Green children of Woolpit: an ancient tale or a story about aliens?

Stories of contact with aliens are not uncommon these days. Every now and then people appear who communicated with aliens, or even material evidence of their visits to Earth surfaces. Evidence of contacts is also found in historical documents. The Green Children of Woolpit is a legend of the 12th century, in which many now see the story of a meeting with an extraterrestrial civilization.

Strange children were discovered on a hot summer day by a peasant from the village of Woolpit, located in East Anglia. It was harvest time, and the man left the field for Thetford Forest to rest in the shade. In the thicket, he saw two children, a boy and a girl, crawl out of a wolf hole prepared for catching predators.

The children looked strange. They had greenish skin, and besides this, they were wearing clothes that the peasant had never seen. The kids answered his questions in an incomprehensible language. It was obvious that they didn't understand a word either. The matter smacked of witchcraft, but the resident of Woolpit was not timid. He put the children on his cart and took them to the castle to the local feudal lord, Sir Richard de Calm.

The landowner willingly sheltered the strange children. They were carefully examined and again tried to interrogate. But the guests knew neither English nor Norman. Their dresses were made of unfamiliar material, which the seasoned knight de Calm had not seen even in distant countries during the Crusade.

They tried to feed the boy and girl. But they turned out to be indifferent to the dishes that were laid out on the table in front of them. They were not interested in meat, bread, vegetables and fruits. They perked up only when they saw raw beans. They ate them with great appetite.

The brother and sister remained to live in the knight's castle, and he treated them as his children. Unfortunately, after a while the boy fell ill and soon died. The girl grew up like ordinary children and gradually her greenish skin became a normal color. She quickly mastered the English language and was baptized under the name Agnes Barre. When Agnes grew into a beautiful girl, she was married to one of the courtiers of King Henry II Plantagenet of England.

Having mastered the English language, Agnes was able to tell her story. True, two versions of its narrative have reached us. According to the first, he and his brother were grazing cattle and heard a loud noise. It suddenly became dark around them, and they found themselves at the bottom of a wolf pit. The second version is more interesting. A brother and sister were tending their father's sheep and came across a cave in the forest. Having gone inside, they got lost and, after long wanderings in the dark, came out through a wolf pit in the vicinity of Woolpit.

What’s unusual here, you say, children often find themselves in such stories and get lost. But the catch was that the girl insisted that she came from a certain Land of St. Martin. They got lost with their brother there, and not in England. According to Agnes, in her country there are no sunrises and sunsets, and all people have green skin.

Eight centuries have passed since then, but the mystery of the green children of Wolpit has not been solved. There are several theories that explain certain points. For example, the green skin of children could be a consequence of hypochromic anemia. This disease is also called chlorosis, from the Greek "Chloris", meaning greenish.

This disease is usually caused by poor nutrition, which negatively affects the red blood cells. This version is supported by the fact that the girl’s skin became a normal color. This happened when she began to eat well in the feudal lord's castle. As for the Land of St. Martin, it could well be the town of Fornham St. Martin. It was located near Woolpit across the River Lark. This also explains the children’s incomprehensible language - the town was inhabited mainly by Flemish migrants, many of whom did not speak English.

Under King Henry II, the Flemings were treated extremely poorly. Sometimes there were even pogroms with robberies and murders. It is possible that the children fled from such a massacre and somehow ended up across the river into Thetford Forest. It can be assumed that the brother and sister spent a lot of time in the dark thicket. Because of this, a memory of a place without sunrises and sunsets was imprinted in the girl’s head.

There is one more position, the most attractive. Its supporters believe that the green children from Woolpit are representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization. The interesting thing is that this hypothesis appeared thanks to a philosopher from the 17th century. Then the scientist Robert Burton, in his book “The Anatomy of Melancholy,” published in 1621, called children “messengers from heaven.” What the author meant is not known exactly; perhaps he meant their divine essence. But everyone can interpret his words as they want.

The first mention of children from Woolpit appeared eight centuries ago. Most likely, we will never know the real facts behind these events. The strange story has inspired writers, poets, artists and scientists for centuries. It was used to create novels, theatrical plays and operas in different countries of the world. The legend still occupies the minds of lovers of historical mysteries and paranormal phenomena.