Phony Predictions

Phony Predictions - Nostradamus and the World Trade Center
By Lindsey Williams

Phony Predictions

Here we go again!

Another catastrophe, another phony prediction by the still famous sixteenth-century prognosticator Michel de Nostredame – Nostradamus by common usage.

The computer web is agog over a “quatrain” said to have been written by him in “1654.” Supposedly it predicted the attack on the World Trade Center towers and the start of World War III. There are several versions floating around.

The prevalent one follows:

In the year of 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.

Two twin brothers torn apart by chaos.

While the fortress falls the great leader will succumb.

The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.

Some versions add even more dramatic prophecies:

On 11 day of 9 month, two metal birds will crash into

Two tall statues in new city, and world will soon end.

Let’s overlook the fact that Nostradamus died in 1566. Consider, instead, the more brazen fabrications designed to titillate excitement-starved web browsers.

Fortunately, there are a few web sites – such as snopes.com hosted by Barbara Mikkelson -- that surf the web to expose hoaxes.

The 1654 hooey is rooted in an essay by Neil Marshall, a student at Brock University in Canada in the early 1990s. He composed the bogus quatrain and date as an announced example of how forgers could mangle a Nostradamus quatrain for mischievous effect:

In the city of God there will be a great thunder.

Two brothers will be torn apart by Chaos.

While the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb.

The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.

Nostradamus composed 942 four-line poems (quatrains) during his lifetime. He published them in little books of 100 called “Centuries.” The title was a common, poetic device then of one-hundred anything – not to a century of years.

However, his quatrains – couched in riddles employing obscure words and a mixture of ancient languages – did purport to predict a millennium of France’s future. The only pacific date he ever mentioned was July 1999 for the end of the world, and that came early in his quatrain series.