W Is for the Woolpit Green Children

This month I'm participating in the A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is Unsolved Mysteries. Today's letter is:




It was harvest time in the mid-12th century when villagers discovered two children beside one of the wolf pits. They had an odd color that many described as green. They spoke an unknown language and their clothing was unfamiliar to the villagers.



The villagers took them in and began feeding them. Soon they lost their green color and began to acclimate. Unfortunately, the boy died soon after being baptized.


Sign in the village, erected in 1977. Photo credit: Wikipedia
The older sister found a way to communicate with the villagers. She explained they were brother and sister, from "the land of St. Martin." In St. Martin, she explained, it was always twilight and everything was green.


Illustration by Randolph Caldecott. Photo credit: Wikipedia
She told the villagers that one day, she and her brother followed the sound of some bells, somehow made their way into a cave, and were later discovered near the wolf pit.



Some say the language the children were speaking may have been Flemish, since many immigrants were in the area at the time. They believe the children were green due to a disease known as hypochromic anemia, otherwise known as "green disease." That would explain why the green tinge would have disappeared once they began eating. 



But some have more other-worldly explanations. Is it possible the land of St. Martin actually exists? Or were the two children merely malnourished?

⬅️ V Is for Vermont's Bennington Triangle