Mysteries of the Children of Woolpit

Based on true events. Documented.

Once, a long time ago, set in 12th century, in a village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England appeared two children. They had the apperance of a normal human. Yet, their clothes seemed unfamiliar and they spoke a foreign language. But what's more astonishing to the villagers were their green skin.

The story started off when few reapers who were at a wolfpit, found two unusual children lying on the ground. They were siblings, a brother and a sister. The reapers did not understand the language they were speaking, thus brought them to the other villagers.

Both siblings were terrified of their unfamiliar surroundings and the villagers. They wept bitterly while the villagers tried to console them. The villagers felt sympathetic and unsure of what was to be done, thus brought them to Sir Richard de Caine, a knight. Soon, the children were taken under his care and few other villagers.

 It was noted by them that they did not ate any other food except raw beans.

As time goes by, the brother grew sick and succumbed to death whereas the sister who was later named 'Agnes Barre', lived. She lost her green pallor eventually, after being fed normal food and even learned the English language.

What was rather astounding was her explanation on where she and her brother came from. According to her, she came from St. Martin's land where the other people were green too. She described the place as 'the sun never shines' and the light was like twilight but everything was all green. Additionally, she had described another 'luminous' land that supposedly could be seen across a river of the village.

But how did they ended up in Woolpit?

It was reported by her that she and her brother were herding their father's cattles. Upon hearing a loud noise directed through a cave, which was probably the chimes of Bury St. Edmunds' bell, they were curious, thus leading themselves through the cave til they saw light.

That was all that was documented and written in several books. It was hard to find out if these reports happened to be true or not. Many had came up with their own interpretations and theories to the green childrens as well as where they came from.

Some villagers had believed that they were from another world or were even aliens.
Other theories were that these children had Chlorosis, often called 'green sickness' which was due to a very poor diet.
Also, it was widely believed that these childrens were Flemish (North Belgian) immigrants who with many others, went under hiding as King Henry II was crowned and demanded the persecution of those Flemish immigrants. It was possible that they hid in a deep forest where it was always dark and the only resource they may have consumed, were beans, thus developing the 'green sickness'.

Victim of Green sickness

To me, I believe that this event may have happened and those children could have been from another realm. There are so many mysteries of the world that we don't know and can't explain. Not everything could be explained scientifically.
With that, this story still remains a mystery to me and many others, which may never be solved.