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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 6, 14. Of Signs and Wonders that Appeared

In the seventh year of King Childebert,¹ which was the twenty-first of Chilperic and Guntram, there were rains, lightnings, and great thunder-claps in the month of January. Trees blossomed; the star, which I have above named comet,² appeared in such a way that round about it there was a great blackness; it shone through the dark as if set in a cavity, glittering, and spreading abroad its hair. And there issued from it a tail³ of wondrous size which from afar appeared as the great smoke of a fire. It was seen in the western quarter of the heavens at the first hour of night. And on the holy day of Easter, in the city of Soissons, men saw the heavens aflame, in such wise that there appeared two fires, the one greater, the other less. But after the space of two hours they were joined together, making a great beacon-light before they vanished away. In the territory of Paris there rained real blood from the clouds, falling upon the garments of many men, who were so stained and spotted that they stripped themselves of their own clothing in horror. This portent was seen in three places within the territory of that city. In the territory of Senlis, a certain man, rising in the morning, found his house all spattered with blood within. A great pestilence raged among the people during this year; great numbers were carried off by various malignant diseases, the symptoms of which were pustules and tumours; but many, by taking precautions, escaped. We heard in this year also of a malady of the groin which raged fiercely at Narbonne; it was of such a kind that if a man was once attacked, all was over with him.

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