Nostradamus in popular culture

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The prophecies of the sixteenth century author Nostradamus have become a ubiquitous part of the popular culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As well as being the subject of hundreds of books (both fiction and non-fiction), Nostradamus' life has been depicted in several films, and his life and prophecies continue to be a subject of media interest. In the internet age, there have also been several well-known hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamus have been circulated by e-mail. The most well-known example concerns the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Supposed prophecies

Nostradamus enthusiasts have credited him with predicting numerous events in world history, including the French Revolution, the atom bomb, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Indeed, they regularly make similar claims regarding each new world crisis as it comes along as there is a tendency to claim that 'Nostradamus predicted whatever has just happened'. These claims rely heavily on the role of interpretation; for example, for the supposed prediction of the rise of Hitler the reference is to Hister, the classical name for the Lower Danube.

One well-known supposed prophecy is that "a great and terrifying leader would come out of the sky" in 1999 and 7 months "to resuscitate the great King from Angoumois". The phrase d'effraieur (of terror) in fact occurs nowhere in the original printing, which merely uses the word deffraieur (defraying, hosting). On the basis of Nostradamus's by-now well known technique of projecting past events into the future, Lemesurier^{[#endnote_SP1]} suggests that [X.72] therefore refers back to the restoration to health of the captive Francis I of France (who was Duke of Angoulême) following a surprise visit to his cell by his host, the then Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1525. No fewer than five of the planets were in the same signs on both occasions.

September 11

The September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City led to immediate speculation as to whether Nostradamus had predicted the event. Almost as soon as the event had happened, the relevant Internet sites were deluged with enquiries. In response, Nostradamus enthusiasts started searching for a Nostradamus quatrain that could be said to have done so, coming up with interpretations of Quatrains VI.97 and I.87. However, the various ways in which the enthusiasts chose to interpret the text were almost universally panned by experts on the subject^{[#endnote_s11a][#endnote_s11b]} (compare the relevant sections of the Snopes and Lemesurier websites listed in the External Links section).

The nearest that they could come up with was [quatrain VI.97], which in the original 1557 edition ran:

''Cinq & quarante degrés ciel bruslera,

Feu approucher de la grand cité neufve,

Instant grand flamme esparse saultera,

Quant on voudra des Normans faire preuve:

With instant evidently a version of the Latin instanter ('violently, vehemently'), a reasonable English translation (after Lemesurier) would thus appear to be:

Five and forty degrees, the sky shall burn:

To great ‘New City’ shall the fire draw nigh.

With vehemence the flames shall spread and churn

When with the Normans they conclusions try.

'Five and forty degrees' was said to be the latitude of New York City (which is incorrect; New York's latitude is 40°47'), or was interpreted as '40.5 degrees' (even though the decimal point had not yet come into use in the Europe of Nostradamus' day). 'New City' was claimed to be New York (even though Nostradamus refers in this way to various 'New Cities' whose names, unlike 'New York', literally mean 'New City', and especially Naples – from Greek Neapolis, 'new city'); and most of the attempts to fit in the 'Normans' seemed contrived at best. After the factual nature of these claims was widely denied, some suggested instead that the first line might refer to the actual angle at which one of the hijacked airliners hit the World Trade Center (which seemed unlikely, even if the rest had fit).

Lemesurier suggests that the verse is merely an undated projection into the future of the capture of Naples by the Normans in 1139 during a year marked by a notably violent eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius that is recorded in the contemporary Annales Cassini^{[#endnote_s11c][#endnote_s11d]}. In this case, the first expression may simply be a version of

Cinq[ante minutes] & quarante degrés

– which is indeed the latitude of Naples.

Perhaps in frustration, the searchers now turned to [quatrain I.87], which in the original 1555 edition (Albi copy) ran:

Ennosigée feu du centre de terre

Fera trembler au tour de cité neufve:

Deux grands rochiers long temps feront la guerre

Puis Arethusa rougira nouveau fleuve.

or, in a possible English translation^{[#endnote_s11e]}:

Earth-shaking fires from the world’s centre roar:

Around ‘New City’ is the earth a-quiver.

Two nobles long shall wage a fruitless war,

The nymph of springs pour forth a new, red river.

Here, once again, the cité neufve was claimed to be New York; au tour de had to refer to the Twin Towers (even though, in French, the word tour in the masculine – as it is here – has absolutely nothing to do with towers, but is part of a phrase meaning "around"); the Deux grands rochiers had to be the Twin Towers themselves; and Arethusa was said to be an anagram of 'the USA'. Once again, however, rather more sober investigation by Brind'Amour^{[#endnote_s11f]} had already revealed (bearing in mind that, in French, faire la guerre aux rochers, or 'to make war on the rocks', simply means 'to struggle fruitlessly') that the reference was probably to Naples and its nearby volcano. Subsequent investigation by Lemesurier^{[#endnote_s11g]} and his colleague Gary Somai suggested that it applied particularly to the Annales Cassini's report of its lava eruption of 1036, at a time when the Lombards of Capua and the Byzantine dukes of Naples were constantly at war over the city prior to the decisive intervention of the Normans. For 968, similarly, Leo Marsicanus had reported in the same annals that ‘Mount Vesuvius exploded into flames and sent out huge quantities of sticky, sulfurous matter that formed a river rushing down to the sea’. Thus, given that Arethusa was the classical nymph of springs and rivers, with a well-known 'spring of Arethusa' still visible today in the Sicilian port of Syracuse, the case for a '9/11' interpretation was evidently unfounded.

Hoaxes

Village idiot hoax

Following the contentious 2000 U.S. presidential election wherein George W. Bush was elected President, this text was widely circulated:

Come the millennium, month 12

In the home of greatest power

The village idiot will come forth

To be acclaimed the leader.

As with other hoaxes, only the purported English translation was given. It is likely that this verse was written as a joke. (http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/election.htm, downloaded March 23, 2006)

World Trade Center prophecy hoax

Shortly after the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center, the following spoof text was circulated on the Internet, along with many more elaborate variants (one of them signed 'Nostradamus 1654' – when he would, of course, have been just 150 years old!):

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

As it turns out, the first four lines were indeed written before the attacks, but by a Canadian graduate student named Neil Marshall as part of a research paper in 1997. Ironically enough, the research paper included this poem as an illustrative example of how the validity of prophecies is often exaggerated. For example, the phrases "City of God" (why is New York City the City of God?), "great thunder" (this could apply to just about any disaster), "Two brothers" (many things come in pairs), and "the great leader will succumb" are so ambiguous as to be meaningless. The fifth line was added by an anonymous Internet user, completely ignoring the fact that Nostradamus wrote his Propheties in rhymed four-line decasyllables called quatrains. Nostradamus also never referred to a "third big war".^{[#endnote_WTCPH]}

Political and military manipulation

During World War II, leaflets with false Nostradamus quatrains predicting the defeat of France were launched by German planes over European skies. It seems that this operation was mastered by Nazi political secretary Rudolf Hess and that even Adolf Hitler believed in Nostradamus' quatrains. Certainly his propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels did, under the influence of his wife Magda. Subsequently the Allies responded in kind, both with air-dropped leaflets and via the American film Nostradamus Says So.^{[#endnote_s11h]}.

After Rudolf Hess left Nazi Germany in a mysterious solitary flight to Scotland, probably seeking a peace agreement with the United Kingdom, Hitler issued the Action Hess, a mandatory prosecution of any divinator or future-teller in all Nazi-occupied countries. ^{[#endnote_swastika]}

Entertainment

Film

Nostradamus is the subject of many films and videos, including:

• (1981)
• (2000)
• (1994) Depicts Nostradamus's rise in influence, because of success in treating plague and his predictions, culminating in his appointment as court physician to Charles IX of France.

None of them can be regarded as factual or reliable.

Television

The television series Alias prominently features the character Milo Rambaldi, a fictional Nostradamus-like prophet. In the science fiction series First Wave, the protagonists use a previously unknown book of quatrains of Nostradamus to fight back against an alien invasion. Nostradamus was also a regular character on This Morning With Richard Not Judy, played by Emma Kennedy. Each week, Nostradamus would make three predictions for the coming week, and would be rewarded with a new barbeque if he got two out of the three correct. He never managed this feat, although he did find a blossoming love affair with presenter Richard Herring. Seattle sketch comedy troupe Train of Thought mocked Nostradamus in their hit show Train of Thought > Laid Off which can be seen [here] on YouTube.

Nostradamus appears in the show Histeria as an eccentric red-bearded man in stereotypical wizard garb. His speech tends to be oddly accented and filled with malaprops, and he repeats the phrase "Shut up!" inordinately. His voice is provided by Paul Rugg.

On Mr. Show with Bob and David, an episode contains a sketch Nostradamus (played by Bob Odenkirk) called "Nostradamus and his companion." In it, Nostradamus is a homosexual who falls in love with a fashion designer, played by David Cross. Nostradamus is left behind by his constant chum, who goes on to achieve fame and fortune in the fashion industry. The sketch ends with a school being named after them: "Nostradamus and His Constant Chum Elementary School."

In the OVA FLCL, the character Mamimi makes a referrence to Nostradamus in the fourth episode, Full Swing

On Chappelle's Show, the sketch comedy show hosted by Dave Chappelle, there is a character called Negrodamus (played by comedian Paul Mooney), an African-American version of Nostradamus who makes various predictions in response to questions.

In the Nickelodeon cartoon CatDog, the title character(s) find a prediction in a book by the fictitious prophet "Nostradummy" (an obvious reference) that appears to predict that the end of the world would be the next day.

In the Hong Kong ATV series My Date with a Vampire(series 1), Nostradamus (also referred to as the "French Guy")was held to have made the prophecy of the end of world in 1999, with a third of the world's population turned into monsters, while the rest perish. The antagonist, vampire Yamamoto, sought to make this come true and rule the world, but the protagonists were able to stop this from occur. This alleged prophecy had only been referred to a couple of times.

Music

Haggard produced two albums dealing with the seer Michel de Notredame in the dark days of The Black Plague in Europe: And Thou Shalt Trust... The Seer in 1997 and Awaking The Centuries in 1998.

Composer Robert Steadman has twice used Nostradamus' prophecies in pieces of music: in 1987, quatrains by Nostradamus were juxtaposed with the Latin Requiem Mass text and poems on environmental issues. And in 1999, he set what was thought by some to be Nostradamus's prediction of the end of the world for soprano and chamber ensemble in The Final Prophecy.

In 2005, Dutch band Kayak released a rock opera called Nostradamus - Fate of Man.

British singer/songwriter Al Stewart's album Past, Present, and Future was a concept album including a song about every decade of the twentieth century. As Al wrote the album in 1973, events from the latter years of the century were covered by the song "Nostradamus", in which some of the prophecies are quoted.

Bulgarian guitarist Nikolo Kotzev released a rock opera called Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus in 2001, based on the life and times of Nostradamus.

Rapper Nas refers to himself as Nastradamus and released an album titled "Nastradamus" in 1999.

Maksim, the cross-over piano player, plays a song entitled Nostradamus on his third CD. It is composed by Tonci Huljic.

In 1997, Finnish metal band Stratovarius recorded a concept album loosely based on the life and prophecies of Nostradamus. The album was called Visions.

In 2006, popular heavy metal band Judas Priest announced that they are planning to record a concept album based on the life of Nostradamus. The album's title is yet unknown but is rumored to be "Nostradamus." According to members of the band, the album will focus on Nostradamus' actual life and not his prophecies.

In 1984, Manfred Mann's Earth Band released the album Somewhere in Afrika, which contains the song "Eyes of Nostradamus".

The French Canadian band Okoumé have a song written about Nostradamus.

Dutch stand up comedian Hans Teeuwen made a song around Nostradamus, mostly describing him in his tight green pants.

Comics

In an Italian Mickey Mouse story (Topolino E La Piramide Impossible), Mickey and Goofy travel back in time and by accident a young boy followed them back to the present. The boy had to go back to his own time and his memory of the future was erased, but before that he grabbed pieces of books. The boy of course became Nostradamus and the ripped pages from books explained his visions of the future. The story was made by Massimo Marconi and Massimo De Vita.

A Phantom story from 1983 by Ulf Granberg and Jaime Vallvé featured an appearance by Nostradamus.

In the DC Comics Universe, Nostradamus was an ancestor of Zatara and Zatanna.

In Scott Adams's comic strip Dilbert, "Nostradogbert" is a pseudonym of Dogbert.

Games

In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, the prophecy of 1999 was used as the resurrection of Dracula and added that all born of the day of Dracula's demise are "Dark Candidates" meaning that they'll be next in line to be Dark Lord.

In Chrono Trigger, the Day of Lavos is in 1999 A.D the same year of the prophecy of 1999.

External links

• Snopes: [False claims of Nostradamus predicting the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001]

Notes

#↑  Lemesurier, Peter, Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies, 2003, ISBN 1903816483

#↑  Gruber, Dr Elmar, Nostradamus: sein Leben, sein Werk und die wahre Bedeutung seiner Prophezeiungen, 2003, p. 419

#↑  Lemesurier, Peter, The Unknown Nostradamus, 2003, ISBN 1903816327

#↑  Lemesurier, Peter, Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies, 2003

#↑  But compare Clébert, Jean-Paul, Prophéties de Nostradamus, 2003

#↑  Lemesurier, Peter, Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies, 2003

#↑  Brind'Amour, Pierre: Nostradamus. Les premières Centuries ou Prophéties, 1996, p. 170

#↑  Lemesurier, Peter, Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies, 2003, pp. 40-41

#↑  [False Prophecy]

#↑  Lemesurier, Peter: The Nostradamus Encyclopedia, 1997, pp. 146-147

#↑  Wulff, Wilhelm Theodor Zodiac and swastika; how astrology guided Hitler's Germany, Pub. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. New York 1973, (ISBN 0698105478)

 

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