During the troubled years of the reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154), a strange incident happened in the village of Woolpit near Bury St. Edmunds (Suffolk County). During the harvest, when the reapers were working in the field, two small children emerged from a deep hole dug for catching wolves called the "wolf pit" (hence the name of the village)
The skin of the boy and girl had a green tint. They were wearing clothes of a strange color, made of an unknown material. They wandered around, confusing everyone, and then the reapers took them to the village. The locals looked at the children in amazement, and no one could understand the language they spoke. The children were taken to the home of the local landowner, Sir Richard de Calnay, in Weeks, where they burst into tears and refused to eat bread and other food for several days. But when the beans with stalks collected in the field were brought into the house, the hungry children showed signs that they really wanted to eat them. Taking the beans, they began to open the stems instead of the stitches, and when they found nothing inside, they burst into tears again. They were shown how to get the beans, and the children lived on them for many months until they learned to eat bread.
In the photo: A sign in the city that still reminds of an old legend.
As time went on, the boy, who was two years younger, became depressed, and then fell ill and died. The girl adapted to her new life, she was baptized. Over time, her skin began to lose its green tint, the girl learned English and married a young man from Kinge Lynn (Norfolk County), becoming "slightly cheeky and capricious in behavior." Some sources said that she took the name Agnes Barr, and her husband was the high ambassador of Henry II. Earl Ferrers was also reported to have originated from this marriage. What these data are based on is unknown. The only high ambassador of that time with such a surname was the chancellor of Henry II, the archdeacon of the city of Ely, and the royal judge Richard Barr, who lived at the end of the 12th century. In 1202 he left office and became a canon in Austin, near the city of Leicester, so he could hardly be Agnes's husband. When the girl was asked about the pastshe could only remember a few details of where the children came from and how they got to Woolpit. Agnes claimed that they were brother and sister and came “from the land of Saint Martin,” where it was always dusk. All the inhabitants there were green, like them. She did not know exactly where her home was, but she said that the "glowing" land can be seen on the other side of the "big river". She recalled how she and her brother once tending her father's flock in the field. The animals took them to a cave, where the children heard the sound of bells.that the "glowing" earth can be seen on the other side of the "big river". She recalled how she and her brother once tending her father's flock in the field. The animals led them to a cave where the children heard the sound of bells.that the "luminous" earth can be seen on the other side of the "big river". She recalled how she and her brother once tending her father's flock in the field. The animals led them to a cave where the children heard the sound of bells.
Once inside, they wandered for a long time in the dark until they found a way out of the cave (apparently, a wolf's trap). They were blinded by the bright sunlight, and they sat for a long time, trying to figure out where they were. The noise the reapers made frightened them. The children got up and wanted to run away, but could not find the entrance to the cave and were caught.
Is there even a grain of truth in this unusual story, or is this incident one of the amazing miracles that cannot be counted in the medieval chronicles of England? It should be recognized that the event is described only in two sources dating from the 12th century. The first was written by the English historian and monk William of Newburgh (1136-1198) from Yorkshire. He mentions the "green children" in his major work Historia rerum Anglicanim (History of England), which is dedicated to the events that took place in England in 1066-1198. The second source is Ralph Coggshall (died 1228), the sixth abbot of Coggshall Abbey in Essex from 1207-1218. The account of the "green children" is contained in his book Chronkon Anglicanum (Chronicle of England). The record was made between 1187 and 1224. The dates show that both authors described the incident many years later. Since the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicles", which sets out the entire history of England before the death of King Stephen in 1154 and contains many stories about the miracles known at that time, there is no information about the "green children", probably the event took place at the beginning of the reign of Henry II, not King Stephen.
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Ralph Coggshall, who lived in Essex, near Suffolk, of course, could communicate directly with the participants in the events. In the Chronicle, he claims to have heard this story often from Richard de Calne himself, for whom Agnes worked as a servant. William of Newburgh lived in a distant Yorkshire monastery, which means that he could not get first-hand information about the incident, but he used historical sources known in his time. This is evidenced by his phrase: "I was amazed at the persuasiveness of the testimony of so many people and so many competent eyewitnesses." The story of the "green children" excited the imagination of subsequent generations, as evidenced by the references to this story in the Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton, written in 1621, and the mention of the incident described in the sources of the 12th century.in the book by Thomas Keightley "Elven Mythology" (1828). The "green children" were seen again in August 1887 in Spain, in the town of Banjos. However, the details of this event are practically the same as in the incident at Woolpit. Its source was John McLean's Extraordinary Fates (1965). However, in Spain there is no place called Banjos, apparently, we are dealing with a retelling of English history of the XII century.
Many have tried to solve the mystery of the "green children" from Woolpit, various assumptions have been put forward, one more fantastic than the other. The most unusual were the versions that the children were from the underworld, or somehow passed through the doors leading to a parallel dimension, or were aliens who accidentally got to Earth. One of the adherents of the latter theory is the Scottish astronomer Duncan Lunen. He believed that the children were extraterrestrials who were mistakenly sent to Earth from another planet on a faulty matter transmitter. In local legends, there is a connection between "green children" and kids from forest folklore, the first publications about which appeared in: about the Norwich clan in 1595. Apparently, it was about the Allland Forest, located near Setford on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk counties …The story is connected with the name of the Earl of Norfolk, who was the guardian of two little nephews - a boy of three and a younger girl. To inherit their money, the uncle hired two men to take the kids to the forest and kill them, but they could not do this and left them in the forest.
The children soon died of hunger and cold. In the Woolpite version of the story, the scene was moved to a forest outside the village of Woolpit. Before the children wandered into the Vulpian expanses, where the reapers found them, they were poisoned by arsenic, but miraculously survived. According to some scientists, it was arsenic that caused the appearance of green skin. One cannot completely reject the assumption that these were ordinary children who lived in the XII century. in the forest and became heroes of folklore.
The most widespread modern version was suggested by Paul Harris in Fortin Stadis (1998). It is approximately as follows: firstly, the events should be dated 1173, when the successor of King Stephen Henry II was in power. At that time, there was a migration of Flemish (now land in the north of Belgium) weavers and merchants to England, which began in the XI century. Harris claims that after Henry became king, the settlers were persecuted. The climax of this struggle was the Battle of Fornham in Suffolk in 1173, where thousands of them were killed. He believes that the children were Flemish and probably lived in St. Martin's Fornham village (hence the mention of St. Martin in history). This village is located near Woolpit and is separated from it by the Lark River, which is probablyand was that "big river" from the girl's story. When the parents were killed, the children fled into the dense and dark Setford Forest.
Harris believed that if children hid there for a while, eating poorly, they could develop chlorosis (a form of anemia) from exhaustion, which caused the skin to turn green. They then heard church bells ringing at Bury St Edmunds and entered one of the many underground mines that were part of Grimes Graves, a flint mine that existed over 4,000 years ago during the Neolithic period. Moving through the mine, they came to Woolpith, where frightened and hungry children in strange clothes, who spoke Flemish, appeared to the villagers, who had never seen a Flemish one, as strange foreigners.
Harris's hypothesis, of course, has some pretty plausible answers to many of the problematic questions surrounding the Woolpite riddle. However, there are too many inconsistencies in the theory of the lost Flemish orphans compared to the legend of the "green children". When Henry II came to power and decided to expel Flemish merchants from the country, who were invited by his predecessor, King Stephen, this decision applied to Flemish weavers and merchants, who had lived in the country for more than one generation. At the Battle of Fornham in 1173, the Flemish merchants who fought against the army of King Henry II, along with the rebel knights with whom they fought on the same side, were killed. The Flemish soldiers who survived the defeat fled across the country. But many of them were killed by local residents. Of course,the landowner Richard de Calne himself or one of his household members or visitors were educated and could determine that the children spoke Flemish: after all, this language was quite common in Eastern Europe at that time.
Harris's suggestion that the children, hiding in Setford Forest, heard the bells ringing in Bury St. Edmunds and went underground to Woolpit, contradicts the geographical data. Firstly, Bury St Edmunds is located 25 miles from Setford Forest, which means that children could not hear the ringing of bells at such a great distance. Secondly, the underground mines are limited to the territory of Setford Forest and there are no passages leading to Woolpit. But even if they existed before, the forest is 32 miles from Woolpit, a long way for two hungry children. Even if the Green Children were from St. Martin's Fornham, they would still have to walk 10 miles to get to Woolpit. The presence of the "big river", which the girl spoke about, is also questionable: the Lark River is too narrow and does not correspond to this definition.
Many details of the Wulpite tradition can be found in the folk beliefs of the inhabitants of England. According to some of them, the "green children" personify nature and are associated with the hero of English folklore known as the Green Man, Green Jack or even the Green King from the myth of Arthur. Perhaps children were identified with the images of elves and fairies, in which many inhabitants of the country believed a century or two ago. If the story of the "green children" is a fairy tale, then it has a very non-standard ending: the girl did not return to her mysterious house, but remained among the people, got married and lived all her life until her death in this world. Perhaps a little cryptic comment by Ralph Coggshall about the "slightly cheeky and capricious in behavior" girl indicates that her character retained the features of an extravagant fairy. Green has always been associated with another world,something supernatural, and the children's love for beans is another evidence of the connection with the other world, because beans, according to legend, were the food of the dead. The Romans had an annual festival of Demuria, during which people donated beans to drive out the fractures of the evil spirits of the dead (lemurs).
In ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, as well as in medieval England, there was a belief that the souls of the dead live in beans.
So, despite the fact that the Wulpite story is confirmed by only two sources of the 12th century, it should be remembered that in the chronicles of that time, along with political and religious events, various retellings, fables and miracles were cited. And although they are unpopular today, even educated people believed in them at that time. Perhaps for them the strange appearance of "green children" was a symbol of anxiety and change, associated with local mythology, as well as belief in fairies and the afterlife. Consequently, if the trail of the alleged heirs of Agnes Barr cannot be found and documentary evidence of a later time is not found, the story of the "green children" will remain one of the greatest mysteries of English folklore.