Nostradamus

[Boojum]

Nostradamus' "prophecies" are entirely open to interpretation (and dependent on how they are translated too), for example folks who believe in his phophecies will tell you that he predicted the rise of Hitler. The quatrain it refers to actually mentions Hister, not Hitler. The Hister is a local name for the lower Danube, and a far more realistic interpretation of his "prophecy" is that he was predicting that the Hister would burst its banks & cause terrible damage, something that happens fairly regularly. I admit to being a sceptic by nature, but as far as Nostradamus is concerned I think the scepticism is entirely justified - it's very easy to read a so-called prophecy and then apply it to a recent event with the benefit of hindsight, even if the prediction on closer examination was about something completely unrelated. His "predictions" were so vague that they can be twisted to fit almost anything if one has the will to do so.