LAST EDITED ON 09-15-01 AT 00:49 AM (EST)

A lot of paraphrased Nostradamus quotes are are being discussed on TV and I even got one in my email today. Some people are embellishing the original quotes to say that the name of the city is 'York' and include references to 'fallen twins'. The word 'york' did not appear in Nostradamus's works and neither does the phrase 'fallen twins'.

The email I received made a big deal about New York city being at 45 degrees latitude. A quick check of the atlas puts the 45 degree latitude in Maine somewhere.

The quote in its original form is chilling but not specific enough to be considered a prediction of any sort. I've searched through a reputable Nostradamus concordance that includes the original french with accompanying english translation. Here are the two quatrains:

6.96 Grande cité ā soldats abandonnee,
On n'y eu mortel tumult si proche:
O qu'elle hideuse mortalité s'approche,
Fors vne offence n'y sera pardonnee.

** Great city abandoned to the soldiers, Never was mortal
tumult so close to it: Oh, what a hideous calamity draws near,
Except one offence nothing will be spared it.

6.97 Cinq & quarante degrez ciel bruslera
Feu approcher de la grand cité neuue
Instant grand flamme esparse sautera
Quand on voudra des Normans faire preuue.

** At forty-five degrees the sky will burn, Fire to approach
the great new city: In an instant a great scattered flame will leap
up, When one will want to demand proof of the Normans.

Nostradamus is probably the most misquoted person in the history of the world. Seems like anytime a tragedy happpens, somebody digs up old 'Nostra' and starts to take bits and pieces out of different quatrains.

Let the reader beware...

• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,PeterTorque, 11:48 PM, 09-13-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,boomerang, 06:26 AM, 09-14-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,PepeLePew13, 06:32 AM, 09-14-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,LadyT, 07:16 AM, 09-14-01
  • RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,desert_rhino, 03:12 PM, 09-14-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,Survivorchick, 01:44 PM, 09-14-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,VampKira, 03:30 PM, 09-14-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,samiam, 04:16 PM, 09-14-01
• RE: The Real Nostradamus Quote...,Outfrontgirl, 06:34 PM, 09-14-01

That's good you pointed that out, I've heard the same misquotes as well but I had assumed they were correct. I didn't realize they skewed his phrases so badly; like you said, the accurate translation is spooky enough as it is. People do that with Biblical references a lot too I've found, as most people won't bother to fact-check those. In fact, are you sure your translation isn't from an old Tim Rice / Andrew Loyd Webber musical?

LAST EDITED ON 09-14-01 AT 06:42 AM (EST)

I have seen references to Nostradamus lately, also. The only knowledge I have about him is from the movie I saw many years ago ("The Man Who Saw Tomorrow"- 1981) that was narrated by the late Orson Welles, and I don't know how much of that followed the original writings. It was quite entertaining, though.

I suppose that if you wait long enough, you can find some incident that will somewhat relate to his predictions. Just for the sake of discussion, what was the angle of the sun on the horizon when the planes hit? Was it anywhere close to forty-five degrees?

LAST EDITED ON 09-14-01 AT 06:33 AM (EST)

Yes, with Nostradamus, people have a tendency to look at his works and say "this is utter gibberish" and then when something happens, they'll try to twist it around enough to 'match' an event. It IS gibberish for the most part when you look at it before an event has happened.

There was also a quote applied to the New York attacks that Nostradamus had 'said' this would happen "In the year of the new century nine months" (i.e. September 2001), but this is a falsification as well -- the actual quote (translated/interpreted here) in a quatrain is "The year 1999 seven months, From the sky will come the great King of Terror..."

Nostradamus has made some predictions that were stunningly close but for the most part, his prophesies haven't really applied itself to too many events in history unless the words and meanings were twisted around.

One such example is that Nostradamus talks about Hister in the Germanic area -- people automatically assume he has predicted the rise of Hitler in Germany. In fact, at that time in the world (early to mid 16th century) 'Germania' was a term which referred to an ancient region of Europe, north of the Danube and east of the Rhine. It may also refer to a part of the Roman Empire corresponding to present-day northeast France and part of Belgium and the Netherlands. Many people back then also referred to 'Hister' as a common usage for a specific area of the Danube.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading Nostradamus' prophesies but sometimes people try a little too hard to say "YES! He predicted it!" His prophesies are maybe right once in a while, but he wrote a thousand prophesies... a few of them were bound to be roughly correct with some interpretations.

"Permit me to introduce myself. I am Pepe Le Pew, your lover."

Read Revelations. There is some scary stuff in there.

>Read Revelations. There is some
>scary stuff in there.

I'm sure you meant to say "Revelation" (no 's.')

However, here's a handy link:

http://www.kingjamesbible.com/B66C001.htm

-- JV
(assuming y'all can be pointed to the bible by a Heathen, that is...)

"What rage for fame attends both great and small!
Better be damned than mentioned not at all." --John Wolcot (1738–1819)

IceCat! You have no idea how much I appreciate this. A couple of years ago (1999) I was quite convinced that the world was going to end and I actually read Nostradamus's entire collection of prophecies. I was struck by how vague and metaphorical his writing is. You could take virtually any event and link it after the fact to one of his vague prophecies. When I saw a copy of an email quoting Nostradamus yesterday, my first thought was "This isn't right". The famous "king of terror" prophecy was misquoted and I didn't recognize the "twin towers" reference. I was thinking about going to the library this afternoon to read the true translation - but you saved me the time. Thanks so much for clearing this up. Spreading these emails around only brings up widespread panic about WW3.

Survivorchick

Thanks for posting this Ice, baby... Here is the e mail I recieved.. and it scared the crap outta me... glad you clarified! *hug*

>>>>Nostrodomus:

In the year of the new century and nine months, From the sky will come a great King of Terror... The sky will burn at forty-five degrees. Fire approaches the great new city... In the city of york there will be a great collapse, 2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb third big war will begin when the big city is burning

In the City of God there will be a great thunder, two brothers torn apart by chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will sucumb. The third big war will begin when the big city is burning

2001 is the first year of the new century and this is the 9th month. = New York is located at the 41st degree Latitude.<<<<

I feel better now...

Look inside my heart and youwill see

Du ar min hjälte, Supermänniska

Another handy link with pretty much the same information from one of my favorite sites:
http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/hoaxes/predict.htm#brothers

Thanks Ice,
I see that the distorted versions conveniently leave out the plain finger pointed at the Normans? What did they ever do to anyone after their conquest of England anyway?

I'm afraid Finnegans Wake kicks Nostradamus' ass when it comes to predicting a falling tower and blaming the Muslims. See my post on the 11 thread. Oh, and although I failed to mention it, the main figure whom the tower represents divides himself into twins on a regular basis throughout the book, so I can get the dual towers to work too. Streeetch.....streeetch......