreaded the lights, believing they were the lanterns of demons pursuing lost souls.

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1. In Finland, a mystical fox was thought to have created the aurora, its bushy tail spraying snow and throwing sparks into the sky.

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1. Some Algonquin peoples believed their cultural hero, Nanahbozho, relocated to the far north after he finished creating the Earth. He lit large fires, which reflected back to his people in the form of the northern lights. This let them know he was thinking of them, even though they were far apart.

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1. In perhaps the best oxymoron in British folklore, Scottish legend refers to the lights as “Merry Dancers” engaged in bloody battle.

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1. Indians of the Great Plains of North America thought the light display came from northern tribes who were cooking their dead enemies in huge pots over blazing fires.

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1. Inuit in Point Barrow, Alaska’s northernmost spot, believed the aurora was evil.

They carried knives to protect themselves from it.
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1. In Estonia, one legend said the lights appeared when whales were playing games. Another said they were sleighs taking guests to a spectacular wedding feast.

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1. Wisconsin’s Menominee Indians saw the lights as torches used by benevolent giants used when they speared fish at night.

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1. Fishermen in northern Sweden took the lights as a good prophecy, believing they were reflecting large schools of herring in nearby seas.

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1. If you whistled at the aurora, some Native Americans believed it would sweep down and take you away.

Clapping your hands, however, caused the lights to retreat, keeping you safe.
Meanwhile, in northern Scandinavia, the Sami people hid indoors during the light show
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STORY OF THE MINK (BORN-TO-BE-IN-THE-SUN)
Tum-Tum had been digging for clams in the sand and catching baby crabs in the pools of water left by the outgoing tide.
He was tired and was making his way to one of the whale canoes along the beach to lie down and rest.
A long shadow from a high mountain in the west which would cool the afternoon air.
Lying down on a bear-skin blanket he soon was on his way to slumber land where his ancestors dwelt.
Tum-Tum then heard someone approaching singing a song to the rhythm of their paddle.
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"Oh my paddle steer me to shore
As the times you have done before
I seek "Born-To-Be-In-The-Sun"
My boy, my boy, my only one."
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He peeped from the bow of the canoe and spied a woman as she stepped on the beach and came toward where he was hiding.
As she approached Tum-Tum asked who she was, and where she came from.
"My name is Nice-to-look-at.
I am from Pleasant-places-in-the-ten-mountains.
I am the mother of Born-to-be-in-the-Sun.
"I know him, he is the mink.
Come, I will show you.
He is now waiting for the frog-woman to come down off my grand-father's Thunder Bird Totem Pole."
The pretty lady took his hand.
As they walked along she told her story.
"One morning, while I was making a sea-otter blanket, the sun came and shone on my back through a knot hole in my room.
Shortly after the mink was born, he grew up to be a man very quickly.
One day he came to me and said, "Mother, I want to marry the frog-woman."
"But you won't like her croaking."
"That is just what I like."
"Go on," I said, so they were married, and then they left in a canoe for the distant mountains far across the waters and did not come back."
Tum-Turn lead pretty lady to where the Totem Pole stood and there was the mink talking to the frog-woman.
His mother spoke gently to him.
"My boy Born-to-be-in-the-Sun".
He smiled and rolled his eyes.
"Mother, my wife and I have been resting under the protection of the Thunder Bird's spirit of goodwill.
He will be glad to meet you."
At those words, Thunder Bird flew off from the top of the Totem Pole.
Flashing his eyes like lightning and flapping his wings, making thunder.
He circled the village and came back where the visitors were standing.
He took off his feather clothing and mask and became a man.
Thunder Bird then commanded all those on the Totem to arouse themselves, come down to the ground, take off their masks and meet Mink's mother.
Some of the myth people took off their masks and became human.
Those who did not were Ho-hook.
Zoon-a-qua and Raven.
Nice-to-look-at related her story again of the sun, and she had come to seek him.
But how to get to his house in the sky no one knew .
Thunder Bird said he could fly up there.
Raven thought it best to wait for sundown then the house would not be so high in the Heavens.
Finally Tum-Tum said, "Let us make bird arrows and shoot them at his house.
If it can be hit, we can shoot another and another into their hocks, then we will have an arrow chain that will reach from earth to Skyland."
So they all got busy making arrows.
Mink made a strong yew wood bow.
When all was ready, Tum-Tum took the bow and began shooting upward making the chain like he said.
Only a blunt one was left over.
Zoon-a-qua, the Sleepy one woke up and said, "I will shoot this one to wake the sun," for a cloud had blotted out the house.
Up and up it went and was soon lost to sight.
They all stood around in wonder, waiting to see what would happen.
The sun has many tricks.
The arrow returned with such swiftness that Zoon-a-qua could not dodge and it hit him on the head leaving a big bump which amazed everyone and made them laugh.
Tum-Tum shook the arrow chain and it became a cedar rope, up which he and Pretty Lady started to climb followed by the mink with the Frog-Woman on his back.
After climbing for a long time they finally came to a big house.
From its front a great stream of light poured forth over all creation.
Standing near the doorway was a tall strong man with a broom in his hand bidding them welcome.
This was all so strange the Frog-Woman began croaking.
The Sun invited them to come inside.
He inquired of Nice-to-look-at, "I've seen you before."
The Mink spoke up and said, "This is your wife and I am your child."
To which he replied, "I remember now.
Could you loan me your feet?
I have to walk all the time, my feet get tired and if you don't keep sweeping your aunts and grandmothers (the clouds) will come and then it will get dark inside.
And all Skyland as well, if Thunder Bird knows that he will flash his lightning and roll his thunder to scare the people of the village to spill their buckets of raindrops.
You had better come in the house, the rascal may be up to some mischief right now."
The sun began sweeping again.
When the Mink and his friends went inside they saw many wondrous things.
Everything was bright and spotlessly clean.
In the four corners stood strong men holding up the beams that supported the roof.
Large cedar crests carved with the Sun's crest were piled on top of each other all around the sides of the house.
These excited the Mink's instinctive curiosity, so that he snooped around, opening and closing the boxes.
One was filled with sunrises, one had sun-beams in it, another was full of rainbows, and one had sunsets.
To open the four boxes at one time would be disastrous but the Mink did not know.
Others held the Sun's masks, rattles, dishes carved of wood and costumes for his dances. Boxes of food were stored everywhere.
In the center of the house there was a hole from which one could see the earth.
Below this was the well of life and death through which the souls from the dead departed from the earth.
Unborn souls went from here on the journey of life.
The Sun addressed the Mink again, "When are you going to lend me your feet?
My, it's getting foggy in here."
The Mink had no more than started to take them off when there was a screeching noise like a thousand owls.
The four strong men holding up the roof became frightened as the whole house trembled with a skyquake.
There was a great confusion, the Thunder Bird was outside, lightning flashed, thunder rolled—he was having fun.
The Sun's visitors slid from one end of the house to the other until they all disappeared through the Well of Life and Death.
They came floating down, down and down to the earth, landing noiselessly as a snowflake on a sandy beach, then started to make up their Totem-Pole again with the Thunder Bird on top.
Tum-Tum woke at the call of his mother. "You naughty boy, here is where you have been hiding.
Get your blanket and come in the house out of the rain."

I've tried everything from testing out different versions, rendering different project files and sequences and more, and I cannot find any way to render a file without the memory leaking terribly forcing me to quit the application before the sequence renders. It's simple 4k footage I'm rendering into 1080p footage.
Premiere runs really smooth during the editing process. No playblack lag, nothing. It also happened once during me editing and I noticed that if I stay on the app long enough, it just leaks out all it's memory.
I even tried running the intel version and the beta version. I tried encoding using media encoder and the same issue happens.
I have an 8gb macbook pro but I've seen countless videos of people editing in premiere just fine on them with browser tabs open too, so I'm positive it's not just a hardware issue. (it's leaking 40gb, thats not normal)
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https://preview.redd.it/p4evmjcpsh2b1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8bb7d2f505f42d63a1099794493402a29c75a93a
https://preview.redd.it/yioeuklnsh2b1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=203e4ecd2f41f3b846a430f0169c4c4621369ff1
https://preview.redd.it/ifbxa6ujsh2b1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=307cc5d7cbe3885f08d7606f32f8cebf1e5eddf0