Erika Cheetham | |
---|---|
Born | London, England | 7 July 1939
Died | 3 May 1998 London, England | (aged 58)
Nationality | British |
Other names | Erika McMahon-Turner |
Occupation(s) | Writer, linguist, medieval scholar |
Children | 1 |
Erika Cheetham (7 July 1939 – 3 May 1998) [1] was an English writer, best known for her controversial interpretations of Nostradamus' writings.
Cheetham was born Erica Christine Elizabeth Turner in London. Her parents enrolled her in a convent school, from which she was expelled for positing the non-existence of God. Later while attending St Anne's College, Oxford, she married James Nicolas Milne Cheetham. [1]
After earning her doctorate (in medieval language) at Oxford she worked as a staff writer for the Daily Mail, a London tabloid. She began translating Les Prophéties de M. Nostradamus in 1963, which culminated in the publication of her first book The Prophecies of Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow in 1965. This was the basis for the 1980 film of the same title. [1]
Prophéties 10:72 is one of Nostradamus' most infamous quatrains:
Cheetham interpreted Angolmois as a cryptic anagram for " Mongols", predicting the rise (circa mid-1999) of an Antichrist—ostensibly the third such figure (after Napoleon and Hitler)—a tyrant ("king of terror") of Genghis Khan's calibre. However, other scholars have argued that this is merely a variant spelling of Angoumois, a province of western France now known as Charente, and that d'effrayeur was actually supposed to be deffraieur, i.e. one given to appeasement. [2]
The first word of the third line of Prophéties 6:5 has been variously interpreted as a reference to the USS. Sam Rayburn, a ballistic missile submarine, or even to individual SAMs, i.e. surface-to-air missiles: [3]
However, Cheetham dissents again from other Nostradamian scholars—and from herself—by proposing that Nostradamus derived the word samarobryn either:
Cheetham cited quatrains 1:60 and 8:1 of Nostradamus' Prophéties as a cryptic reference to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Whilst the uppercase letters (preserved from Nostradamus' original) may suggest a deeper meaning, sceptics will note the mutual proximity of the Aquitainian villages Pau, Nay, and Oloron (in southwestern France), which form a small triangle not 70 kilometres (43 mi) about. [6] [7] Though more esoteric interpretations have pegged this region "more fire than blood" as a future nuclear waste site, [8] Cheetham's observation was that the capitalised letters can be arranged to spell something like "NAYPAULORON", i.e. Napoleon. Singer-songwriter and hist-rock pioneer Al Stewart also favoured this interpretation in his 1974 song " Nostradamus", wherein he deliberately pronounces and spells Bonaparte's name in a similar idiosyncratic manner. [9]
Prophéties 2:24:
Cheetham interpreted this as a reference to Adolf Hitler, the "child of Germany [who] obeys [no law]". This conclusion disregards Hitler's Austrian heritage and the Latin use of Hister (derived from the Milesian–Greek settlement of Histria in ancient Thrace, and in turn from the Scythian river-god Ίστρος/Istros) to refer to the Lower Danube. [10] Nonetheless this too is preserved in Stewart's lyrics: [9]
Prophéties 3:97:
This prophecy, according to Cheetham, predicts the establishment of the modern State of Israel. [11]
Erika Cheetham | |
---|---|
Born | London, England | 7 July 1939
Died | 3 May 1998 London, England | (aged 58)
Nationality | British |
Other names | Erika McMahon-Turner |
Occupation(s) | Writer, linguist, medieval scholar |
Children | 1 |
Erika Cheetham (7 July 1939 – 3 May 1998) [1] was an English writer, best known for her controversial interpretations of Nostradamus' writings.
Cheetham was born Erica Christine Elizabeth Turner in London. Her parents enrolled her in a convent school, from which she was expelled for positing the non-existence of God. Later while attending St Anne's College, Oxford, she married James Nicolas Milne Cheetham. [1]
After earning her doctorate (in medieval language) at Oxford she worked as a staff writer for the Daily Mail, a London tabloid. She began translating Les Prophéties de M. Nostradamus in 1963, which culminated in the publication of her first book The Prophecies of Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow in 1965. This was the basis for the 1980 film of the same title. [1]
Prophéties 10:72 is one of Nostradamus' most infamous quatrains:
Cheetham interpreted Angolmois as a cryptic anagram for " Mongols", predicting the rise (circa mid-1999) of an Antichrist—ostensibly the third such figure (after Napoleon and Hitler)—a tyrant ("king of terror") of Genghis Khan's calibre. However, other scholars have argued that this is merely a variant spelling of Angoumois, a province of western France now known as Charente, and that d'effrayeur was actually supposed to be deffraieur, i.e. one given to appeasement. [2]
The first word of the third line of Prophéties 6:5 has been variously interpreted as a reference to the USS. Sam Rayburn, a ballistic missile submarine, or even to individual SAMs, i.e. surface-to-air missiles: [3]
However, Cheetham dissents again from other Nostradamian scholars—and from herself—by proposing that Nostradamus derived the word samarobryn either:
Cheetham cited quatrains 1:60 and 8:1 of Nostradamus' Prophéties as a cryptic reference to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Whilst the uppercase letters (preserved from Nostradamus' original) may suggest a deeper meaning, sceptics will note the mutual proximity of the Aquitainian villages Pau, Nay, and Oloron (in southwestern France), which form a small triangle not 70 kilometres (43 mi) about. [6] [7] Though more esoteric interpretations have pegged this region "more fire than blood" as a future nuclear waste site, [8] Cheetham's observation was that the capitalised letters can be arranged to spell something like "NAYPAULORON", i.e. Napoleon. Singer-songwriter and hist-rock pioneer Al Stewart also favoured this interpretation in his 1974 song " Nostradamus", wherein he deliberately pronounces and spells Bonaparte's name in a similar idiosyncratic manner. [9]
Prophéties 2:24:
Cheetham interpreted this as a reference to Adolf Hitler, the "child of Germany [who] obeys [no law]". This conclusion disregards Hitler's Austrian heritage and the Latin use of Hister (derived from the Milesian–Greek settlement of Histria in ancient Thrace, and in turn from the Scythian river-god Ίστρος/Istros) to refer to the Lower Danube. [10] Nonetheless this too is preserved in Stewart's lyrics: [9]
Prophéties 3:97:
This prophecy, according to Cheetham, predicts the establishment of the modern State of Israel. [11]