A Brocken Spectre cast from the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

The Brocken Spectre: Angel in the Clouds

Welcome on this Weird Wednesday! Today, we’re chasing our shadows.

A Brocken spectre or Brocken bow is a type of atmospheric phenomenon called a glory. A person stands in front of a light source and their shadow is thrown onto mist, fog, or clouds. When this happens, the person’s shadow is surrounded by what seems to be a halo: rainbow-colored concentric rings, caused by light refracting off water droplets in the air.

A Brocken spectre specifically is formed when a person stands in front of a light source (usually the sun) while at a great height, casting a shadow onto clouds below themselves. Not only is there a glory visible, but the shadow appears to be enormous. The size is an optical illusion caused by the person’s inability to gauge how close their shadow actually is: it seems to be quite far away, and thus looks huge compared to objects on the horizon. But in reality, the shadow is cast onto water droplets that are very close.

The phenomenon is named after the Brocken, the tallest mountain in the Harz range in Germany, which often has clouds below its summit. But the Brocken spectre can be seen from any suitably high place under the right conditions, including tall buildings and even airplanes.

To make the phenomenon even cooler, when the mist and clouds shift with the wind, the Brocken spectre often seems to dance or move. And of course, if the person casting the shadow moves, the giant, rainbow figure follows them. Obviously, this has given rise to legends about spectres (meaning spirits or ghosts). You can see a video of a Brocken spectre moving here. In Scotland, the Brocken spectre is possibly responsible for the myth of The Big Grey Man of the mountain Ben Macdui.

Brocken spectres feature in a lot of literature, with common themes being people wishing to see their own glories, and people pursing a spectre, not realizing it’s their own shadow.

And now for the spectre of writing prompts!

• I ain’t afraid of no ghost. When writing speculative literature, writers often start with accepted science and then say But what if…? So sure, maybe there’s a logical explanation for Brocken spectres, but in your story, wise folks might warn that the spirits are real. And then, of course, they are. Your character is looking down from a height and thinks they’re seeing their own shadow, but instead it’s an actual ghost or spirit. Is this spirit dangerous? Does it pretend to be a shadow to lure people into a false sense of security? Can it follow your character home? Or is it benevolent, maybe even with the power to grant wishes?

• I summon thee. On a related note, say the Brocken spectre is just a shadow, but someone with sufficient magical talent can create a ghost out of it, Golem-style, that will then help them to do something. Maybe they want to use its ghostly ability to pass through walls and unlock a bank vault or spy on a rival. Maybe they want to scare the pants off an enemy. The spectre could even pretend to menace someone only to be heroically defeated by the person who secretly summoned it.

A Brocken Spectre on Mount Shpyci in the Carpathians, Ukraine

• Anointed leader. Let’s say your fictional society uses the Brocken spectre as a way of choosing political or military leaders. That is, folks march up to the top of the hill one by one, and when a candidate is seen in glory, that’s assumed to be the choice of the Mountain God or other deity. It would be spectacular to see one’s future leader illuminated in a rainbow glow. But is the phenomenon actually a divine decision or the randomness of weather? And could it possibly be faked?

• Doomed by the narrative. What if the Brocken spectre functions as an omen in your story? Maybe it means the person seen in glory will live a long life or the opposite, die young. Maybe it foretells success or doom for a whole society. Maybe it has to be a religious figure who goes up to the top of the mountain to use the spectre as divination, or maybe it happens randomly to certain people: those pure of heart or in a transitional phase of life, like puberty or early menopause.

Thanks for spending your Weird Wednesday here! Wherever you’re going next, may your path be illuminated.

Sources & further reading:

What is the Brocken Spectre? A misty figure in the fog: Earthsky.org

Brocken Spectre: An Interesting Phenomenon: Mount Washington Observatory

Shades of grey: What is the brocken spectre?: BBC

Brocken Spectre: Wikipedia

Glory (optical phenomenon): Wikipedia