Medieval UFOs? The Story of the "Flying Ship" over Ireland

You may have heard reference to a story told by the 13th-century cleric, Gervase of Tilbury, about a flying ship dropping its anchor in a churchyard, and the ensuing struggle between one of its sailors and the assembled crowd. There are actually many different versions of this story dating back to the middle of the 8th century CE, and together, they tell us a great deal about Medieval cosmology, and they even shed light on the modern UFO phenomenon.

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Illustration by V.R. Laurence (https://vrlaurence.com)
Research by Jason Charbonneau
Music by Josh Chamberland.
Animation by Brendan Barr.
Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.

Primary Sources:

Agobard, Agobardus. 0901-1000. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Départment des Manuscrits. Latin 2853: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8572244q/f193.item.zoom.
An English Translation is available in Fordham University’s Medieval Sourcebook: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/Agobard-OnHailandThunder.asp.

Annals of Ulster (Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition). Compiled by Pádraig Bambury, Stephen Beechinor, trans. Mac Airt & Mac Niocaill. Accessed May 21, 2021: https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T100001A/index.html.

Breventano, Stefano. trattato delle impressioni dell'aere, raccolto da varij autori di filosofia. Pavia: Bartoli Girolamo, 1571.

Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, ed. and trans. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Annotated Edition, 2002.

Houston Daily Post. Houston, Texas. April 28, 1897.

Labbe, Philippe and René Rapin. Novae bibliothecae manuscriptorum librorum tomus primus [-secundus]. Rerum aquitanicarum, praesertim bituricensium, uberrima collectio / ... nunc primum ex mss. variarum bibliothecarum codicibus eruta, copiose ac plena manu repraesentans, opera ac studio Philippi Labbe,... . Parisiis, 1657: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6344291s/f327.item.

Leabhar breathnach annso sis, The Irish Version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius. Ed. trans. James Henthorn Todd, D.D., M.R.I.A.. Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society, 1848.

Reliquiæ Antiquæ: scraps from Ancient Manuscripts, illustrating chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language. Ed. Thomas Wright and James Orchard Halliwell. London: John Russell Smith, 1845.

The King's mirror (Speculum regale - Konungs Skuggsjà), trans. Laurence Marcellus Larson. London: Oxford University Press, 1917.

Secondary Sources:

Busby, Michael. Solving the 1897 Airship Mystery. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2004.

Carey, John. “Aerial ships and underwater monasteries: the evolution of a monastic marvel.” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 12 (1992), pp. 16–28.

Cohen, Daniel. The Great Airship Mystery. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981.

Cohen, J. J. “Seamus Heaney and Ships that Sail the Air.” In the Middle: Peace, Love & the Middle Ages, uploaded September 1, 2013: https://inthemedievalmiddle.com/2013/09/seamus-heaney-and-ships-that-sail-air.html.

Hart, Clive. The Prehistory of Flight. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

This video uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com.