Wonders in the Sky (94 page)

“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.

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!”