Bestes farouches de faim fleuues tranner,
Plus part du champ encontre Hister sera.
En caige de fer le grand sera treisner,
Quand rien enfant de Germain obseruera.
Beasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers,
Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube.
The great one will be dragged in an iron cage,
When the child brother will observe nothing.
Plus part du champ encontre Hister sera.
En caige de fer le grand sera treisner,
Quand rien enfant de Germain obseruera.
Beasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers,
Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube.
The great one will be dragged in an iron cage,
When the child brother will observe nothing.
This is another one of Nostradamus’s cryptic prophecies which can be applied to a variety of situations. Henry C. Roberts in “The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus” believes this quatrain is a prediction of the fate of Adolf Hitler. He interprets the “iron cage” as the bunker in Berlin where Hitler died. A concrete bunker is more a “concrete cage” with rebars than an “iron cage”.
Classically trained commentators on Nostradamus are fully aware that in Roman times the lower portion of the Danube River is known as “Ister” or “Hister,” and is referred to as such on Roman maps.
Many writers have interpreted the last line of the quatrain to read “Quand Rin enfant Germain observera,” or “When the German Child will see the Rhine,” however “rien” in French means nothing, not “Rhine” and “enfant de Germain” from the 12th to the 16th century meant “brother” or “near relative” (James Randi, op.cit.)
Hitler and Goebbles attempted to make capital of this possible prophecy. Hitler was aware that “Hister” was Latin for the lower Danube but also believed the quatrain had a double meaning and applied to him.
One can only wonder why, as its context is not very flattering. The next line talks about the “great one” being dragged in an iron cage.
All this speculation however over what Nostradamus meant by the word Hister is a moot issue. The “greatest” seer of the Renaissance lays the matter to rest himself in his prediction for November 1554 which reads:
“A very learned man in the last quarter (of the moon), while walking along the river Hister, also called Danube, the ground subsiding, in the said river shall be lost” (Source: “The Unknown Nostradamus” op.cit. Page 68).
He did not mean “Hitler”. He meant “Danube”!
Classically trained commentators on Nostradamus are fully aware that in Roman times the lower portion of the Danube River is known as “Ister” or “Hister,” and is referred to as such on Roman maps.
Many writers have interpreted the last line of the quatrain to read “Quand Rin enfant Germain observera,” or “When the German Child will see the Rhine,” however “rien” in French means nothing, not “Rhine” and “enfant de Germain” from the 12th to the 16th century meant “brother” or “near relative” (James Randi, op.cit.)
Hitler and Goebbles attempted to make capital of this possible prophecy. Hitler was aware that “Hister” was Latin for the lower Danube but also believed the quatrain had a double meaning and applied to him.
One can only wonder why, as its context is not very flattering. The next line talks about the “great one” being dragged in an iron cage.
All this speculation however over what Nostradamus meant by the word Hister is a moot issue. The “greatest” seer of the Renaissance lays the matter to rest himself in his prediction for November 1554 which reads:
“A very learned man in the last quarter (of the moon), while walking along the river Hister, also called Danube, the ground subsiding, in the said river shall be lost” (Source: “The Unknown Nostradamus” op.cit. Page 68).
He did not mean “Hitler”. He meant “Danube”!
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