Sometime in the 12th century, two children emerged from a pit in the English village of Woolpit. They were brother and sister. They spoke no known language. They refused to eat anything except raw beans. And their skin was green.
They were taken in by a local landowner. The boy grew sick and died within weeks. The girl survived, gradually lost her green color, learned English, and eventually married. Before she died, she told people where she had come from: a place called St. Martin's Land, where the sun never shone and everything was bathed in a soft twilight.
The story of the Green Children of Woolpit is nearly 900 years old. Two independent medieval chroniclers recorded it. And it has never been satisfactorily explained.
The historical record
The story appears in two 12th-century sources: the chronicle of William of Newburgh, written around 1190, and the chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall, written around 1220. Both authors treated the account as factual. William of Newburgh, who was generally a careful and skeptical historian by medieval standards, wrote that he had initially hesitated to include it but was convinced by the number of reliable witnesses who attested to it.
The village of Woolpit is real. It still exists in Suffolk, England. The wolf pits the village is named after — deep trenches dug to trap wolves — were a real feature of the medieval landscape. The children, according to both accounts, emerged from one of these pits.
The landowner who took them in is identified in the accounts as Sir Richard de Calne, a historical figure whose existence has been independently confirmed.
What the accounts describe
| Detail | What both sources agree on |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Skin and hair of a distinctly green color; wearing clothes of an unfamiliar material |
| Language | Spoke no recognizable language; could not communicate with anyone in Woolpit |
| Diet | Refused all food initially; eventually accepted raw green beans; gradually expanded diet over time |
| The boy | Never recovered; remained listless and weak; died within months of being found |
| The girl | Adapted, learned English, lost her green color as her diet changed, was baptized, and eventually married |
| Origin story | Described coming from an underground land called St. Martin's Land where the sun did not shine; had followed a loud sound (possibly bells) through a cave and emerged into blinding light |
The theories
| Theory | Core argument | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chlorosis (Green sickness) | Severe iron deficiency anemia can give skin a greenish tint; the children may have been malnourished Flemish immigrants | Medically plausible; explains the green color and dietary issues; Flemish immigrants were present in 12th-century East Anglia | Doesn't explain the unknown language or the St. Martin's Land account |
| Lost or abandoned children | The children were orphaned or abandoned, possibly from a remote community, and had survived underground or in a forest for an extended period | Consistent with their wild, disoriented state and unfamiliarity with normal food | The green skin remains unexplained under this theory without a medical cause |
| Flemish orphan hypothesis | The children were Flemish — speaking a language no one in Woolpit recognized — whose parents had been killed, possibly during conflicts of King Stephen's reign | Accounts for language and disorientation; Flemish workers were active in the region | The most academically cited explanation, but still speculative |
| Folkloric or allegorical origin | The story is a medieval legend or allegory, not a factual account | Many medieval chronicles mix fact and folklore without distinction | Two independent credible sources treated it as fact; the level of specific detail is unusual for pure legend |
The Flemish hypothesis in detail
The most academically serious explanation, developed in part by the historian Paul Harris, proposes that the children were Flemish. In the mid-12th century, large numbers of Flemish immigrants had settled in East Anglia. During the civil war known as the Anarchy — the period of conflict between King Stephen and Empress Matilda — Flemish settlers were sometimes targeted and killed.
Under this hypothesis, the children's parents may have been killed and the children fled, surviving in the heavily forested Breckland area of Suffolk. Their "green" color would be explained by chlorosis from severe malnutrition. Their language — Flemish — would have been unintelligible to the English villagers of Woolpit. Their description of "St. Martin's Land" may be a garbled reference to Fornham St. Martin, a nearby village.
It is a coherent and plausible explanation. It also requires several assumptions, none of which can be confirmed. The medieval record offers no corroboration for the specific circumstances it proposes.
The curious connection
The Green Children of Woolpit belong to a pattern that appears across many cultures and many centuries: the sudden appearance of individuals who seem to come from elsewhere — a different place, a different time, a different reality — and who cannot fully explain where they came from.
Modern psychology recognizes a phenomenon called feral child syndrome — the documented behavioral and developmental effects on children who have been isolated from normal human contact during critical developmental periods. The children's inability to communicate, their rejection of normal food, their disorientation, and their gradual adaptation all match documented patterns from historical feral child cases.
But feral child syndrome doesn't explain the green skin. And it doesn't explain St. Martin's Land.
What the Green Children of Woolpit ultimately demonstrate is the limit of retrospective analysis: we can construct plausible explanations for most of the details, but the story as a whole resists any single explanation that accounts for everything. Something happened in Woolpit in the 12th century. Two independent witnesses thought it was worth recording. The girl who survived lived the rest of her life in Suffolk, and presumably knew exactly where she had come from.
She died without leaving a more detailed account. Or if she did, it hasn't survived.
FAQ
Are the Green Children of Woolpit a true story?
The story is recorded by two independent medieval chroniclers — William of Newburgh and Ralph of Coggeshall — who treated it as factual. The village of Woolpit and the landowner named in the account are historically real. Whether the story is literally true, a distorted account of real events, or a medieval legend remains debated.
Why were the Green Children of Woolpit green?
The most medically plausible explanation is chlorosis — a form of severe iron deficiency anemia that can give skin a greenish hue. The children's restricted diet of only green beans would be consistent with this condition. As the girl's diet improved, her color is reported to have normalized.
Where is Woolpit?
Woolpit is a village in Suffolk, England, approximately 10 miles east of Bury St Edmunds. It still exists today and has a village sign depicting the green children.
What language did the Green Children speak?
The accounts say the children spoke no recognizable language. The most widely cited academic hypothesis is that they spoke Flemish, which would have been unintelligible to the English villagers of 12th-century Suffolk.
What happened to the girl from Woolpit?
According to the medieval accounts, she learned English, was baptized, lost her green color as her diet changed, and eventually married. Ralph of Coggeshall refers to her as still living at the time of his writing, around 1220.