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Green Children Found in France long time ago
- Thread starter novice
- Start date
Found this on a non-copyright site. Interesting:
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The Legend:
In August 1887, two strange children were found near Banjos, Spain.
Workers were harvesting their fields when they heard frightened cries; investigating, they discovered two children, a boy and a girl, terrified and huddled near a cave. They were screaming in a language that was not spanish, and their clothes were made of a strange metallic cloth... but stranger still, the children's skin was green.
The two were taken to the home of an important and respected man in the village, where the local populace attempted to take care of them, but the children refused to eat or drink anything that was offered. The boy soon sickened and died; but the girl finally began to eat a diet of uncooked vegetables, mostly raw beans, and was soon healthy and hearty.
The strange girl lived for five years after her appearance, during which time her skin slowly lightened to a normal caucasian tone; she also learned Spanish, but what she told of her origins only deepened the mystery.
She said that she and her brother had come from a land with no sun; the people there, all green skinned, lived in a perpetual twilight. There was a land of light, but it was beyond a great water. When she was asked how she had come to be found outside the cave, she could only say that she had heard a loud noise and then been pushed through something... then she and her brother were in the cave and could see the light from the mouth of it.
With her death, any hope of solving the mystery faded.
Variations
The earliest version of this story that I've found is in John Macklin's Strange Destinies, published in 1965... it's far more detailed than the other accounts, and likely the initial source for this particular story. For reasons I'll make clear later, this variant will be examined separately.
Both Macklin's book and Charles Berlitz's book, Charles Berlitz's World of the Incredible but True, give the month of August as being when the children were found; Warren Smith's book, Strange Women of the Occult, only says that the children were found "in the autumn of 1887." And while both Macklin and Berlitz give the source of the location as being Banjos, Spain, Smith never mentions the location of the occurrence; instead, Smith claims that stories of similar children being found also occur in "France... Spain or Germany," which seems to indicate he thinks this occurrence was in none of those three countries. I included his version here because of the correlation in the year given for it's occurrence... all agree it happened in 1887. (By the way, I've found no other indication of similar stories from France or Germany.)
Berlitz describes the children as having Asian shaped eyes; Macklin and Smith both describe the children as being slightly Negroid in appearance with deep-set and almond-shaped eyes.
There is disagreement also on how the children came to be in the cave. Smith gives the version that appears above; Berlitz says that the girl claimed to have been deposited in the cave when she and her "companion" (Berlitz does not state they were siblings, though both Macklin and Smith do) were swept up by a whirlwind and dropped outside the cave where they were found. Macklin quotes the girl as saying (to an un-named villager): "There was a great noise. We were caught up in the spirit and found ourselves in your harvest field."
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Legend:
In August 1887, two strange children were found near Banjos, Spain.
Workers were harvesting their fields when they heard frightened cries; investigating, they discovered two children, a boy and a girl, terrified and huddled near a cave. They were screaming in a language that was not spanish, and their clothes were made of a strange metallic cloth... but stranger still, the children's skin was green.
The two were taken to the home of an important and respected man in the village, where the local populace attempted to take care of them, but the children refused to eat or drink anything that was offered. The boy soon sickened and died; but the girl finally began to eat a diet of uncooked vegetables, mostly raw beans, and was soon healthy and hearty.
The strange girl lived for five years after her appearance, during which time her skin slowly lightened to a normal caucasian tone; she also learned Spanish, but what she told of her origins only deepened the mystery.
She said that she and her brother had come from a land with no sun; the people there, all green skinned, lived in a perpetual twilight. There was a land of light, but it was beyond a great water. When she was asked how she had come to be found outside the cave, she could only say that she had heard a loud noise and then been pushed through something... then she and her brother were in the cave and could see the light from the mouth of it.
With her death, any hope of solving the mystery faded.
Variations
The earliest version of this story that I've found is in John Macklin's Strange Destinies, published in 1965... it's far more detailed than the other accounts, and likely the initial source for this particular story. For reasons I'll make clear later, this variant will be examined separately.
Both Macklin's book and Charles Berlitz's book, Charles Berlitz's World of the Incredible but True, give the month of August as being when the children were found; Warren Smith's book, Strange Women of the Occult, only says that the children were found "in the autumn of 1887." And while both Macklin and Berlitz give the source of the location as being Banjos, Spain, Smith never mentions the location of the occurrence; instead, Smith claims that stories of similar children being found also occur in "France... Spain or Germany," which seems to indicate he thinks this occurrence was in none of those three countries. I included his version here because of the correlation in the year given for it's occurrence... all agree it happened in 1887. (By the way, I've found no other indication of similar stories from France or Germany.)
Berlitz describes the children as having Asian shaped eyes; Macklin and Smith both describe the children as being slightly Negroid in appearance with deep-set and almond-shaped eyes.
There is disagreement also on how the children came to be in the cave. Smith gives the version that appears above; Berlitz says that the girl claimed to have been deposited in the cave when she and her "companion" (Berlitz does not state they were siblings, though both Macklin and Smith do) were swept up by a whirlwind and dropped outside the cave where they were found. Macklin quotes the girl as saying (to an un-named villager): "There was a great noise. We were caught up in the spirit and found ourselves in your harvest field."
Also this though...
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From the mists of 12th-Century Suffolk comes the story of two mysterious green children — a boy and a girl — from a strange land, speaking an unknown language.
Like other feral children, the Green Children were probably children who had been lost or abandoned following a period of civil strife. Eastern England had experienced Flemish immigration during the 12th Century, but after Henry II acceded to the throne the immigrants suffered persecution, and many were slain at a battle in 1173.
Following the slaughter of their parents, it's therefore possible that the two children were lost for some period of time in the forest, and strayed into the underground tunnels in that area, to emerge in the wolf pit at Woolpit (the village name comes from 'wolf pit'). Their colour could be explained by "green sickness", the name once given to anaemia caused by dietary deficiency. Of course, their language and dress would have appeared foreign to villagers who'd never experienced any contact with Flemish people.
----------------------------------------
From the mists of 12th-Century Suffolk comes the story of two mysterious green children — a boy and a girl — from a strange land, speaking an unknown language.
Like other feral children, the Green Children were probably children who had been lost or abandoned following a period of civil strife. Eastern England had experienced Flemish immigration during the 12th Century, but after Henry II acceded to the throne the immigrants suffered persecution, and many were slain at a battle in 1173.
Following the slaughter of their parents, it's therefore possible that the two children were lost for some period of time in the forest, and strayed into the underground tunnels in that area, to emerge in the wolf pit at Woolpit (the village name comes from 'wolf pit'). Their colour could be explained by "green sickness", the name once given to anaemia caused by dietary deficiency. Of course, their language and dress would have appeared foreign to villagers who'd never experienced any contact with Flemish people.