Many Mediaeval chroniclers tell of mysterious balls in the sky. However, the one that landed in Lyon in 852 was inhabited...
On this Summer day in 852, the eighteenth year of the reign of France’s Louis le Debonnaire, it is hot in Lyon and numerous people are strolling along the banks of the Rhone seeking some cooler air. Suddenly, someone points to the sky:
“Oh! Look!…”
The good people look up and freeze in fear. At the same instant, other cries resound throughout the city:
“Come and see! Come and see! There is great marvel in the sky!…”
Then, coming out of houses, convents, churches, men and women invade the streets and remain stunned when they see what everyone else is seeing. There, above a prairie, at a height of three houses, a thing which doesn’t resemble anything that is known is floating in the air, motionless and silent.
Is it a chariot? A vessel? A beast? A dragon? No-one can say.
Suddenly, the thing begins to descend slowly towards the prairie and the good people of Lyon, terrified, fall to their knees.
The thing continues to descend. It is now a few feet from the ground. Finally, it lands with extraordinary gentleness. The people of Lyon, prostrate in the grass, don’t dare to move. Completely petrified with fear, they silently wait for whatever is now going to happen.
A long time ticks by.
Suddenly, a cry erupts from the crowd. On one side of the thing, a door has just opened. A staircase unfolds, and human beings appear at the top of the steps. There are four of them: three men and a woman wearing costumes similar to those of the Lyonnais. Now, they are coming down the stairs, mutually supporting each other.
The crowd, astounded, watches them.
They continue to descend, reach the ground, advance in a stagger. They seem stunned.
When they have gone about fifty paces, the staircase down which they have come folds up on its own, then the door through which they had passed closes, and the thing, still silent, leaves the ground and rises slowly above the crowd. When it reaches about one hundred feet, it suddenly makes a prodigious bound into the sky and disappears behind the clouds.
Then, the four mysterious people let themselves fall to the ground. They seem to be at the limit of their strength. The woman in particular seems to be in a very bad way: she is crying and her arms and legs are shaking.
The Lyonnais rise to their feet. Someone calls out:
“Careful! Don’t go near them, they’re sorcerers!”
But one of the men from the sky speaks in a tired voice and his language is that of the Lyonnais:
“We are not sorcerers. We are from a neighbouring village. We have been taken by genies… Do not be afraid of us!… But rather, help this woman who is ill…”
All four of them look so pitiful that some good people approach them and ask whence they have come. The man gives the name of his village.
“We will explain everything, but look after this woman, she has been so frightened…”
Then, despite those who are calling for death and yelling about witchcraft, they are taken inside a house where they are put to bed after having drunk some cool wine in which revigorating herbs are floating…
The crowd is gathered in front of the door. It will wait for hours before the men from the sky have enough strength to speak. Towards evening at last, one of them gives this extraordinary account:
“Voila. All four of us were in a field when this thing that you saw came down from the sky and landed near us. Beings similar to men came out and called to us. We were so frightened that it was impossible for us to move. Then they came and invited us to mount inside their airship. They told us that they were not evildoers. We followed them and the thing flew away. We were behind some round windows through which we could see the earth beneath us. We saw countrysides, rivers and cities; then we entered into a fog and, suddenly, we thought that we were in Paradise… One of the genies told us that we were above the clouds.
“After that, we slept. When we awoke, we noticed that the thing had come down in an unknown land. The genie who was taking care of us came to get us and took us inside a palace where there were some very beautiful women. He told us that these were their women and that we must be able to see that they weren’t demons.
“Then he took us on a visit of the city and we mounted again inside the thing. But before coming back here, we were taken on a trip to different places on Earth. We came down in countries of ice and in countries of sand where the heat was torrid. Before letting us leave, a while ago, the genie said to us:
” ‘Tell other men what you have seen, and tell them that we don’t want to hurt them, that we do not come to throw venom on their fruits, poison their fountains, excite storms or make hail fall on their harvests… Tell them so that your kings know it!’
“There, you know everything! “
The Lyonnais, who had listened to this fabulous story, are perplexed. Suddenly, a man cries out:
“I don’t believe any of this! These people are sorcerers. They come to make it hail!…”
Another says:
“It’s the Duke of Benevent who sends them!”
Soon, the crowd is yelling:
“Yes, Yes! It’s Grimoald, the Duke of Benevent, who sends them to massacre our harvests! They are sorcerers!…”
“Death! They have to be burnt!…”
And they are led away.
According to Agobard, Bishop of Lyon in the IXth Century, the inhabitants of his city had what is known today as "a close encounter of the third type".
While waiting for the stake and fire to be prepared, the screaming crowd makes them walk around the city. They are insulted. Stones are thrown at them. They are promised to Hell.
“Death to the sorcerers! Death!”
But a man runs up, alerted by all this noise. It is Agobard, Bishop of Lyon. He wants to know what is happening.
It is explained to him that these sorcerers come from the sky to spoil the harvests and that they are going to be burnt.
Agobard is a good man. He turns to the four prisoners and asks them to explain. They recount their extraordinary adventure once more. The crowd cries out:
“You see, they are sorcerers, they have to be burnt!”
But Agobard shakes his head.
“No! I strictly forbid you to burn them. These three men and this woman are not sorcerers. For the simple reason that they are lying, that they never went to travel in the air, for such things are impossible!”
“But we all saw them descend from the sky!”
“Then you were all seeing things!”
And for three quarters of an hour, he explains all his reasons for them not to believe in such a prodigy. He adds:
“And another thing, those who affirm that they were witnesses to it could well risk being taken for sorcerers themselves…”
As can be guessed, the Lyonnais then declare to their Bishop that the whole thing was only a dream.
And the four prisoners are released and return to their village while, in Lyon, hundreds of men and women – without confiding in anybody – would keep in their memories the obsessive image of a mysterious thing which had descended from the sky one fine Summer’s day…
***
To be continued.
Splatter 
Ah, and they still tell us what to see, don’t they? And, we see what we are told to see. This is a fascinating account, Lady D. It’s historical fact, I suppose?
Oh yes! Recorded by the Bishop himself.
It reminds me a bit of Lavoisier informing a French peasant who had asked him if the stones embedded diagonally, with traces of burning around them, in the trunks of trees on his farm, came from the sky, “Stones cannot fall from the sky because there are no stones in the sky”.
George, you have the honour of being my 200th “Like”. WordPress just told me.
I used the stones from the sky event with my students. The French scientists refused to believe the uneducated farmers until they went down in time for a meteorite shower, then stones could fall from the sky officially. 🙂
There was also a period where stones were allowed to fall from the sky on condition that they had been sucked up by a tornado, or something similar, then dropped back down.
There had to be some kind of logical explanation for this fantastic phenomena! If we simply ignore facts that conflict with the prevailing beliefs of the day…then there is no progress at all. I think that peasant had more sense than Lavoisier, don’t you agree?
I do agree. This is often the case.
Scientists sometimes have their noses too close to their speciality which causes them to lack perspective. The same could be said of doctors too. It is good to broaden one’s outlook from time to time.
I have said in the past that we are often too close to the ground. We need to climb a mountain to see more of what is around us. Get out in the fields and talk to peasants. They often have wisdom that is not taught in schools.
Yes, peasants, animals, children. There is a wisdom in simplicity, isn’t there?
Fantastic. I love this and am going to reblog it, so that everybody is hooked and wants to read your next instalment. I’ll share it on twitter and facebook, too.
Thank you, Sarah. I’m very pleased that you like this post. I thought that it might interest people. I do not have a Twitter or Facebook account so thank you for sharing it there.
A pleasure 🙂
Reblogged this on sarahpotterwrites and commented:
I had to reblog this. It’s so entertaining. And it’s only the first instalment, so plenty more to follow.
Thank you again. There is only one more post under this title but I have some more in preparation on similar subjects.
Looking forward to them.
This is fascinating! I would like to know more. I visited Roswell, and a lot of it is plastic souvenirs and T shirts for sale. But the exhibit itself is mostly letters and personal accounts from people, most of them staid and respectable, who were there and silenced by the government with threats to their families. One witness to the crash refused to speak of it again, but was seen driving a brand new pick up truck soon after–obviously bought off. The other witness, the woman who he was with, would not retract her story. She was killed soon after in a mysterious car accident. There are other very creepy accounts like this that make me wonder. Thanks for a great post. I would like to learn more about this incident.
I think that “those in authority” are afraid of the population panicking – that’s the “good” side of me speaking. The “evil” side is whispering that “knowledge is power” and the more of it that you can keep to yourself, the more powerful you are. Meanwhile, research is done to discover the techniques used, which, if discovered, would probably be used for war in today’s world. It is to be hoped that this discovery will not take place until the powerful nations have become less greedy.
Ah, the tale of Magonia from Liber contra insulam vulgi opinionem. A classic. Up there with a similar account from England about a sky ship that anchored itself to a church. A bishop in that case intervened as well.
I remember reading about the sky ship a long time ago. A sailor dived overboard to try to free the anchor and some people grabbed his legs and he started to drown in the air, as if he were under water. When released, he floated back up to the ship in extremis. The ship sailed away in the air after the anchor rope was cut by the people below. Very strange. Is this the story to which you are referring? I must have it in a book here somewhere but it hasn’t surfaced yet. I’ll have to start filing things properly.