Source: “An Account of an extraordinary Meteor, which resembled a Water-Spout, communicated to the President, by Tho. Barker, esq.” Read on Dec. 14, 1749. Philosophical Transactions (Nov-Dec. 1749), no. 493.
September 1768, near Leipzig, Germany
Goethe’s unknown lights
On the way to the University at Leipzig, 16-year old Goethe and two companions see a bright “tube” at ground level with blinding small lights jumping around. The trip was difficult, under steady rain. The travelers had to get out of the carriage to help the horses in steep slopes. During one of these walking sections, Goethe noticed something unusual:
Fig. 56: Goethe
“Suddenly, in a ravine on the right side of the road, I beheld a sort of amphitheater, marvellously illuminated. Within a space shaped like a pipe an incalculable number of small lights were shining, stacked like steps one on top of the other. They were so bright that the eye was blinded. But what was the most troubling in this sight was that the lights were not fixed, they jumped this way and that, going up and down and in all directions. Most of them, however, remained stable and radiated.”
“It is with the greatest reluctance that I consented, when I was called, to move away from this spectacle that I would have desired to examine closer. The postillon, when I interrogated him, stated that he had never known of such a phenomenon, but in the neighborhood there was an old quarry, the hole of which was filled with water. It remains to be known whether it was a pandemonium of elementals or an assembly of luminous creatures, I would be unable to decide.”
While the great writer and philosopher is more likely to have observed a display of spontaneously burning methane (marsh gas) than the dance of the Fairies, his observation is interesting.
Source: Goethe’s autobiography, 6th book. As published in The Autobiography of Goethe. Truth and Poetry: from my own life. Translated by J. Oxenford. Vol. 1 (London, 1867), 203.
18 August 1783, Greenwich, England
Ten Balls of Light
“At 11 minutes after nine in the evening, a very singular phenomenon was seen at Greenwich. It being rather dark, of a sudden an uncommon light appeared, without any cause visible, for full two minutes; this phenomenon, coming from the N.N.W. perfectly horizontal in its course, and without any vibration, continued to the S.S.E. It passed over Greenwich, and near the Royal Observatory, till the elevated trees in the park took it from the sight. Though it was transitory, the motion was not rapid, for you could distinctly discover its form, colour, &c. Its duration was near two minutes, during which there was no variation in its lustre. Its magnitude and animated effect, made it appear near our earth. Two bright balls parallel to each other, led the way, the apparent diameter of which appeared to be about two feet, and were followed by an expulsion of eight others, not elliptical, seeming gradually to mutilate, for the last was small.
Fig. 57: The Greenwich train of meteors
“Between each ball, a luminous serrated body extended, and at the last a blaze issued, and terminated in a point. Minute particles dilated from the whole. While this luminary was passing, the atmosphere was exceedingly bright; but immediately after it became dark, though the moon was up.
“The balls were partially bright, as imagination can suggest; the intermediate spaces, not so exquisite in their colourings. The balls were tinted first by a pure bright light, then followed a tender yellow, mixed with azure, red, green, &c. which, with a coalition of bolder tints, and a reflection from the other balls, gave the most beautiful rotundity and variation of colours, that the human eye could be charmed with.
“The sudden illumination of the atmosphere, the form, and singular transition of this bright luminary, rendered much to make it awful; nevertheless the amazing vivid appearance of the different balls, and other rich, connective parts, not very easy to delineate, gave an effect equal to the rainbow, in the full zenith of its glory. It appeared also almost all over the island of Great Britain nearly at the same time, as well as in France, Flanders, &c.”
Although this event is often cited in UFO compilations, this was undoubtedly a meteor, first seen over the Shetland isles with the apparent size of 1/3 the moon, equal to twice the full moon over Kent. It seemed to burst into two over Lincolnshire. When it passed over Windsor it was about 60 miles up, traveling 20 miles a second. It was heard to explode over York some minutes later. The phenomenon was observed from as far away as Ireland and Burgundy.
Source: “Singular Phenomenon,” The Annual Register (Aug. 18, 1783): 214.
17 July 1790, Alençon, France
Crashed UFO, the pilot escapes!
This is another account in the long series of “crashed UFO with occupant” stories. At 5:00 in the morning, several farmers saw a huge globe in the sky, surrounded by flames. They first took it to be a balloon that had caught fire, but its speed and the strange whistling sound coming from it led them to think otherwise. The globe descended slowly, touching the top of a hill, where it tore up the plants along the slope. The flames from the object set fire to the small trees and the grass. Fortunately, the locals managed to stop the fire from spreading.
In his report on the incident, police inspector Liabeuf wrote that the sphere was still hot in the evening. It showed no signs of damage despite the heat. “It stirred up so much curiosity that people came from all directions to see it.”
After some time, a much unexpected thing happened. A door burst open in the sphere and a human came out! “This person was dressed in a very strange fashion. He wore a suit which clung to his body, and when he saw all this crowd he said a few words which could not be understood, and ran to take flight in the woods.”
The peasants drew back from the sphere instinctively – which was fortunate for them, because the object exploded, throwing pieces everywhere. A search was undertaken to find the mysterious visitor but he was never discovered.
The Alençon incident has been included in many anthologies of UFO reports, dozens of books, and has become one of the best-known “folkloric” cases in the field. The reader may feel a little disappointed, therefore, though perhaps not very surprised, to discover that the event never really occurred.
The earliest reference to this case comes from an article published by Italian author Alberto Fenoglio, whom we’ve already met in connection with the supposed ufological deeds of Alexander the Great. A writer known to have invented some UFO reports in his time, Fenoglio seems to have created the story about Inspector Liabeuf for a purportedly serious article about sightings in ancient history, published in the Italian magazine Clypeus. This article was widely distributed and translated into several languages. The truth of the matter finally came to light in 1975 when Italian researcher Edoardo Russo conducted an investigation into Fenoglio’s claims. In spite of this, books and magazine articles presenting the story of the Alençon ‘crash’ as a genuine case continue to be published in good faith every year in many countries.
Three or four historical cases may have inspired Fenoglio to compose a story dated June 17th, 1790. For instance, on July 24th, 1790, an incident occurred in the municipality of La Grange de Juillac, France, involving several black “stones from heaven” that fell with a hissing noise before hundreds of witnesses.
On April 26th, 1803, at 1:00 P.M., a fireball was seen over Caen, Pont-Audemer and near Alençon. Up to 3,000 stones are said to have fallen amid detonations, one of which weighed 17 lbs. (Astronomie populaire, Paris, 1840. Tome IV, 225.)
More famously, precisely a year before the date given by Fenoglio, a fireball witnessed near the city of Worms, in the Rhineland, led to the writing of a controversial book. The canon of Trier, Worms and Spires cathedrals, Johann Friedrich Hugo von Dalberg (1760-1812) saw a meteorite from his family’s country house and was told by neighbours that it had crashed nearby.
Dalberg went on to write Über Meteor-Cultus der Alten, vorzüglich in Bezug auf Steine, die vom Himmel gefallen (On the Meteor Cult of the Ancients, Especially with Regard to Stones Fallen
from the Sky), published in 1811, a book suggesting that meteorites originated in space, where they defied gravity and waited for an opportunity to drop. “These Air-stones have from the start an inner, electrical life,” he wrote, “and can consequently stay floating, so long as they are surrounded by the neutral-electric ether…As blazing spheres, sometimes exploding in the upper air, sometimes on their descent, they plunge down towards the heavenly body into whose spherical electrical atmosphere they are drawn.” Did Fenoglio envision one of these plunging down at Alençon?
March 1796: Don region, Russia
The Devil and the brawling Cossack
According to writer Peter Kolosimo, the inhabitants of a Russian village in the Don region were surprised to find a large metal ball in one of their fields. The ball measured ten feet in diameter. People from everywhere flocked to see it, wondering where it had come from. Clearly it had not been delivered by road, as there were no wheel tracks to be seen anywhere in the vicinity. It could only have fallen from the sky, they thought. Except for a regular pattern of circles etched into its surface, the ball was as smooth as marble.
The village folk tried to move it but their effort was useless: it would not budge an inch. Then a man named Pushkin arrived. Pushkin was a drunkard and a gambler, even a heretic, and everyone looked down on his ways. But despite his faults, he was also known to be very courageous. They led him to the spot: “He drew his saber, spurred his horse toward it, he cursed it and defied it,” the legend says. “Whether it came from heaven or hell he challenged it to fight back.”
The man struck the object with his sword again and again. Suddenly the crowd around him began to howl with terror: one of the circles on the ball had opened up, revealing a single inhuman eye!
Pushkin sneered and carried on with his blows against the object. He struck it so hard, in fact, that the blade of his saber snapped off.
The peasants fled in fear. When they looked behind them they saw the drunkard and his steed were suddenly becoming transparent, fading into the air like ghosts. They could still faintly hear Pushkin’s voice, cussing angrily, but even this quickly faded away. “The villagers were not unduly perturbed by this,” it is said. “The devil had gotten his own back with the brawling Cossack.”
Two days passed: nothing was seen or heard of Pushkin. Then to everyone’s surprise both he and his trusty horse staggered back into the village as if half asleep. He seemed calm enough, but he soon flew into a rage and began to howl that he was going to put an end to the unholy globe and set fire to it and the woods and everything around it.
Hearing this, everybody in the village trailed along after him to watch the spectacle, but he never could take his revenge on the mysterious metal ball, for “all that was there to be seen was his sorry mortification. The ball was no longer there.”
Unlike the case of the crash at Alençon, we have been unable to prove that this tale is a modern hoax. However, not one Russian specialist we have approached had ever heard of the story, and the general consensus is that it originated as a fictional tale.
Early 19th century, Penrhynisaf, North Wales
Three hours’ missing time
The Rev. R. Jones’s mother, when a young unmarried woman, is said to have started one evening towards her home, accompanied by a servant man, David Williams, called on account of his great strength and stature, Dafydd Fawr, Big David, who was carrying a flitch of bacon. The night was dark, but calm. Williams walked in the rear of his young mistress, and she, thinking he was following, went straight home. But three hours passed before David appeared.
Interrogated as to the cause of his delay, he said he had only been about three minutes behind her. Told that she had arrived three hours ahead, David would not believe it. At length, he was convinced that he was wrong in his timing, and he proceeded to account for his lagging behind:
He had observed, he said, a brilliant meteor passing through the air, followed by a ring or hoop of fire, and within this hoop stood a man and woman of small size, handsomely dressed. With one arm they embraced each other, and with the other they took hold of the hoop, and their feet rested on the concave surface of the ring. When the hoop reached the earth they jumped out of it, and proceeded to make a circle on the ground. As soon as this was done, a large number of men and women appeared, and to the sweetest music that ear ever heard commenced dancing round and round the circle. The sight was so entrancing that the man stayed, as he thought, a few minutes to witness the scene. The ground all around was lit up by a subdued light, and he observed every movement of these beings.
By and by the meteor which had at first attracted his attention appeared again, and then the fiery hoop came to view, and when it reached the spot where the dancing was, the lady and gentleman who had arrived in it jumped into the hoop, and disappeared in the same manner in which they had reached the place. Immediately after their departure the Fairies vanished from sight. The man found himself alone in darkness, and he proceeded homewards.
Unfortunately, we have found no original document to authenticate the circumstances of the story, or even the year of the event, so it has to remain as an interesting fable.
Source: Elias Owen, Welsh Folk-Lore, A Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales, (1896 edition). Facsimile reprint by Llanerch Publishers, Felinfach, Wales 1996, 93-4.
22 February 1803, Hara-Yadori, near Tokyo, Japan
Female visitor
A saucer-shaped “ship” of iron and glass floated ashore. It was 6 meters wide and carried a young woman with very white skin. The episode began when a group of fishermen and villagers saw a ‘boat’ just off the shore of Hara-yadori in the territory of Ogasawara etchuu-no-kami. (1)
People approached the object in their own small boats and managed to tow it to the beach. The object was round. The upper half was composed of glass-fitted windows with lattice, shielded by a kind of putty, and the lower hemisphere consisted of metal plates. Through the glass dome the witnesses could see letters written in an unknown language and a bottle containing a liquid, perhaps water.
Fig. 58: Japanese object and occupant
The villagers arrested the girl and tried to decide what to do with her. One of the villagers, who had heard of a similar case that had happened at another beach not far from there, suggested that the woman was possibly a foreign princess, exiled by her father because of an extramarital love affair. The box, he said, may even contain her lover’s head. If this was so, it would be a political problem, and that would imply some sort of cost: “We may be ordered to spend a lot of money to investigate this woman and boat. Since there is a precedent for casting this kind of boat back out to sea, we had better put her inside the boat and send it away. From a humanitarian viewpoint, this treatment is cruel for her. However, this treatment would be her destiny.” Backing their decision with such straightforward logic, they forced the visitor back into the domed object, pushed it out, and it drifted out of sight.
This is not the only version of the story but it is probably the earliest. It comes from the Japanese Toen-Shosetsu, a compilation of stories written in 1825 by various authors, including Bakin Takizawa, a Japanese novelist. There was even a reproduction of a sketch of the object, showing something like a typical round, domed flying saucer.
A second version of the story was published in 1844 in a book called Ume no Chiri, written by Nagahashi Matajirou. This version said the incident took place on 24 March 1803. The beach was now named Haratono-hama. The girl was 1.5 meters tall and her dress was strange, made of an unknown material. Her skin was white as snow. She spoke to the astonished crowd in a language they were at a loss to interpret. She also had a strange cup of a design unknown to the witnesses.
Was there a precedent for a tale of this kind in Japan? Kazuo Tanaka explains that the report seems to be based on a variety of Japanese folklore known as Utsuro-fune or Utsubo-fune, a series of stories handed down over generations that preserved “the ancient national memory of Japanese immigration.�
�� In these tales, a founding member of a family, usually a noblewoman, would be said to have come across the sea by boat. If the tale was believable it could raise one’s family to a higher social status. In the lyrics of one folkloric song from Kyushu Island we find references to “a daughter of a nobleman” who was sent to sea in a boat with glass windows. It even mentions that “the food in the boat was delicious cake.” (2)
Could the whole report, then, have been a fiction based on much older hearsay? Tanaka draws this conclusion: no official document of the period mentions the incident of the woman in the round boat, and there are no references to beaches called Haratono-hama or Hara-yadori, which would be suspicious omissions if the story were true. On the other hand, the erudite ufologist Junji Numakawa has pointed out that the name of the beach could easily have changed over time. If the beach was originally named Kyochi-gama, as he postulates, this could be meaningful, as ‘gama’ or ‘kama’ means pot or cauldron, and the pot-like recipients used at the time were not unlike the craft in which the mysterious woman arrived. (3)
Sources: (1) Kazuo Tanaka Did a Close Encounter of the Third Kind Occur on a Japanese Beach in 1803? Skeptical Inquirer Volume 24, Number 4 July/August 2000. Masaru Mori, The Female Alien in a Hollow Vessel, Fortean Times No. 48, Spring 1987, 48-50 and The UFO Criticism by J. N. from Japan, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2001. The latter is the English version of a privately published newsletter (UFO Hihyo) written and distributed by Tokyo-based researcher Junji Numakawa.
(2) This song was collected by the great Japanese folklorist Yanagida Kunio (1875-1962) and reproduced in a paper of his titled The Story of Utsubo-fune in 1925.
(3) The UFO Criticism by J. N. from Japan, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2001.
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