This is a rather old story, and experts still cannot agree on whether this is a fairy tale or a real story. The Green Children of Woolpit are the usual names for this story, which dates back to the 12th century and took place in England. And the heroes of this legend even got on the emblem of this settlement.
This story is mentioned in many English chronicles. It is said that the peasants found these children in a field near the local abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Children - brother and sister, as it turned out later - did not differ from ordinary people in anything except skin color. They also spoke a language unknown to the locals.
Looking ahead, we will say that in the later interpretations of this story, of course, there are reflections about the alien origin of children or their arrival from some parallel reality. Comments from scientists are mostly purely theoretical - but hardly anyone set up experiments in order to "green up" a person.
But still, there are very interesting details in this story. So it is reported that the children refused to eat for a long time - the first time they were able to feed only green beans, and then only by showing how they are eaten. What the children ate before, wherever they were, remained unclear.
There are other "facts" too, but most likely they grew into this story later. So on the mentioned coat of arms of Woolpit, in addition to children, a wolf is depicted - Woolpit is considered the place where the last English wolf was caught. Some attribute the name of the village of Woolpit to the phrase wolf pit - a wolf pit. So the layering of legends important for local residents is not surprising. Some versions claim that the children crawled out of one of these wolf pits.
Illustration for the legend about green children.
As a result, the children stayed in the village, were baptized and learned the local language. Apparently, the food was also somehow decided - they slowly switched to the usual local diet. After that, according to legend, their skin color also became normal. It is this fact that makes one think about some earthly nature of the color of their skin - since this color was not innate for them.
The boy died after some time - they write that he was too painful and, apparently, his body could not adapt to the new life. But the girl received the name Agnes Barr in baptism, grew up and led a normal life, getting married and finding a job.
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With reference to William of Newburgh's History of the Kings of England, written in 1198, researchers write that Agnes Barr worked as a servant for the knight Sir Richard de Calne - and it was from this knight that the English chronicler learned this story.
It is also said that Agnes Barr herself said about her origin. According to her, she and her brother came from a certain Saint Martin's Land - she described this place as an underworld, where it is always dark, and the inhabitants have greenish skin.
Mention of Grenn Children in the Woolpit Guide.
Interestingly, she said that the inhabitants of this Earth profess the Christian faith. And supposedly the children entered some kind of cave at home, and left where they were found - near Woolpit. It is difficult to disagree that this is a "good help" for the theory of parallel worlds. It is also mentioned that they went to the ringing of the bells - apparently, having heard the bells of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds.
An explanation close to the facts was given later by the American researcher Paul Harris. He believed that these children were Flemings - around 1173, many Flemings moved to this region. They lost during the uprising against King Henry II, and after the battle near Wullite, their survivors could hide in local mines.
The green color of the skin in this case could have been acquired from some kind of disease associated with a lack of light or exhaustion. Paul Harris himself talks about chlorosis, that is, anemia or anemia - however, the green color of the skin does not really explain this, rather the lack of appetite at first and irritability, which was noted in the character of Agnes Barr.
However, this version received clarifications - for example, that it could not have been silicon, but copper mines, and it was copper poisoning that gave such color to the skin of children. At the same time, children could be prisoners who were kept in these mines all their lives - hence their confidence that they lived in the underworld.
Woolpit on the UK map.
It is clear that among the versions there are also references to beans (according to other information - beans). Since the children only agreed to eat this food, it can be assumed that before they ate only similar plant foods, in which, possibly, there was some kind of pigment or substance that gives the skin the appropriate color.
This story remains a mystery to this day, if only because there are no examples in the world of a person's skin being green - with the same anemia, the skin becomes rather pale greenish. Therefore, there are no intelligible realistic explanations for this story today. However, probably no one really needs them - let it be better to have one more mysterious story.
