(#1) The Nuremberg Celestial Event
An aerial battle...in 1561?
And for our first mystery, we have the 1561 Nuremberg Celestial Event (or Phenomenon). Let’s do this.
“And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth ‘as if they all burned’ and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke.” — Hans Glaser describing the Nuremberg Celestial Phenomenon
On April 14, 1561, during the early morning hours, residents of the city of Nuremberg (then an independent city located within the Holy Roman Empire) witnessed an astonishing sight in the sky. Some would later describe it as a precursor to Judgment Day. Others thought war had broken out in the heavens above. What really happened in Nuremberg (or shall I say, in its airspace) on that infamous April morning? Could it be the result of aliens? Human technology from another dimension? Let’s get to the bottom of this.
Pics or It Didn’t Happen
You may have noticed the ancient newspaper clipping at the top of this post. This is a contemporary account of the so-called Nuremberg Celestial Phenomenon of 1561 that was composed by a printer named Hans Glaser. It is a broadsheet news article printed below a woodcut engraving of…whatever it was that took place in the sky that day.
The engraving is based on details contained within the text of Glaser’s article. Before we get to analyzing the artistic rendition of the event and evaluating the possible explanations for what happened, let’s first take a look at the text describing the event itself:
“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth 'as if they all burned' and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen. By Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg.”
Don’t worry. I got you covered. Here’s the TL;DR:
According to Glaser, a large-scale phenomenon was observed in the skies above the city of Nuremberg and the surrounding countryside. A variety of geometric shapes, described as “arcs,” “balls,” “rods,” and “globes,” appeared to surround the sun and eventually fight each other. Glaser describes the ensuing aerial melee as revolving around the sun [no offense to Ptolemaic astronomers]. The belligerents of said battle appear to be the “globes” stationed outside the sun versus those stationed within the sun. To engage their respective enemies, the warring globes are said to have flown “back and forth among themselves…for over an hour.” Glaser does not mention any weaponry being used by either side and makes no mention of the sound that any of these *cough* unidentified flying objects may have emitted. However, as they say, the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. In any event, Glaser provides us with a detailed summary of the sequence of events during the alleged battle, including a picture, which will be useful for us as we take a closer look at what unfolded later on.
The battle seemingly ends with all of the clashing geometric shapes crashing down to earth, after which they “wasted away…with immense smoke.” If you look closely at Glaser’s engraving on the bottom right-hand corner, you can see that he included a scene of smoke billowing out of the now neutralized combat globes. However, the phenomenon didn’t end with the conclusion of the battle. According to Glaser, “something like a black spear, very long and thick,” appeared in the sky. It is described as having a shaft that pointed east and a tip that pointed west. The engraving depicts the spear as having the shape of an arrowhead and as being located closer to the ground in altitude. This could, however, be the result of creative license in order to make more room for the depiction of the battle of the globes taking place around the sun. The precise location and movements (if any) of the black spear are thus not entirely determinable. To conclude his account of the phenomenon, Glaser reminds his readers to consider it a sign from God and an admonishment to repent and change their ways for the better.
Fighting orbs? An airborne spear? An aircraft crash site? Portents from above? What is going on here? What really happened? Was there an actual battle in the sky? What did Glaser’s witnesses really see? Let’s dive into some possible explanations for what happened and then weigh our options to see what kind of conclusion we can come up with. As of now, I see four main explanations for this mystery: 1) The interdimensional time traveler explanation; 2) The extraterrestrial explanation; 3) The meteorological explanation; and finally, 4) the historical-spiritual explanation.
Without further ado, let’s dive into our explanations!
Was It Interdimensional Time Travelers?
Isn’t this the explanation we all want? Don’t we want there to be some Interstellar-level 4-D chess to explain why this happened? I know I do, but unfortunately, I don’t think this is the answer.
“But John!” Some of you may say. “You just said that the absence of evidence doesn’t constitute evidence of absence. Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”
Yes and no.
While it is true that we should not take the absence of evidence for a given claim for granted, the fact remains that this sort of explanation is the gateway drug to all kinds of whacky theories.
I didn’t quote Carl Sagan’s argument to make room for any conceivable explanation that I could dredge up from the depths of my imagination. I write with Sagan’s dictum in mind in order to account for possible discrepancies and missing pieces of information within the realm of the plausible (i.e., keeping in mind that there still could have been sounds emanating from the action in the sky despite Glaser not commenting one way or the other on the matter). Because if we were to take Sagan’s argument literally, we could speculate that an ancient, advanced civilization of rainbow-colored ape-unicorns had resurrected from the dead and took their fighter jets out for a joyride across the scenic European skies…until one of them cut the other off in aerial traffic and an all-out brawl began for the confused and terrified residents of Nuremberg to witness.
I know that you, dear reader, did not possibly think I was serious in suggesting interdimensional time travelers. I only highlighted this “possibility” to emphasize that, while my platform is about unpacking historical mysteries and going where the evidence takes us, it is by no means about letting it take us off a cliff or into a pit.
Now, for our next explanation (and I am serious this time), we have…aliens!
What about Aliens? Oh, Say It Is So!
Ugh, I really want this one to be true. I will try my darndest to not let my biases distract me. Dear reader, please keep me accountable, as I don’t know if I am strong enough to resist the temptation to say it was aliens and call it a day.
Of course, me giving serious thought to this explanation presupposes my acceptance of the claim that aliens could very well exist and have the capability to contact us. I do, in fact, accept that it is no unreasonable thing to suggest that extraterrestrials exist. There is a lot we do not know about the universe in which we live. The science is far from settled, and it is very much possible that there is a planet out there that has the right conditions for intelligent life to flourish. That being said, let’s continue.
The aerospace industry was all but naught during the 16th century. At this point in history, we are centuries away from the Wright Brothers’ first flight. Glaser’s depiction of the “Battle of Nuremberg” makes it seem as though the “globes” engaged in intentional movements. Their flight paths give off the impression that some kind of deliberate dogfight was being conducted. The globes made intentional passes at each other, presumably to get within range to allow whatever armaments they carried to accurately dispatch their targets. Glaser doesn’t offer a precise description of the globes’ aerial combat maneuvers, but he gives enough information for us to speculate with some accuracy.
The flying globes could have engaged in a number of maneuvers that are in-line with standard aerial warfare tactics.
A diagram of a Chandelle turn. Via Wikimedia Commons.
I am no expert in aerial combat maneuvers, but the circular motion of the fighter globes that Glaser describes may be evidence of them engaging in a series of Chandelle turns to gain an optimal angle of attack on their targets. From what Glaser writes, it seems as though whatever tactics the globe “pilots” used were effective. Perhaps attrition was the goal for either side, given that the battle did not end until “all” of the globes fell out of the sky. Could the "Battle of Nuremberg” have been the calculated effort of some extraterrestrial commander to deplete the airpower of his opponent by drawing his “warplanes” into one place and neutralizing each and every one of them? Sometimes, attrition is used as the primary indicator of success by military leadership. However, I do not know much about alien military doctrine, so I will refrain from assuming too much about the motives of the alien chain of command on both sides of this conflict.
Tactics and motives aside, it is interesting to note that Glaser mentions some type of wreckage being left behind after the battle. He even gives a detailed sketch of destroyed globes burning in a field outside the city. Remember, Glaser relied on witnesses to compose an artistic rendition of what happened. Obviously, someone who was there at the time saw something to indicate there was a crash site.
In my opinion, however, the crash site detail is the Achilles’ heel of this explanation. Here’s what I mean.
Let’s assume that there was actual wreckage left behind. If this were the case, how come Glaser didn’t elaborate further on the nature and contents of the crash sites? The crash sites of numerous extraterrestrial combat aircraft would leave behind corpses and extensive wreckage, perhaps within a miles-long radius. To any person from the Middle Ages, this would have been an extraordinary sight and would have surely been recorded for posterity. Realistically, if that many combat aircraft crash-landed, there would have most likely been some attempt by at least some of the pilots to eject from their aircraft and survive long enough for a search and rescue party to pick them up. This would have caused quite the media frenzy and we would have more than Glaser’s account to draw from. As much as Glaser makes it sound like a battle took place, in all likelihood, this is not what actually happened.
I’m afraid there are far more mundane explanations for this event. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the so-called meteorological explanation.
Today’s Forecast: Sunny with A Chance of Uncanny Celestial Phenomena
Light. It’s one of life’s necessities. We depend on the Sun to shoot beams of photons to planet Earth so that we may survive. Most of the time, we don’t really pay attention to what the Sun is doing. We more or less take it for granted. But who can blame us? After all, we can’t look straight at it, and it looks and behaves the same no matter where you are.
But what we don’t always remember is that sunlight can do some funky things. It “changes color” during sunset. It refracts through prisms. It can be concentrated through a magnifying glass and ignite fires. And yes, it can also create some magnificent optical illusions.
Say it isn’t so.
Enter the “sundog.” A sundog is a visual phenomenon caused by sunlight passing through hexagonal ice crystals in the earth’s atmosphere. The resultant shapes that develop from the bent sunlight often look similar to what our friend Glaser described in his broadsheet article. Here are some images of sundogs to help you visualize what I’m talking about.
An example of a sundog. Note the arrows sticking out from either side of the sun. Via LiveScience.
Another sundog. Notice the semicircular arcs surround the sun that resemble what was engraved by Glaser. Via ThoughtCo.
This sundog has a more complete halo around it. Observe the “starburst” around the sun and the “laser” effect it emits. Via EarthSky.
Semicircular arcs, bursts of light, an arrow/spear? All things that are described by Glaser in his account of the celestial event. The spear/arrow effect is present in each sundog. In fact, this is where sundogs get their name because, for some reason, the arrows resemble dogs, I guess. How about a sun spear? Solar lance? Helio dart? I digress.
It could be that a particularly spectacular sundog event occurred above Nuremberg on that fateful April morning. That could explain the various objects that Glaser reports were flickering around the morning sky. However, that still does not explain the billowing smoke that the Nuremberg residents saw.
No matter. Cue the fall streaks.
Fall streaks are often called “hole punch clouds.” As you may guess, these are holes in high to mid-level clouds. Inside the hole is a cloud “streak” that can sometimes resemble billowing smoke. Here is an example.
A fall streak, or “hole punch cloud.” Via the National Weather Service.
Fall streaks can occur anywhere in the sky. It could very well have been that a fall streak developed near the horizon to give off the impression that the “globes” had crash landed and were now the contents of a smoking heap of wreckage over the horizon. The fact that, according to Glaser, the aerial battle took place over the course of an hour means that there was more than enough time for a fall streak to form in the clouds. So, between the solar light show put on by the sundog and the billowing effect of the fall streak cloud, we have a possible explanation for what the people of Nuremberg witnessed all those years ago.
But one thing remains. The why. What drove Glaser to interpret a natural phenomenon as being an epic supernatural message delivered from Heaven above?
Signs of the Times in 1561
In all likelihood, the residents of Nuremberg witnessed a sundog. But human beings are inquisitive creatures. We dig for meaning and search for the sublime in even the most everyday circumstances.
This was definitely the case in 16th century Europe. A deeply religious society facing the socio-political upheaval of the Reformation era would have been especially inclined to interpret a confounding atmospheric phenomenon as being an admonishment from God.
Notice how Glaser devotes a significant amount of text to discussing the spiritual implications of what the Nuremberg residents witnessed. He warns his readers to take the message from God to heart and repent of their waywardness. Recall that producing books, pamphlets, broadsheets, and other reading material was a much more laborious process back then than it is today. Authors had to be a lot more intentional about what they included in their works. To set aside one third of the article exploring the spiritual significance of the celestial event is to demonstrate how greatly Glaser and his contemporaries valued seeing the hand of God in both the ordinary and the extraordinary. To our modern eyes, an aerial phenomenon like the sundog would be just that — a sundog. Recognizing that Glaser’s witnesses watched the Nuremberg celestial event with religious eyes explains the fantastical imagery found in the broadsheet article. A text describing the sudden appearance of signs and wonders in the heavens followed by a battle preceding an injunction to walk the straight and narrow path of holiness has all the markers of a supernatural interpretation of a natural phenomenon.
So, What Really Happened?
I think the 1561 Nuremberg Celestial Event happened, but it is not the UFO dogfight we all wish it was.
Sometimes, we have to take a both/and approach to evaluating mysteries such as this one. It is entirely possible to believe that an eerie or implausible thing happened while also holding that the manner in which it unfolded or the causes behind the event are rather mundane and explainable.
Until next time.