What seemed to be a fascinating 200-year-old prophecy of war was reproduced in The Luton News on September 6th, 1917, via a Danish newspaper. The prophecy was on a parchment written by a monk in 1701 and found when a wall of the Monastery of the Holy Ghost on the Swedish island of Gotland was demolished.

The translated prophecy read: "Europe will some day, when the seat of the Pope is vacant, meet with a fearful punishment. Seven nations will turn themselves against a bird with two heads. The bird will defend itself with wings and talons. A monarch who always mounts his horse from the wrong side shall be surrounded by a wall of foes.

"It will be a tough struggle against East and West, and the lives of many men shall be lost. War chariots shall roll forward without horses, and firedragons shall fly through the sky and spew fire and sulphur and destroy towns.

"Mankind will not listen to the foreboding of God and He shall turn away from them. The war shall last three years and five months. Starvation and disease will follow. Bread shall be controlled and distributed among the people. Men will be lurching at the bottom of the sea for their prey.

"The war will start when the corn is ripening in the fields and reach its maximum pitch when the cherry trees are blooming for the third time. Peace will be obtained about Christmas."

A forecast of tanks, planes and submarine warfare, among other things? Or just a vivid imagination and a story open in part to coincidental interpretation later?