It’s not an uncommon thing for people to believe in intelligent life other than humans. In reality, it’s becoming a more popular viewpoint across the world. Outer space is most often the source that is looked to for these beings and lifeforms. But, what if there were already others on earth that we didn’t know about? Beings that were just as intelligent as us? What if they were even human, like us?

In 12th century England, two strange children emerged in Woolpit, a small village in Suffolk. The children had green skin and did not speak any English. The children’s green skin eventually disappeared, which was attributed to a change in their diet.

Writings of the day say once the children learned English they communicated their origins. They claimed that they came from a place where “the sun does not rise on our countrymen.” Instead, the only sunshine they saw would be equivalent to England’s pre-sunrise or post-sunset. The children claimed they didn’t know how they arrived in England but just appeared there after experiencing a trance-like state.

Some believe that the children spoke Flemish, and their green skin was a result of a form of malnutrition called “green sickness.” This would appear to make sense when taking into account that their skin changed to a normal skin color after eating, presumably more nutritious, English food.

This happened so long ago that it’s hard to make assumptions about their origins. However, local lore claims the children came from an unknown place. Is that place still unknown? Perhaps we’ll never know.