Orford, Suffolk, East England, British Isles [Map]

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. In the time of King Henry II, when Bartholomew de Glanville was keeper of the castle of Orford [Map], it happened that some fishermen there, while fishing in the sea, caught in their nets a wild man. Handed over to the said castellan, he caused great wonder, for he was entirely naked, but in every member bore a human form. He had hair, but on the surface it seemed worn and rubbed away; his beard, however, was long and pointed, and about the chest he was very hairy and rough. The said knight kept him under guard for a long while, by day and by night, lest he return to the sea. Food set before him he ate eagerly. He took fish both raw and cooked, but the raw ones he would squeeze hard in his hands until all the watery part was pressed out, and then he ate them. He would utter no speech, whether because he would not, or could not, even when hung by the feet and often cruelly tortured. When brought into church, he showed no reverence or any sign of belief: neither bending the knees nor inclining the head when he beheld holy things. He always hastened to seek his bed at sunset, and lay there until sunrise. Once it happened that they led him to the seashore and let him go in the water, having first placed before him very strong nets in threefold order. Straightway he plunged to the bottom, passed through all the nets, and then, rising again and again from the deep, gazed at those watching on the shore, diving and resurfacing, as if mocking them because he had escaped their nets. After long playing thus in the sea, when all hope of his return had been lost, suddenly he came of his own accord back to them, swimming in the waves, and remained again with them for two months. But afterwards, when he was less carefully guarded and was now a burden to them, he secretly escaped back into the sea, and was never seen again. Whether he was a mortal man, or some kind of fish in human shape, or perhaps an evil spirit dwelling in the body of a drowned man, as is read of in the life of Saint Ouen, cannot easily be determined, especially since so many wondrous things are told by so many about events of this kind.

Temporibus Henrici regis secundi cum Bartholomeus de Glanvilla custodiret castellum de Oreford, contigit ut piscatores ibidem in mari piscantes, hominem silvestrem intra retia sua comprehenderent; qui castellano prædicto traditus præ admiratione, ex omni parte nudus erat, ac speciem humanam in omnibus membris prætendebat. Capillos autem habebat, sed in superficie quasi divulsi et demoliti videbantur, barba vero prolixa erat et pineata, circa pectus nimium pilosus et hispidus. Prædictus vero miles fecit eum custodiri diutius diebus ac noctibus, ne mare posset adire. ei apponebantur avide comedebat. Pisces vero tam crudos quam coctos sumebat, sed crudos inter manus fortiter comprimebat donec omnis aquositas consumeretur, et sic eos edebat. Loquelam autem nullam edere voluit, vel potius non potuit, etiam per pedes suspensus et sæpe dirissime tortus. Ad ecclesiam quanquam adductus, nulla omnino venerationis vel alicujus credulitatis signa monstrabat, aut in genuum flexione, sive in capitis inclinatione, quotiens aliqua sacrata cerneret. Cubile suum semper in occasu solis festinanter petebat, usque ad exortum solis in eo recubans. Contigit quoque ut eum ad portum maris semel adducerent, atque eum in mari dimitterent, locatis ante eum fortissimis retibus triplici ordine. Qui mox maris ima petens, atque retia omnia pertransiens, iterum atque iterum de profundo maris se emergebat, et spectantes super ripam maris diutius spectabat, sæpius se mergens, et post pusillum emergens, et quasi spectantibus insultans quod eorum retia evasisset. Cumque diu in mari ita lusisset, et jam omnis spes reversionis ejus sublata fuisset, venit iterum sponte usque ad eos in maris fluctibus natans, mansitque cum eis iterum per duos menses. Sed cum postmodum negligentius custodiretur et jam fastidio haberetur, clam aufugit ad mare, et nusquam postea comparuit. Si autem hic mortalis homo exstiterit, sive aliquis piscis humanam prætendens speciem, sive aliquis malignus spiritus fuerit in aliquo corpore submersi hominis latitans, sicut de quodam legitur in vita beati Audoeni, non facile diffiniri potest, maxime quia tam multa miranda a tam multis de hujusmodi eventibus narrentur.