From David Emery,
Your Guide to Urban Legends.
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Let's go back and apply a little intellectual honesty to our analysis. What earthly (or unearthly) justification could there possibly be for describing New York City as "the City of God?" Why would the great seer refer to the World Trade Center towers as "two brothers" when a more apt word like "buildings" or "monuments" — or even, egad, "towers" — is at hand? Granted, the word "fortress" is not a completely unreasonable moniker for the Pentagon, but by what stretch of the imagination could one justifiably assert that the United States "succumbed" to the 9/11 attacks?

Faux Nostradamus

Quibbling over individual words is futile anyway, given that Nostradamus didn't even write this passage. He died in 1566, nearly a hundred years before the date given, 1654. The quatrain in question is nowhere to be found in his entire published oeuvre. In a word, it's a hoax.

More precisely, its attribution to Nostradamus is a hoax. The passage was lifted from a Web page (long since deleted from the server that originally hosted it) containing an essay written by college student Neil Marshall in 1996 entitled "Nostradamus: A Critical Analysis." In the essay itself, Marshall admits inventing the quatrain for the purpose of demonstrating — quite ironically, in light of the way it was subsequently misused — how a Nostradamus-like verse can be so cryptically couched as to lend itself to whatever interpretation one wishes to make.

Interestingly, a variant of this faux prophecy turned up in the soc.culture.palestine newsgroup only one day after 9/11 under the heading "They followed his prediction." It went like this:

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'
- Nostradamus 1654

...on the 11 day of the 9 month that...two metal birds would crash into two tall statues...in the new city..and the world will end soon after"

"From the book of Nostradamus"

Here again, even though the text boasts all the pomp and musty vagueness one finds in Nostradamus' actual writings, it does not exist, in whole or in part, anywhere in The Centuries. This, too, is an Internet hoax, a cheeky elaboration on Neil Marshall's invented quatrain.

'Two steel birds'

Our third example is "spookier" yet:

Subject: Re: Nostradamus

Century 6, Quatrain 97

Two steel birds will fall from the sky on the Metropolis. The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude. Fire approaches the great new city (New York City lies between 40-45 degrees)

Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up. Within months, rivers will flow with blood. The undead will roam earth for little time.

This passage, it turns out, is not entirely fake. Rather, it is what you might call an "imaginative revision" of an actual verse from The Centuries. The authentic passage on which it is based is usually translated from the French as follows:

The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude,
Fire approaches the great new city
Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up
When they want to have verification from the Normans.

As you can see, Nostradamus made no mention of "two steel birds" in the original passage, nor did he predict that "the undead will roam the earth." As to the geographical location of New York City, it is found at exactly 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds north latitude. So, while it isn't false to say that it lies "between 40-45 degrees," it is imprecise, not to mention an obvious, disingenous ploy to make what Nostradamus actually wrote ("The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude") seem germaine to the events of September 11, 2001.

Nostradamus predicts World War III

Specimen #4, also circulating via email, is merely an elaboration of the above:

Nostradamus' prediction on WW3:

"In the year of the new century and nine months,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror...
The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.
Fire approaches the great new city..."

"In the city of york there will be a great collapse,
2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos
while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb
third big war will begin when the big city is burning"

- NOSTRADAMUS

He said this will be bigger than the previous two. 2001 is the first year of the new century and this is the 9th month. New York is located at the 41st degree Latitude.

Once again, a very few words actually written by Nostradamus — individual lines drawn from two disparate quatrains, in fact — have been taken out of context, rearranged, and supplemented with made-up lines by person(s) unknown to make them seem pertinent to the event. The result, as before, is pure bunk. Not even Nostradamus would want to take credit for this "prediction."

Anyone else want to have a go? (Read responses)

Poll: Do you believe Nostradamus was actually able to predict world events hundreds of years in advance?
1) Yes. 2) No. 3) I'm not sure.