The process of refraction, the bending of light rays as they pass through a heterogeneous atmosphere, can have even more fantastic consequences than the mere twinkling of the stars described yesterday in Weather Eye. It is also responsible for the fata morgana, a rare optical illusion sometimes seen in southern Europe, and particularly in the Strait of Messina, which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland. Morgana was an evil witch-like creature who appears in many guises in European folklore. In Irish mythology, for example, she was Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of death and destruction, who embodied all that was perverse and horrible in the paranormal: she was capable of assuming many shapes and more than once tried to tempt Cuchulain from the task in hand by assuming a seductive role.
In the Arthurian legends, Morgan le Fay is Arthur's fairy sister - she who first whispered to the king about the goings-on of Lancelot and Guinevere. She gave the king a magic draught, and no sooner had he drunk it than his eyes were opened to the truth and he saw the perfidious pair for what they were.
And she also appears in The Song of Roland, by Theroulde, the continental counterpart of Malory's Arthurian saga.
Roland was the bravest and most chivalrous of all the knights of Charlemagne, but his noble plans were subject to regular disruption by Morgana.
Once upon a time, when Morgana was holding several of Roland's colleagues prisoners in her castle, Roland came upon the lady sleeping by a fountain. He was aware that the only way Morgana could be bettered was to seize her by the hair, and he was about to do just that when "all of a sudden he saw an array of towers, pinnacles and columns, palaces with balconies and windows, extended alley-ways with trees, in short a scene of architectural magnificence surpassing all he had ever seen before. While he stood gazing in silent astonishment, the scene slowly melted away and disappeared" - and, of course, poor Roland had missed his opportunity to free his comrades.
The fata morgana is a mirage which seems to replicate Morgana's trick. It occurs when an unusual thermal structure in the atmosphere causes images of boats and buildings in the far distance to appear in the sky, to be elongated in such a way that they seem like towers of great height.
The fata can transform a distant, nondescript horizon into an entrancing scene from fairyland and is said to induce in those who see it a deep sense of endless longing, tinged with blissful happiness.