Wonders in the Sky

by Jacques Vallee

  1250, Cloena (Clonmacnoise)

  A ship with occupants, captured anchor

  Some forty years later, the story was repeated by the anonymous author of an influential book written in Old Norse. The Kongs Skuggsjo, better known by its Latin name, the Speculum Regale [“the king’s mirror”], was written around 1250 AD. The event took place in Clonmacnoise.

  “There happened something once in the borough called Cloena, which will also seem marvellous. In this town there is a church dedicated to the memory of a saint named Kiranus. One Sunday while the populace was at church hearing mass, it befell that an anchor was dropped from the sky as if thrown from a ship; for a rope was attached to it, and one of the flukes of the anchor got caught in the arch above the church door. The people all rushed out of the church and marvelled much as their eyes followed the ropeupward.

  “They saw a ship with men on board floating before the anchor cable; and soon they saw a man leap overboard and dive down to the anchor as if to release it. The movements of his hands and feet and all his actions appeared like those of a man swimming in the water. When he came down to the anchor, he tried to loosen it, but the people immediately rushed up and attempted to seize him. In this church where the anchor was caught, there is a bishop’s throne.

  “The bishop was present when this occurred and forbade his people to hold the man; for, said he, it might prove fatal as when one is held under water. As soon as the man was released, he hurried back up to the ship; and when he was up the crew cut the rope and the ship sailed away out of sight. But the anchor has remained in the church since then as a testimony to this event.”

  The strong Christian overtones are noticeable in this version. Here it is not a king but a bishop who is present during the event, and the action occurs in the air above a church. The fact that the diver is allowed to return to his ship unharmed is another moralistic touch.

  According to folklorist John Carey, the move from spears to anchors was due in part to the popularity of another legend of the same period, in which the crew are aboard a ship actually sailing in the sea, not in the sky. In this version, the anchor gets stuck in an underwater monastery, to be freed by a blind boy who swims down and finds himself in a subaquatic world.

  Return of the celestial diver seven centuries later…in a Texas hoax!

  In April 1897, in the middle of a wave of mysterious airship sightings, some American newspapers published two British folktales from Gervase of Tilbury. One of these was none other than the legend of the anchor and the church that we have cited above.

  This article, entitled “A Sea Above the Clouds: Extraordinary Superstition Once Prevalent in England,” published first in the Boston Post, must have impressed one reader at least, for a couple of weeks later an anonymous writer wove yet another airship yarn from it.

  * * *

  Anchor of the Airship.

  Said to Be on Exhibition at Merkel, Attracting Much Attention.

  Merkel, Texas, April 26 – Some parties returning from church last night noticed a heavy object dragging along with a rope attached. They followed it until in crossing the railroad, it caught on a rail. On looking up they saw what they supposed was the airship. It was not near enough to get an idea of the dimensions. A light could be seen protruding from several windows; one bright light in front like the headlight of a locomotive. After some 10 minutes a man was seen descending the rope; he came near enough to be plainly seen.

  He wore a light-blue sailor suit, was small in size. He stopped when he discovered parties at the anchor and cut the ropes below him and sailed off in a northeast direction.

  The anchor is now on exhibition at the blacksmith shop of Elliott and Miller and is attracting the attention of hundreds of people.

  * * *

  In this updated American version, railroad tracks replace the tombstone where the anchor gets caught, and the pilot – dressed, naturally enough, in a sailor’s suit – returns to his craft safe and sound, but there can be no mistaking the origin of the tale.

  1122, London, England

  Another flying ship loses its anchor

  Mr. Page, associate national correspondent of the French Antiquary Society, reports a story told by a 12th century monk from Limousin named Geoffroy de Vigeois.

  Fig. 49: Bulletin des Antiquaires

  The event concerns a flying ship “navis sursum in aëre,” which landed in the middle of London. The inhabitants rushed on the anchor of this ship, and the passengers were forced to cut the rope in order to take to the air again.

  “Mr. le Comte H.-F. Delaborde reminds us that Leonardo da Vinci has studied aerial navigation, and was not the first. He assumes that the event may have originated with a simple mirage. The legend must have grown as it traveled, as often happens.”

  Source: Geoffroi du Vigeois, Chronica, A.D. MCXXII, éd. Philippe Labbe, Nova Bibliotheca manuscripta (Parisiis, 1657), II, 299-300; Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de France (1911): 102-103.

  1141, Bingen, Germany

  Figures within fiery flying disks

  Sainte Hildegard, 41, reports: “Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance permeated my whole brain”

  Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a remarkable woman, a pioneer in many fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard produced major works of theology and visionary texts. Kristina Lerman, writing on the UCSB (Santa Barbara) website, observed: “When few women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings.

  “She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed. Revival of interest in this extraordinary woman of the middle ages was initiated by musicologists and historians of science and religion.”

  As a girl, Hildegard started to have visions of luminous objects at the age of three. She soon realized she was unique in this ability and hid this gift for many years.

  Fig. 50: Visionary painting by Sainte Hildegard

  However, in 1141, Hildegard had a vision of God that gave her instant understanding of the meaning of the religious texts, and commanded her to write down everything she would observe:

  “And it came to pass…when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming…”

  It is now generally agreed that Sainte Hildegard suffered from migraine, and that her experiences were a result of this condition. The way she describes her visions, the precursors and the debilitating aftereffects, points to classic symptoms of migraine sufferers. Although a number of visual hallucinations may occur, the more common ones described are the “scotomata” that often follow perceptions of phosphenes in the visual field. Scintillating scotomata are also associated with areas of total blindness in the visual field, something Hildegard might have been describing when she spoke of points of intense light, and also the “extinguished stars.”

  Migraine attacks are usually followed by sickness, paralysis, blindness – all reported by Hildegard, and when they pass, by a period of rebound and feeling better than before, a euphoria also described by her. Among the strangest and most intense symptoms of migraine aura, are the occurrences of feelings of sudden familiarity and certitude…or its opposite. Such states are experienced, momentarily and occasionally, by everyone; their occurrence in migraine auras is marked by their overwhelming intensity and relatively long duration. As Kristina Lerman notes, “It is a tribute to the remarkable spirit and the intellectual powers of this woman that she was able to turn a debilitating illness into the word of God, and create so much with it.”

  September 1157, Germany

  Three suns, three moons

  Lunar halo, mock moons, sundogs and crosses of light
are represented in this medieval book.

  Fig. 51: Phenomena in Germany

  The text reads:

  “In the month of September, there were seen three suns in a clear sky [and more than two hours after the disappearance of the other two, the middle sun disappeared as well—Schedel]. And a few days later, in the same month, three moons [were seen], and in the moon that stood in the middle, a white cross. Whereupon the Doctors and the most skillful searchers of natural things, being sent for from the universities of Paris, Bononia [Bologna] and Venice, did interpret the prognostication, signifying that there should arise a discord between the Cardinals in choosing the Pope […]

  “There were seen many signs in the sky towards the North, as it were fiery torches and the likeness of reddish human blood. Neither did these wonders deceive them, for King Suenus [Sven III of Denmark] spoiled the country of the Wagians and all places were spoiled by war.”

  Source: Hartmann Schedel, Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg, 1493), fol. 203v; Lycosthenes, op. cit., 413-414.

  1173, Northern Ireland: A mass of fire in the air

  On the night the bishop of all Northern Ireland died, “the night was illumined from nocturns until cockcrow, and the ground was all in flames; and a large mass of fire ascended over the town, and proceeded towards the southeast; and all persons arose from their beds, imagining that it was day.”

  Again, a classic description of auroral displays.

  Source: Annals of Loch Ce (Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1965), 149.

  1290, England

  The disk that flew over Byland Abbey

  In 1254, “the perfect form and likeness of a mighty great ship,” was said to have been seen in the sky by “certain monks of St. Albans,” in England. In the classic flying saucer book Flying Saucers Have Landed, Desmond Leslie and George Adamski published the translation of a document called the “Ampleforth Abbey manuscript,” allegedly a 13th century document. They had come across the story in a letter to The Times on February 9th 1953 that ran as follows:

  “Sir – Reports of “flying saucers” usually evoke a small crop of cynical replies that far more sensational objects were seen towards the end of the last century, &c. While going through some early manuscripts pertaining to Byland Abbey, in Yorkshire, I came across material for this sort of criticism which is surely unsurpassed. A document dated circa 1290 mentions a round flat silver object like a discus which flew over the monastery exciting “maximum terrorem” among the brethren.

  I am, Sir, yours faithfully, A. X. Chumley, Ampleforth College, York”

  The controversial fragment itself was in Latin and read as follows:

  “…took the sheep from Wilfred and roast them in the feast of SS. Simon and Jude. But when Henry the Abbot was about to say grace, John, one of the brethren, came in and said there was a great portent outside. Then they all went out and LO! a large round silver thing like a disk flew slowly over them, and excited the greatest terror. Whereat Henry the Abbott immediately cried that Wilfred was an adulterer…”

  The story came apart when two boys confessed to having written the passage as a joke. In January 2002 one of us (C.A.) contacted the archivist at Ampleforth Abbey, who prefers not to be named, in order to discover the identities and motives of the hoaxers. He replied that he had been at school with them himself. One of the boys had been killed in an accident in the mid-1950s, he said, while “the other half is a distinguished academic, now in retirement,” who preferred to remain anonymous.

  “It was done on purpose in order to bring out the folly of the credulous,” he added. As for the name “Chumley,” which had been attached to the letter in The Times, it “was a known local name, spelt more usually as Cholmondly.”

  When asked if he knew how the surviving hoaxer felt about the fuss made by the prank – a prank that was (and still is) cited by ufologists the world over, the archivist replied: “I think he finds it rather tiresome. Consider to what extent you wish to dwell–or rather be pursued about– the japes of your youth!”

  January 1319, Mozhcharyk, Russia

  Fiery columns, pillars of fire

  At the time when Prince Mikhail of Tver was murdered by his brother and a wicked Tatar, “many believers and even infidels at that time saw two clouds which came over the body of blessed Prince Mikhail, and they came together and parted and they shone as the sun. These people told us of it with tears, and giving many oaths. The body was sent to Mozhcharyk.

  “At that time there were Russian merchants present who wanted to place the body in a church and cover it with a saintly cover; but they were not permitted to do so and the body was put in a barn, under guard. Then others living there saw at night a fiery column extending from the earth to the sky. Others saw a rainbow which bent over the barn in which the body lay.

  “From thence the body was taken to the town of Bezdezh, and when they drew near the town, many people in the town saw a vision; around the sledge there was a multitude of people with candles and others on horseback with lanterns, riding in the air. And so they brought the body to the town, but the body was not placed in the church, but only in the yard. Two of the guards lay down in the sledge above the body but they were seized by great fear and were thrown out of the sledge and pushed afar off. When they arose and recovered, they went and confessed what had happened to the priests who were there. I heard it from them and I have written it exactly.”

  Another source reports that during the course of January, at night over most areas of Russia numerous witnesses observed “fiery pillars,” similar to those sighted in 1111, which extended from the ground toward the sky. Some people also sighted a “heavenly arc.” Yet others saw horse-like flying entities, equipped with “lanterns.”

  These descriptions suggest a widespread natural phenomenon such as an aurora borealis, which could be seen over large portions of Russia. The mechanism of the aurora’s fantastic luminous displays was a mystery until the 20th century, when physicists understood the behavior of charged particles from the Sun caught in the Earth’s magnetic field. These particles emit light of vivid colors in wide, undulating curtain-like swatchs that can be likened to pillars, rainbows or arches.

  Source: The Nikonian Chronicle, trans. S. A. Zenkovsky, vol. 3 (Princeton, NJ: Kingston Press, 1984-1989), 110-112

  6 November 1331, Florence, Italy: Miraculous cross

  An old chronicler records the following observation:

  “That evenig a miraculous sign appeared in the sky: a vermilion cross over the palace of the Priors. Each bar was more than a palm and a half wide; one line appeared to be more than forty feet high, and the transverse was a little less. The cross remained for as long as it takes a horse to run two laps. The people who saw this – and I saw it clearly – could understand that God was firmly set against our tormented city.”

  Here we have a clear example of a religious interpretation given to a natural phenomenon that puzzled observers of the time.

  Source: Dino Compagni, Chronicle of Florence, trans. Daniel E. Bornstein (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), 47-48.

  1503, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Flying spear

  A painting illustrates an observation of a flying spear in the sky, watched by a monk in prayer. The Latin manuscript calls the object is “the Lance of Christ.” The description of flying spears is a common reference to meteors and bolides in the atmosphere.

  Fig. 52: Freiburg meteor

  The manuscript was never printed.

  Source: Jakob Mennel, Über Wunderzeichen (De Signis Portentis Prodigiis) (1503). Current location: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

  20 April 1535, Stockholm, Sweden: Five fiery disks

  Five sun-like disks were seen in the sky. Swedish reformer and scholar Olaus Petri (1493-1552) had a painting made by Urban to memorialize the event. The object’s trajectories were drawn up by Dutch painter Jacob Matham. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a copper plate showing Matham at work on this drawing. Controversy about the eve
nt lasted for a century. The painting can be seen now in Stockholm Cathedral.

  Our research indicates that the “controversy” in question didn’t have to do with the sighting or its depiction but with its interpretation by the common people, who took it as a bad omen after the king converted to Protestantism. Perceiving the painting as a threat to his power, the king had Petri arrested.

  The painting itself is beautiful. It clearly shows solar parhelia due to atmospheric effects.

  Source: Christiane Piens, Les Ovni du Passé (Belgium: Marabout, 1977).

  25 October 1593, Manila, Philippines Involuntary desertion

  According to Father Gaspar de San Agustin, on the morning of Monday, October 25th 1593, a Spanish soldier suddenly appeared in the Main Square in Mexico City. He belonged to a regimental unit stationed in Manila in the Philippines, some 9,000 miles away. The soldier, whose name is not stated, was not merely lost: he was unable to explain how he had reached the other side of the Pacific Ocean! Following his arrest he was ordered by the Inquisition to return to Manila.

  This story has been published in a number of versions since Father Gaspar de Agustin included it in his 1698 book Conquista de las Islas Filipinas. Here is the original paragraph, in English:

  “It is worthy of reflection that on the same day that the tragedy of Gómez Pérez occurred, the art of Satan had already made it knowledge in Mexico. With [Satan’s help] some women inclined to performing such acts transported a soldier, who was in the sentry box on the walls of Manila, to the main square in Mexico City. This was carried out without the soldier’s even being aware of it, and in the morning he was found walking about the square in Mexico with his weapons, asking everyone who passed by to give him their name. But the Holy Inquisition of the city ordered him to return to these Islands, where many who knew him assured me of the truth of this event.”