Appearance

The winter Ural mountains. The setting sun and a thick blizzard below caused a rare optical phenomenon known as Brocken Spectre — a giant shadow haloed in a circular rainbow glory.

And art thou nothing? Such thou art, as when
The woodman winding westward up the glen
At wintry dawn, where o’er the sheep-track’s maze
The viewless snow-mist weaves a glist’ning haze,
Sees full before him, gliding without tread,
An image with a glory round its head;
The enamoured rustic worships its fair hues,
Nor knows he makes the shadow he pursues!

(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)