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Some time in the mid-12th century, the English village of Woolpit received into its midst two small children–a boy and a girl. Alone and bewildered, they had apparently emerged from the “wolf pits” that gave the village its name. Their language was unrecognizable and their clothes were unusual, especially in color. But strangest of all was the color of their skin: an otherworldly shade of green. Not knowing what to do, the peasants of Woolpit took the children to a knight, Sir Richard de Calne.
The children wouldn’t eat for days. In fact, they looked at food as though it was alien until one day, by chance, they saw some freshly cut bean plants and hungrily wolfed them down. In time they were encouraged to eat other foods too and eventually lost their green coloring. Although the boy grew sick and died, the girl flourished. Baptized and taught to speak English, she could finally explain where she’d come from: Saint Martin’s Land, she said, a land of permanent twilight where everything is green and from which, across a river, a much brighter land could be seen. What she didn’t know was how she’d got to Woolpit. Versions of the story differ on the last thing she remembered, but it was either a loud noise while herding her father’s cattle with her brother or following the cows through a cavern and emerging (without them) into this world.
The girl continued to live with the knight and grew into a “very wanton and impudent” young woman. Then she married and moved 40 miles from Woolpit. Centuries later, writers and thinkers returned to the story as evidence of the “plurality of worlds.”
Gil Perez
In October 1593, sentries marching back and forth before the Palace of the Plaza Mayor in Mexico City noticed someone strange among their number. Although marching, turning, and saluting correctly, he was dressed in an unfamiliar uniform. Not only that but he also looked utterly confused. As it turned out, his uniform was that of Manila–14,000 kilometers to the west. Questioned by the Captain of the Guard, he confirmed he was stationed in the Philippines. But he had no idea how he got to Mexico.
Stranger still, he’d gotten there in less than a day. He was sure of this because he knew the Governor of the Philippines had been murdered on the previous day. Assumed to be in league with the Devil, Gil Perez was locked up to await the Inquisition.
It was clear, however, that his teleportation across the Pacific was as much a mystery to Perez as to anyone. He certainly didn’t seem to be a sorcerer. Months passed and news finally came on a ship from the Philippines that the Governor had been murdered—exactly when Perez had said. Not knowing what else to do, Inquisitors released the strange soldier and allowed him to travel back home.
In 1850, a man appeared in a village in Brandenburg, Germany. Not being used to strangers, authorities took him in for questioning. His name, he said, was Jophar Vorin and he came from a place called Laxaria—a country in “the portion of the world called Sakria.” His German was poor, but it was the only European language he knew. His mother tongue, he said, was Laxarian; but if it helped he could write in Abramian–the written language of the clerical order of his homeland. His questioners made do with German. As for why he’d come to Europe (or “Euplar” as he knew it), he claimed to be looking for a long-lost brother.
Baffling as it was, Vorin’s story was believed. And there’s been very little follow-up since. All we know is that he was taken to Berlin for further questioning.
One theory suggests he was from another timeline on which the Ottoman Empire never fell. Vorin’s Sakria, for instance, could have been a misspelled Sakarya, a region in Turkey. He also said his religion was similar to Christianity but known as Ispatian—perhaps linked to Hamza of Ispatian who wrote about Alexander the Great’s invasion of Iran, which bordered the Ottoman Empire.
It’s an interesting theory but it leaves out some details. For example, Vorin said he was shipwrecked crossing the vast ocean between Sakria and Euplar, which, if Euplar is Europe as his German suggests, obviously rules out Turkey as his homeland. Also, his names for other “portions [or continents] of the world” map onto ours pretty neatly; in addition to Euplar and Sakria, he listed Aflar, Aslar, and Auslar. The Americas’ notable absence suggests Sakria was the North and South combined. But why Sakria and not “Amerilar”? Maybe in this alternate timeline it wasn’t Amerigo Vespucci who discovered the New World but someone from Turkey’s Sakarya. We may never know.
Wow very interesting. I never knew there were cases of people appearing with no past or connections to people. Makes me wonder!
I've come across a number of cases where people just mysteriously show up and don't seem to fit in with everyone else. One of the most recent cases was a woman in Mexico in the 1950s. I tried to find some info about her but so far no luck.
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