Nostradamus Predicted 9/11

Soon after 9/11 an email began to circulate claiming that the sixteenth-century astrologer Nostradamus had predicted the terrorist attacks. Some "genuine Nostradamus quatrains" were offered as proof of this claim. There were several different versions of these quatrains that got passed around, but the most popular set read as follows:

In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers 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.

On the 11th day of the 9 month,
two metal birds will crash into two tall statues
in the new city,
and the world will end soon after.

Although these lines sound as if they might be referring to a 9/11-type event, they do not appear in any of Nostradamus's writings. The final five lines appear to have been written after 9/11 by an anonymous prankster. More intriguing, however, are the first four lines. They were written before 9/11 by a college student named Neil Marshall. He included them in an article in which, ironically enough, he was debunking Nostradamus. He wanted to show that if you write something vague enough it can be interpreted to mean almost anything. An unknown hoaxer lifted the lines from Marshall's article and began to circulate them via email.

Numerous people were taken in by these phony Nostradamus quatrains, and interest in Nostradamus rose to an all-time high. For a brief time following 9/11, his name became the most popular search term on all the major internet search engines.



Comments

sorry to say this but i had an edition of nostradamus since early 90s and i had seen the exact lines that are there on this script in italics, so how is that possible. I am no fan of Nostradamus but i was shocked to read the book i had for almost 10 years which i never took interest in earlier and found the exact lines on this forum in that copy. Appreciate a response.
Posted by Vimal  on  Sun Aug 05, 2007  at  07:04 AM
i mean 10 years before 2001 when i was on my way to india i pulled out some old books i had and i got this book which said "the man who saw tomorrow" and this was probably 10-15 days after the tragic incident in new york that i read these lines and i told everyone traveling with me and i began to co relate. This is not coincidence...
Posted by Vimal  on  Sun Aug 05, 2007  at  07:10 AM