World Mysteries - Green Children - World's Unsolved Mysteries

World Mysteries - Green Children - World's Unsolved Mysteries

 The legend of the green children of Woolpit concerns two children of unusual skin colour who reportedly appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England, some time in the 12th century, perhaps during the reign of King Stephen. The children, brother and sister, were of generally normal appearance except for the green colour of their skin. They spoke in an unknown language, and the only food they would eat was beans. 

World Mysteries - Green Children - World's Unsolved Mysteries

The Mystery of the Green Children of Woolpit

A pair of brother and sister that appeared in the UK around the 12th century, in which they turned up in a small village with completely green skin, speaking an indecipherable language and refusing to eat anything but bean pods

After a while they learned English and their skin lost its green tinge, claiming they’d followed a river of light, heard the sound of bells and then woke up outside the town of Woolpit

Theories claim the children to be of the fabled Hollow Earth, a parallel dimension or extraterrestrial abduction

Originating in the 12th century, the strange fairy-tale-like story of the Green Children remained in the popular imagination throughout subsequent history, as testified by references to it in Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, written in 1621, and a description based on the original sources in Thomas Keightley?s The Fairy Mythology (1828). There was even a supposed second sighting of Green Children in a place called 'Banjos' in Spain, in August 1887. However the details of this event are almost exactly the same as in the Woolpit case and the story seems to originate with John Macklin in his book Strange Destinies (1965). There is nowhere called 'Banjos' in Spain and the account is merely a retelling of the 12th century English story.

World Mysteries - Green Children - World's Unsolved Mysteries

Explanations for the Green Children

The most widely accepted explanation at present was put forward by Paul Harris in Fortean Studies 4 (1998). His theory is roughly as follows. First of all the date for the incident is moved forward to 1173, into the reign of King Stephen's successor Henry II. There had been a continued immigration of Flemish (north Belgian) weavers and merchants into England from the 11th century onwards, and Harris states that after Henry II became king these immigrants were persecuted, culminating in a battle at Fornham in Suffolk in 1173, where thousands were slaughtered. He theorizes that the children had probably lived in or near to the village of Fornham St. Martin, hence the St. Martin references in their story. This village, a few miles from Woolpit, is separated from it by the River Lark, probably the 'very considerable river' mentioned by the girl in account. After their parents had been killed in the conflict, the two Flemish children had escaped into the dense, dark woodland of Thetford Forest.

World Mysteries - Green Children - World's Unsolved Mysteries

St Mary's Church, WoolpitHarris proposes that if the children remained there in hiding for a time without enough food, they could have developed chlorosis due to malnutrition - hence the greenish tinge to the skin. He believes that they later followed the sound of the church bells of Bury St. Edmunds, and wandered into one of the many underground mine passages which were part of Grimes Graves, flint mines dating back over 4000 years to the Neolithic period. By following mine passageways they eventually emerged at Woolpit, and here the bewildered children in their undernourished state, with their strange clothes, and speaking the Flemish language, would have seemed alien to villagers who hadn't had any contact with Flemish people.