Bath, England — Circa 852 BC
Did this English King crash a Druid Airship?
According to writer John Michell (1967), King Bladud is said to have been killed at Troja Nova, in the London area, when riding a “druid airship” that crashed into the temple of Apollo. Although Bladud is legendary, the story of his flight has some factual basis. The trouble is, the legend doesn’t mention a druid airship but only chicken feathers! Bladud, or Blaiddyd, was the legendary founder of Bath. His son was King Lear, whose story William Shakespeare famously adapted for the theater. There is no evidence that Bladud actually existed before Geoffrey of Monmouth named him in his History of the Kings of Britain (1135), where he is said to have been the tenth ruler in line from Brutus. This legend has enjoyed centuries of embellishments. Usually it is said that young Bladud contracted leprosy in Athens and was banished from his native kingdom on return to Britain. Years went by, during which he lived as a swineherd in Swainswick, on the outskirts of present-day Bath, where he discovered by accident that the mud of a bog in the marshy ground could cure skin diseases in pigs. The prince wallowed in the mud himself to see what effect it had on his own lesions, and eventually managed to cure himself completely. He then returned to Court, where he was welcomed. On his father’s death Bladud became king himself. He founded the city of Bath and there built the temple of Aqua Sullis, dedicated to Minerva, goddess of healing. According to this legend, Bladud practiced magical arts, such as necromancy, and this led him to conduct an experiment. He constructed some wings from chicken feathers, ai$ attempted to fly towards (or from) the Temple of Apollo in New Troy, present-day London. Unfortunately he fell and broke his neck. How this quaint legend entered UFO databases is a complete mystery to us! See also Fabyan, The Chronicles (1516) f. viii and H. C. Levis, The British King Who Tried to Fly (London: 1919).
Source: Case: W458