The Green Children of Woolpit is one of medieval England's strangest stories. Unlike many legends whose origins are difficult to trace, versions of this tale were recorded by two medieval writers: William of Newburgh and Ralph of Coggeshall.
Mystery at a glance
The children appear
According to medieval accounts, a boy and a girl appeared near Woolpit, a village in Suffolk, during the reign of King Stephen.
The children reportedly looked unusual. Their clothing was unfamiliar, their speech could not initially be understood and — most famously — their skin was described as green.
They were eventually taken into the care of local people.
They refused ordinary food
One of the strangest details in the story concerns food.
The children were reportedly reluctant to eat what they were offered. When they encountered green beans, however, they eagerly consumed them. Some versions describe them searching the stalks because they did not understand that the beans were inside the pods.
Over time they supposedly began eating a more ordinary diet.
The green colour of their skin was then said gradually to disappear.
What happened to them?
According to the accounts, the younger child — the boy — became ill and died not long after the pair were discovered.
The girl survived.
As she learned the local language, she was eventually able to tell people something about where she and her brother had come from.
And that explanation made the story stranger still.
St Martin's Land
The surviving girl reportedly described her homeland as a place associated with Saint Martin.
According to later interpretations of the medieval accounts, the land was unusual because it was not illuminated by normal bright daylight. Instead, the inhabitants lived in a kind of perpetual twilight.
The people there were supposedly green like the children.
Another brighter land could apparently be seen at a distance or across a river.
Precisely how the story is worded differs between the two medieval sources, which is important when trying to reconstruct what — if anything — originally happened.
Two medieval accounts
The story wasn't written down by someone standing in Woolpit at the moment the children appeared.
William of Newburgh included the story in his late 12th-century historical work. Ralph of Coggeshall recorded another version around the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century.
Their accounts share the central mystery but differ in some details. That suggests the story was circulating independently rather than surviving as one perfectly preserved eyewitness report.
This is one reason historians treat the story cautiously. Medieval chronicles could contain genuine events alongside rumours, wonders, religious interpretations and stories passed between people.
What could explain the green skin?
Illness or malnutrition
Some later explanations suggest the children may have been suffering from poor nutrition or a medical condition that affected their appearance.
Lost or displaced children
The pair may have come from another community and become separated from their families before arriving near Woolpit.
A different language
Medieval England contained communities speaking different languages and dialects. Speech unfamiliar to villagers would not necessarily have been mysterious in origin.
Folklore
Green colouring, underground passages and another twilight world have obvious similarities to supernatural and fairy traditions.
Were they Flemish children?
One of the better-known modern theories proposes that the children may have belonged to a Flemish community living in the region.
Political violence and conflict affected Flemish settlers in 12th-century England, raising the possibility that two displaced children could have become lost in unfamiliar territory.
Their language might then have sounded completely incomprehensible to local English speakers.
It is an intriguing theory, but the surviving medieval sources do not give us enough information to identify the children's origins with certainty.
Could the story simply be folklore?
Possibly.
Several elements sound remarkably like traditional stories about entering or leaving another world: unusual colouring, strange food, an unfamiliar language, underground travel and a homeland existing in perpetual twilight.
But the existence of folkloric elements does not prove that the entire story was invented. A real incident involving unfamiliar children could have accumulated extraordinary details as it was retold.
With sources written more than eight centuries ago, separating an original event from later interpretation is extremely difficult.
From medieval report to enduring mystery
The mysterious children are said to appear near Woolpit in Suffolk.
William of Newburgh records a version of the story in his historical work.
Ralph of Coggeshall records another version containing additional details.
The children become part of British folklore, inspiring historical theories, fiction and supernatural interpretations.
What do we actually know?
We know that medieval writers recorded a story about two unusual children associated with Woolpit.
We do not have physical evidence establishing that their skin was literally green, that they came from an unknown civilisation or that they travelled from another world.
Nor can we confidently demonstrate that nothing happened at all. The surviving texts are evidence that the story existed relatively close to the period in which it was supposedly set — not proof that every detail in the story was factual.
The mystery remains
Perhaps two lost children really did arrive in Woolpit and their story became stranger with every retelling.
Perhaps illness or malnutrition explained their appearance. Perhaps their unfamiliar language caused villagers to imagine a distant homeland. Or perhaps the entire episode belongs primarily to the world of medieval folklore.
More than eight centuries later, there isn't enough evidence to choose between those possibilities with certainty.
And that uncertainty is exactly why the Green Children of Woolpit are still being talked about.