Green children of Woolpit

The legend of the Green Children of Woolpit tells of two mysterious children who appeared in the village of Woolpit, Suffolk, England, during the 12th century—possibly during the reign of King Stephen (1135–1154). The children, a brother and sister, were described as having green-hued skin and speaking an unknown language. Though they were otherwise normal in appearance, their strange behavior and unusual color startled the villagers. At first, they refused all food except raw broad beans. Over time, they gradually adapted to a normal diet, and their green color faded. Sadly, the boy remained weak and died shortly after being baptized. The girl survived, adjusted to her new surroundings, and eventually learned to speak English, though she was regarded as bold and unruly.

Once she could communicate, the girl explained that she and her brother came from a place where the sun never shone and the light was like twilight. In one version of her account, everything in their homeland was green; in another, the land was known as Saint Martin’s Land.

The earliest known versions of the story come from two near-contemporary sources: Historia rerum Anglicarum by William of Newburgh (c. 1189) and Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph of Coggeshall (c. 1220). After these, the tale faded from common record, appearing only sporadically—in William Camden’s Britannia (1586), Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, and Bishop Francis Godwin’s fantastical The Man in the Moone in the early 17th century.

Modern interpretations generally fall into two camps. One sees the story as a piece of folklore or fantasy, perhaps describing beings from an underground world or even from another planet. The other considers it a distorted account of a real historical event, misremembered or exaggerated over time. The story was later admired by English anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read, who praised it as a perfect example of fantasy in his 1928 work English Prose Style. It also served as the basis for his only novel, The Green Child, published in 1935.