Wonders in the Sky (16 page)

Towards the end of April in the year 880 seven young children from Monistrol in Barcelona saw a strange light descend from the sky and head towards a small grotto on the mountain of Montserrat, accompanied by a soft melody. A week later a group of priests headed by the Bishop of Manresa returned to the spot, and saw it again.

On four Saturdays in a row
the light reappeared in the sky and dropped towards the mountain grotto
. In the end seven men were sent to the place the light seemed to indicate, which was in an area called Santa Cova. When they entered the cave they discovered an image of a black virgin, surrounded by a magical light and giving off a pleasant aroma. The locals tried to carry the sculpture to Manresa but, according to their story, the further they moved it, the heavier it became. It grew so heavy that they had to leave it in the middle of the fields, where they decided to erect a hermitage in the name of St. Mary. The hermitage is still there today.

 

Source: Josep Guijarro,
Guía de la Cataluña Mágica
(Barcelona: Ediciones Martínez Roca, 1999), 42-43.

64.

3 September 881, Japan, exact location unknown
Stellar maneuvers

Two stars appeared in the sky, and went through strange movements as if merging and separating. This is the same pattern as in case 67, reported in China.

 

Source:
Nihon-Tenmonshiriyou
, by Morihiro Saito. We have looked in vain for an exact reference. Perhaps one of our Japanese readers can research this case further?

65.

March 900, China, exact location unknown
Two huge flying objects with complex shapes

The
New Book of the Tang
records that during the year of Guang Hua, “a fat star, as large as 500 meters square, yellow in color, flew towards the southwest. It had a pointed head and the rear was cylindrical…”

The same book records another “star-like object” that was five times bigger than the above one and flew in a north-westerly direction. When it descended to a point some thirty meters from the ground the witnesses could see its upper part emit red-orange flames. “It moved like a snake, accompanied by numerous small stars that disappeared suddenly.”

 

Source: Shi Bo,
La Chine et les Extraterrestres
, op.cit., 31.

66.

905, China, location unknown
A globe and stars hover in the sky

A large fiery globe appeared at the zenith and flew towards the northwest. It stopped 100 feet away as many tiny stars moved above it. It left a greenish vapor.

Source: Abel Remusat, “Bolides en Chine”
Journal de Physique
(1819), 358.

67.

919, Hungary: Bright spheres in the sky

People saw bright spherical objects shining like stars, along with a bright torch, moving to and fro in the sky.

 

Source: Antonio Ribera,
El gran enigma de los platillos volantes
(Barcelona: Editorial Plaza & Janés, 1974).

68.

12 May 922, Bulgaria: The Jinni in the red clouds

In July 921 the ambassador Susan ar-Rassi headed a mission that left Baghdad for Vulga Bulgaria with the aim of seeking support from King Almush to form a military alliance against Khazar Kaganate. On 12 May 922, the first night they spent in Almush's country, a strange phenomenon was seen in the sky. The secretary of the mission, Ahmad ibn-Fadlan described the sighting thus:

“I saw that before the final disappearance of sunlight, at the usual hour of prayer, the sky horizon reddened considerably.
And I heard in the air loud sounds and a strong hubbub. Then I lifted up my head and lo! A cloud [was seen] not far from me, red like fire, and this hubbub and these sounds came from it. And lo! [there were] seen in it something like men and horses, and in the hands of some figures inside it, similar to men, [there were] bows, arrows, spears, and naked swords.
And they seemed to me sometimes absolutely clear, sometimes just apparent. And lo! [there appeared] near them another similar armed group, a black one, in which I also saw men, horses and weaponry. And this detachment began to attack the other one, as a cavalry troop attacks another cavalry troop.”

The phenomenon lasted for some time. Ibn-Fadlan writes that the men asked the king what it may have meant. The king replied that his forefathers, who were accustomed to seeing such things, believed the riders were “Jinni” (Jinns). Ambassador ar-Rassi also gave his version of the event. His account coincided with that of the secretary, except in that he noticed two red clouds rather than one. He also noted that the sighting began an hour before sunset and ended at around 1:00 A.M.

 

Source: A. Kovalevskiy,
The book by Ahmad ibn-Fadlan about his voyage to the Volga in the years 921-922
.
Papers, Translations, and Comments
(Kharkov, 1956).

69.

March 927, Reims, France: Armies of fire

“An army of fire was seen in the sky in Reims on a Sunday morning in the month of March. After this sign a pestilence followed.” This citation from Flodoard is an example of a frequent description for which we have no precise correlation in terms of optical or atmospheric phenomena.