|
The earliest pamphlets and books about Mother Shipton were published in 1641 and 1684, many years after her death, and we can assume that the fertile imagination of the 17th century writers has much to answer for. We can certainly be sure that the predictions that were recorded in the early pamphlets were describing events that had already come to pass, such as her many predictions about Cardinal Wolsey.
The editor of the 1684 edition of her work, Richard Head, invented much of the story of her life and the descriptions of her, even if these were based on legend and folklore that had been passed down by word of mouth. Later writers are also fabricated prophesies, for example Charles Hindley admitted that he had concocted many of the predictions in 1862 to fool the Victorian public. In particular those prophecies easily recognisable to the Victorian mind such as:
A house of glass shall come to pass
In England, but alas!
War will follow with the work
In the land of the pagan and the Turk.
Which is an obvious reference to Crystal Palace and the Crimean war.
Mother Shipton was certainly popular during the Victorian era and in 1881, the year that she is supposed to have prophesised the end of the world - "The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty one." - many people fled from their homes to pray in their local churches ready for the coming of Armageddon.
Her popularity during the 17th century is also suggested in the story that Prince Rupert is said to have remarked "Now Shipton's Prophesy is out" after hearing of the Fire of London in 1666. I have also heard this saying attributed to Samuel Pepys.
More recently writer Alan Vaughan studied original editions of the prophesies in the British Museum, which led him to believe that the prophecies were rewritten in the 1960's from the works of a 19th century writer.
|
|
 |
Some of Mother Shipton's more famous prophesies are as follows:
Carriages without horses shall go,
And accidents fill the world with woe.
Around the world thoughts shall fly,
In the twinkling of an eye.
(Said to predict cars, telephone, internet, satellites, planes amongst other things)
Under water men shall walk,
Shall ride shall sleep shall talk:
In the air men shall be seen,
In white, in black and in green.
(Said to predict, submarines, hot air balloons or planes)
Over a wild and stormy sea,
Shall a noble sail
Who to find will not fail,
A new and fair countree
From whence he shall bring
A herb and a root
That all men shall suit
And please both the ploughman and the king.
(The discovery of tobacco, and the potatoe)
The real truth about Mother Shipton will probably never be known, it is possible that such a person existed, village wise-women and men certainly existed, and were part of country society for hundreds of years. They were called upon for simple cures and herbal remedies. Perhaps the root of the legend lies in one woman who was famed in her local area for exceptional powers (or at least a reasonable success rate). Some of the stories about her powers, such as being able to make thieves return stolen belongings and finding lost property are the traditional reserve of the village wise woman or seer.
Whether she existed or not is perhaps not really important, she is one of those legendary figures of romance and folklore entwined in the imagination and environment.
More information about Mother Shipton can be discovered at www.mothershipton.co.uk 
|
|
Home
Mother Shipton