Battles and Dragons in the Ancient Sky

By Craig: Imagine living in an age before airplanes, weather balloons, helicopters, and, well ok...drones. For most of recorded history this was the way things were, so if a person happened to look up in the sky and see something other than clouds, the moon,  the stars, or the sun, what might that person think? It has been only a little more than a century since the Wright brothers got off the ground at Kitty Hawk. Before this time humans had ventured up into the sky in balloons, but these were rare occasions, and they were for the most part well publicized events. Before the 18th century an airship would have been looked upon as some sort of magic, or perhaps the god's playing tricks! It is interesting to see how our ancestors treated these anomalies from the sky. Meteors were often interpreted as dragons in the air, while aurora's were seen as great battles in the sky.

523 A.D. Strange sights were seen of dragons,lions and other furious wild beasts fighting in the air.

540 (541) A.D. Roger of Wendover records "there appeared a comet in Gaul, so vast that the whole sky seemed on fire. In the same year there dropped real blood from the clouds...and a dreadful mortality ensued.

555 A.D. There was seen the appearance of lances in the north-west quarter of the heavens. (Roger of Wendover)

655 A.D. Fire fell from heaven and great fear came upon men. (The Annals of Waverley)

793 A.D. In this year dire forewarnings came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably terrified the people, these were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these tokens. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

945 A.D. From the Chronicon Scotorum: Two fiery columns were seen a week before Allhallowtide which illuminated the whole world.

www.fireballhistory.com