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In Cottingley, England, in the year 1917 CE, cousins 16-year-old Elsie Wright and 10-year-old Frances Griffiths produced the first two in the series of photographs that would become known as the Cottingley faerie photos. Five photos were taken in all, those first two in 1917 CE and the latter three produced in 1920 CE. These photos garnered massive media attention and even caught the interest of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the legendary detective character Sherlock Holmes, and magician Harry Houdini.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that the Cottingley Faerie photos were debunked and proved to have been faked—the girls has used cut-out paper dolls to stand in for the “faeries” in the photos.

The reason I thought the account, though hoaxed, warrants mention here is the reason Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths gave for having faked the photographs. Their claim was that, as children, they truly had encountered faeries in the glen in Cottingley, England. When the adults in their lives refused to believe their accounts, they faked the proof that the adults needed to cement their own belief. According to Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, they hoaxed the photos as proof of real sightings.

Frances Griffiths passed away in 1986 CE. Her cousin, Elsie Wright, passed away in 1988 CE. Both women swore on their deathbeds that they truly had encountered real faeries.

In the year 1145 CE, in Woolpit, England, in Suffolk County, two odd children were captured. They were a boy and girl. Both were clad in green clothing and had green skin. At first, the pair refused to eat anything besides beans, but, slowly, over time, came to eat bread and other foods. With time, the color of their skin faded from green to a more normal flesh color. However, they remained very pale.

During their initial capture, the green boy, frightened, bit the hand of one of the men confronting them, drawing blood. The girl touched the injured man’s forehead, while speaking in an unknown language, and reports claim that the man’s injury healed almost instantly.