Natural Catastrophes in the 9 th Century AD (with James Palmer), Chronology and Catastrophism Review 2002:1, pp. 4-8

Natural Catastrophes in the 9th Century AD James T. Palmer and Trevor Palmer Introduction The central decades of the 9th century AD in northern Europe were turbulent, with civil wars starting in the 830s between the sons of Louis the Pious, who had succeeded his father, Charlemagne, as emperor of the Franks in 814. These disputes eventually led to the break-up of the Carolingian empire. At the same time, Vikings were invading coastal regions and raiding inland down the rivers. Chronicles of the period inevitably applied a political bias to their account of events. Before the civil wars, the Royal Frankish Annals [1], which were compiled until 829 AD, conveyed the attitudes of a united empire. Later, although various Frankish sources written by Christians all condemned the activities of the heathen Vikings, their individual loyalties were with different grandsons of Charlemagne and their interpretations of history differed accordingly. Thus, the Annals of St. Bertin [2] from western Francia (essentially the region of Gaul, or modern France) presented an account generally favourable to Charles the Bald, as did the Histories written by Nithard [3], who was himself a grandson of Charlemagne through his mother, Bertha. In contrast, the Annals of Fulda [4] from eastern Francia (mainly modern Germany) supported first Lothair and, later, Louis the German, whereas the Annals of Xanten [5], written close to the present-day border between Holland and Germany, remained loyal to Lothair until his death in 855 AD. Nevertheless, despite these differences, all told a consistent story of environmental hardships, possibly associated with cosmic events. These could have played a significant role in what took place, for desperate circumstances can drive people to desperate acts. Reports in 9th Century Documents of Environmental Crises Apart from a severe flood in June 800 and earth tremors in 801 and 803, with localised outbreaks of disease occurring as a consequence of these, there were no reports in the Royal Frankish Annals of environmental problems from 741 to 809 and references were made to the mild weather. In contrast, the winter of 810-811 was said to be extremely cold, following a year in which there had been widespread loss on animals through pestilence and which featured both solar and lunar eclipses. Confirming these details, the opening entry of the Annals of Xanten, in 810 AD, was, “The sun and moon failed twice, the sun on 8 June and the moon on 21 June, and King Pippin, the Emperor’s son, passed away. And the elephant which Aaron [Harun al-Raschid, Caliph of Baghdad] had sent the Emperor died, and there were great losses among cattle and other beasts that year, and the winter was very hard”. Reports of this nature, sporadic to start with, became increasingly common as the century progressed. The next mention of a severe winter, but without any additional hardships, came in the Annals of Xanten in 813 AD. Two years later, the Royal Frankish Annals noted an earthquake in Gaul and floods in Germany and in 817 a comet appeared in the constellation of Sagittarius. During the same year, the Annals of Xanten reported that rays of fire appeared in the sky. Three years later, the Royal Frankish Annals told how persistent rainfall and humidity led to the widespread loss of crops and the death of many animals. This was followed by an exceptionally harsh winter, confirmed in the Annals of Xanten. In 823 AD, the Royal Frankish Annals record that the emperor’s palace at Aachen was shaken by an earthquake and severe electrical storms caused much damage to people, animals and property, after which a great pestilence raged throughout Francia. In Saxony, lightning struck out of a clear sky and 23 villages were burned by “fire from heaven”. Elsewhere, crops were destroyed in hailstorms and, in some places, “real stones of tremendous weight were seen to fall with the hail”. After another long, cold winter, famine continued to be very severe. Hailstorms broke out again in the summer and an enormous block of ice, 15 feet long, 7 feet wide and 2 feet thick, was said to have fallen with the hail near Autun, in Gaul. Three years later, during fighting with Moors over territory in the southwest of the empire, “people were sure they saw battle lines and shifting lights in the sky at night and that these marvels foretold the Frankish defeat”. Two years later, the occurrence of another earthquake and violent electrical storm at Aachen was mentioned in the final entry of the Royal Frankish Annals. Extensive flooding, causing great damage, took place in Francia in 834 AD according to both the Annals of Xanten and the Annals of St. Bertin. Two years later, the Annals of Xanten recorded that strange rays of light appeared from east to west in the night sky and, for 837 AD and the transition to the following year, they continued: “A mighty whirlwind kept breaking out, and a comet was seen, sending out a great tail to the east, which to human eyes looked as if it was three cubits long…The winter was wet and windy, and on 21 January thunder was heard. And the excessive heat of the Sun scorched the Earth, and there were earthquakes in some parts of the land, and fire in the shape of a dragon was seen in the air…and the distress and misfortune of men grew daily in many ways”. The very first entry in the Annals of Fulda confirmed the occurrence of an earthquake in January 838 and mentioned tremors in Lorsch and the region around Worms, Speyer and Ladenburg. The winter of 838-839 was similarly very hard. At the end of December, as recorded in the Annals of St. Bertin, a great flood covered almost the whole of Frisia, causing 2,347 deaths. Then, in February, “an army of fiery red and other colours could often be seen in the sky, as well as shooting stars trailing fiery tails”. In the Annals of Fulda, the entry for 839 AD described how “a comet appeared in the sign of Aries and other portents were seen in the sky. For the clear sky turned red at night and for several nights many small fireballs like stars were seen shooting through the air”. The Annals of Xanten reported whirlwinds and flooding in 839 and rays of light were seen in the night sky in 829 and 840. Again, Nithard, in his Histories, referred to an exceptional reddening in two parts of the sky in March and April of 840 AD, these red patches eventually coming together to give “the appearance of a clot of blood in the heavens directly overhead”, while the Xanten annalist described strange rings of light in the sky during daytime in 841. Nithard reported that summer 841 was very cold, delaying the harvest. The Seine flooded in March, with violent tides at the river mouth, and it flooded again in October, even though there had been no rain in the region for two months. In December, according to both Nithard and the Annals of Fulda, a comet became visible, passing across the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces, before disappearing in the vicinity of Andromeda. A great deal of snow fell, initiating another period of extremely cold weather. According to Nithard’s Histories, an earthquake shook most of Gaul in autumn 842 AD. The following winter was cold and lengthy, causing damage to “agriculture, livestock and bees” and widespread disease amongst the human population. Nithard contrasted the terrible conditions with what seemed like the golden age of Charlemagne and drew a moral conclusion: “In the times of Charles the Great of good memory, who died almost thirty years ago, peace and concord ruled everywhere because our people were treading the one proper way, the way of the common welfare, and thus the way of God. But now since each goes his separate way, dissention and struggle abound. Once there was abundance and happiness everywhere, now everywhere there is want and sadness. Once even the elements smiled on everything and now they threaten, as Scripture which was left to us as the gift of God testifies: And the world will wage war against the mad”. After snow fell on a night when there was an eclipse of the moon in March 843, Nithard brought his Histories to a despairing end, concluding that, with “rapine and wrongs of all sort” rampant on all sides, the “unseasonable weather killed the hope of any good to come”. Two years later, Nithard died fighting the Viking invaders, after spending the intervening period as lay abbot of the monastery at St. Riquier in northern France. However, the various Frankish annalists continued to describe the tribulations of the people. In 843 AD, the Annals of St. Bertin recorded that, whether because of wars, environmental conditions, or both, people in parts of Gaul were forced to eat earth mixed with a little flour to satisfy their hunger. The winter of 844-845 was very severe and a terrible famine consumed the western region of Gaul, with many thousands dying. To the east, the Annals of Xanten noted that there were two earthquakes in the Worms region in 845 AD, after which there was an outbreak of plague. Four years later, the Annals of St. Bertin referred to a violent earthquake in Gaul. The Annals of Xanten reported floods and ferocious electrical storms in the winter of 849-850, followed by a scorchingly hot summer. According to the Annals of Fulda, there was famine in Germany in 850, particularly in the Rhine region, whilst the Annals of Xanten told of excessive heat and general famine in 852 and famine in Saxony in the following year. The Annals of Fulda noted 20 earth tremors in the Mainz region during 855 AD. The weather was unusually changeable, with whirlwinds and hailstorms appearing without warning. Many buildings were struck by lightning, including the church of St. Kilian the Martyr in Würtzburg in June. A month later, those walls which had escaped being burnt by lightning collapsed during a violent, sudden storm. The Annals of St. Bertin reported shooting stars in August, a large one and a small one appearing alternately, and the following October an intense shower of small fireballs was mentioned by the Fulda annalist. According to the Annals of St. Bertin, the winter of 855-856 was excessively cold and dry and a pestilence carried off a sizeable proportion of the population. The following winter, the Annals of Xanten reported a plague characterised by swollen abscesses, rotting flesh and loss of limbs. Destructive electrical storms also occurred, as described in both the Fulda and St. Bertin annals. All three sources reported that there were violent earthquakes in Mainz and neighbouring regions in 858 and 859. According to the Annals of St. Bertin, these were accompanied by a great pestilence and there were floods in Liège in May 858; for three months in the autumn of 859, “armies were seen in the sky at night: a brightness like that of daylight shone out unbroken from the east right to the north and bloody columns came streaming out of it”. The three annals continued to present a consistent account, reporting that the winter of 859860 was very severe and lasted longer than usual. According to the Annals of Fulda, blood-red snow fell in many places and the Adriatic region was so cold that merchants were able to cross the sea and visit Venice by horse and cart. When winter was finally coming to a close, the Annals of St. Bertin described how part of the moon was obscured one night in a strange fashion. A few days later, something similar happened to the sun. Shortly after this, the authorship of the Annals of St. Bertin passed from Prudentius (on his death) to Hinemar, who concentrated on political and ecclesiastical matters, showing little interest in the physical environment. However, in the other two sources, reports of floods, plagues and other catastrophic events continued as before – e.g. the entry in the Annals of Fulda for 868 AD described the sighting of comets in the sky, after which there was exceptionally heavy rainfall and serious flooding. Later in the same year, famine became widespread throughout Germany and Gaul. Confirming this, the Annals of Xanten recorded: “In the month of February peals of thunder were heard from the dark waters in the clouds in the air, and on 15 February, that is the holy night of Septuagesima, a comet was seen in the north-west, followed immediately by very strong winds and an enormous deluge of water, in which very many were caught unawares and perished. And then in the summer a very severe famine ensued in many provinces, but above all in Burgundy and Gaul, in which a large number of people suffered an untimely death, so that some people are said to have eaten human corpses, while others are supposed to have lived off dogmeat”. During the previous September, according to the same source, “fire was seen flying through the air with the speed of an arrow, as thick as a pitchfork and shooting off sparks like an iron block in a furnace”, before exploding in a cloud of oily black smoke over Saxony. In 870, the Annals of Fulda recorded, “At Mainz, the sky shone red like blood for many nights, and other portents were seen in the heavens…The lands around the same city were struck by two earthquakes…Several men gathering in the harvest in the district of Worms were found dead because of the heat of the sun, which was fiercer than usual. Many were also drowned in the Rhine…There was also a serious cattle pestilence in many parts of Francia, which caused irretrievable loss to many”. Two years later, the Fulda and Xanten annals both reported a summer ruined by persistent thunder, lightning, rain and hailstorms, which damaged animals, crops and property. The cathedral of St. Peter in Worms was amongst the buildings set alight during electrical storms. The Annals of Fulda added that, in the following December, the city of Mainz was shaken by an earthquake. The Annals of Xanten were brought to an end in 873 with the words, “And from 1 November right up until Sexagesima [the Sunday after Septuagesima, falling two weeks before Lent] snow covered the whole surface of the earth, and the Lord constantly distressed his people with various plagues, visiting their transgressions upon them with the rod, and their sins upon them with the whip”. The entry for the same year in the Annals of Fulda also spoke of famine and plague throughout Germany and Italy, and a period when “blood rained from the sky for three days and nights” in the county of Brescia. Then after a very long hard winter, during which the Rhine and the Main both froze over, hunger and pestilence raged through the whole of Gaul and Germany, killing nearly a third of the population. Conditions had clearly not become any easier since the distraught Nithard found himself unable to carry on writing about the problems facing the people 30 years earlier. Nor was that the end of the suffering, often linked in the minds of people to portents in the sky. In June 875, according to the Annals of Fulda, a particularly bright comet with a lengthy tail was observed in the north and, shortly afterwards, a flash flood destroyed buildings at Eschborn, far from any river or stream, killing 88 people. The annalist commented that the comet foretold “by its appearance the remarkable and indeed tragic event which quickly followed, although for our sins it may be feared that it signified still more serious matters”. Again, in 882, a conspicuous comet “prefigured by its appearance the disaster which quickly followed”, the death of King Louis the Younger (son of Louis the German) and another outbreak of civil war. Later in the year there was a “great and terrible plague” in Bavaria and, further north, the worst storm in living memory, during which hailstones of unequal size, with jagged edges, fell in the area of the Rhine. During the closing years of the 9th century, the Annals of Fulda included several more references to exceptionally harsh winters, floods and episodes of plague and famine, although there was no further mention of celestial phenomena. The final entry was completed in 901. Discussion and Conclusion The details given in these sources are too imprecise, and probably too unreliable in some aspects, for definite conclusions to be drawn about an underlying mechanism for the natural catastrophes described. After all, floods, earthquakes, temperature fluctuations, disease and famine can have a variety of causes and the appearance of comets in the sky does not usually lead to any adverse effects on Earth nowadays. Nevertheless, the repeated occurrence of these and other features over a number of decades suggest the possibility of some kind of association between them. The evidence, taken as a whole, is consistent, if no more, with an episode of what astronomer Duncan Steel has termed ‘coherent catastrophism’, an encounter between the Earth and the disintegrating remnants of a giant comet [6]. The possible consequences of such an event were pointed out by astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier in their books, The Cosmic Serpent and The Cosmic Winter [7, 8]. Dust from the comet might cause reduced atmospheric transmission of solar radiation and hence lower temperatures on Earth; the passage of solid material through the atmosphere would produce lights in the sky and other celestial phenomena, while the actual penetration of large pieces of debris to the surface of the Earth could result in floods (if striking an expanse of water), earthquakes (if impacting on land) and climatic disturbances (whatever the location of impact) [9]. These various crises might easily lead in turn to the occurrence of famine and disease. Such a mechanism provides a plausible explanation for the phenomena observed and the hardships experienced during these extraordinary years. Swedish tree-ring data suggest that, although there were fluctuations from year to year, average temperatures in northern Europe were exceptionally low from the 6th century to the middle of the 8th. After a warm period between 750 and 780, average temperatures once again started to fall and remained low for most of the 9th century, confirming the accounts in the annals [1012]. They then drifted upwards for several centuries, reaching a maximum around 1200 [10, 13]. Of course, even if there had been an encounter with cometary debris during the 9th century (whether as a new event or a re-commencement of a previous one), it would be unrealistic to suppose that all the observed phenomena and disasters were directly related to this. The appearance of a comet in the sky could hardly have led directly to the death of a king and cannot necessarily be assumed to have been linked to subsequent environmental crises. The very conspicuous comet of 837 was almost certainly Halley’s Comet, which travels harmlessly past the Earth every 76 years, although calculations of its orbit suggest that it has never again been so close to us as it was on that occasion [14-16]. Some of the other lights in the sky might have been aurorae [17] and some of the catastrophes may have had a purely earthbound explanation. For all that, the possibility of a linkage between many of the phenomena observed and conditions experienced during the 9th century has to be taken seriously, particularly since evidence of hardship at this time is not confined to northern Europe. Even the Nile was reported to have frozen over in 829 [12]. At the other side of the world, central America was experiencing its most arid period for 7,000 years, a significant factor in the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, when the population fell by at least 67%, and possibly more than 90% [18, 19]. David Hodell and other environmental scientists from the University of Florida have argued that the drought in central America could have been linked to changes in the energy output of the Sun [20, 21]. Alternatively, the American businessman and archaeologist, Richardson Gill, suggested in The Great Maya Droughts (2000) that the environmental downturn which precipitated the Classic Maya Collapse might have been caused by the accumulation of dust and gases in the upper atmosphere as a result of major volcanic eruptions. Although precise details are uncertain, it seems that sulphur-rich Popocatépetl and El Chichón erupted in Mexico around the start of the 9th century, with eruptions of Mt. Pelée and La Soufrière-St. Vincent in the Caribbean region occurring shortly before or after its end [19, 22]. It is also known that a major eruption from the Vatnaöldur fissure in southern Iceland, linked to the Torfajökull volcano, occurred around 871, depositing ash over the surrounding countryside and as far away as Ireland [23, 24]. In fact, according to Greenland ice core data, the 9th century was a particularly active one for volcanoes, for acid peaks indicate major eruptions in 822, 823, 853, 875 and 900, with another in 902. Furthermore, because of location and/or low acidity of emissions, some large eruptions might not have left any trace in the Greenland ice. For example, the Swedish tree-ring data suggest that, even against the back-drop of a very cold century, the year 860 was particularly harsh (consistent with accounts in the annals), indicating the possibility of a major eruption at that time [10, 19]. Without question, massive and sustained volcanic activity could have caused the environmental hardships experienced in central America and northern Europe throughout the 9th century. However, even if it occurred on the scale required (which has still to be established), it might not be the complete explanation. As Clube and Napier argued in The Cosmic Serpent and The Cosmic Winter, and Mike Baillie re-iterated in his 1999 book, Exodus to Arthur, one of the expected consequences of a period of cometary bombardment would be an outburst of vulcanism. Volcanic eruption might therefore be a secondary, rather than the primary cause, of the harsh environmental conditions of the 9th century [7, 8, 11]. According to Chinese and European records (mainly the former), comets were unusually frequent in the middle of the 9th century, the appearance of new ones being reported in 828, 834 (x2), 836, 837, 838 (x2), 840 (x2), 841 (x2), 842, 844, 852, 853, 855, 857, 858, 864 (x2), 866 (x2), 867, 868 (x3), 869, 873 and 875 (x2), sometimes in association with meteor showers [16, 25]. 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