Green Children of Woolpit — Medieval Siblings With Green Skin Emerge From Pit Speaking Unknown Language

According to two independent medieval chronicle accounts, sometime during the reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154), two children with green-colored skin emerged from a pit near the village of Woolpit in Suffolk. They spoke no known language, would eat only raw broad beans, and wept bitterly. The boy eventually died, but the girl survived, slowly adapted to normal food, lost her green color, and was baptized.

The girl eventually learned English and explained that she and her brother came from a land called St. Martin's Land, where all the inhabitants were green. The land was underground, permanently twilight, and separated from a brighter land by a great river. She said they had followed the sound of bells and found themselves emerging into the bright sunlight, which was disorienting.

The accounts were recorded by two separate historians — William of Newburgh and Ralph of Coggeshall — writing independently within decades of the alleged event, lending the story more credibility than a single-source medieval tale would carry. The children were reportedly placed in the household of a knight named Sir Richard de Calne.

Explanations proposed over the centuries include: a folk memory of foreign children during the Anarchy period; children suffering from chlorosis, an iron-deficiency anemia that can cause greenish skin tones; children from a Flemish colony who spoke no English and survived on plants due to isolation; or a genuine encounter with other-dimensional beings. The Green Children of Woolpit remain one of the most intriguing unexplained events of medieval England.