Nostrademus

[Eastender]

Hi a few weeks ago on the History Channel was a programme about Nostrademus, in which he named the coming of the Anti-Christ (as he did with hitler). Did anyone see it or can tell me the so called name, I am sure it started with a O. Thanks

[Seafarer1966]

Sorry I don't watch the history channel but do know a bit about Nostradamus. There was a full length feature film made in the early 1980's with Orson Welles as the narrator.

Nostradamus was supposed to have been able to see the future. To avoid being persecuted as heretic he wrote his 'visions' in code, in four line poems called quatrains, using a mixture of ancient languages.

His quatrains were translated into a book in the late 20th century. The problem was that because his visions were so heavily coded they could be interpreted in many ways. There are sceptics who doubt the validity of Nostradamus. He supposedly foresaw three anti-christs....Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler...and a third who would succeed in the year 1999, would wear a blue turban and come from the east.......looks like he missed the bus.

Reasonably interesting stuff but in my view a load of hokus pokus.

[paddywak]

As Seafarer says intersting but rubbish. What is really interesting is the number of so called "experts" who appear claiming Nostradamus predicted an event after it has happened but never before when something could be done about it.

[dundurn]

Nostradamus didn't foretell Hitler - the verse usually quoted in support of this actually uses the word Hister which some people see as a "near miss". Hister is however a geographical term referring to an area on the banks of the Danube.

[Octavius]

Are you alluding to the claim that the name Mabus appeared in the text and when transposed, placed against the mirror, turned inside out and upside down it came out as ....Usama or Usma B?

I agree with the others, he wrote about events of his past with such vagueness that they could always apply to any event in history or the future.....with a bit of imagination at least.

[Eastender]

Thanks Octavius, you got the name I forgot.

[weeal]

Oh, wish I had seen it, I am quite interested in Nostradamus, but then I dont have that channel with Freeview.

[Peter Pedant]

Blimey! reality breaks out in Answerbank shock !

The quatrains are in Middle French and not that hard to understand with an Enlgish text in one hand
SInce the text is all eyrie and mystical, what it 'means' and what the translation is meant to mean is open to continuous change.

One French speaking family said, look the translation is: The Money is from another place....
but the word is 'alloi' and this could also mean mixed metal (alloy I said helpfully)
and so it means - the money is made out of alloy.....

Clearly the mystical meaning is gonna change radically then, as well.

Good luck in your researches

[matt1e]

from what i remember about nostraderms is that his quatrains were written in a ancient dialect of french? that nobody could translate properly

[david21]

the latest book on nostro' says that iranian leader Mahmoud ahmadinejad is the antichrist,these authors just change the translations to suit current fears and trends,i agree with all of the above(but i still read the book)

[squizza]

He was a 15 centuary drug using womaniser, who put his finger in a bowl of water and forsee things while drug induced on old day acid. Has any one read his prophocies? pure nonsense...............