The traditional view places the flight sometime between 1000 and 1010. That dating is based largely on another episode recorded by William of Malmesbury. He reports that Eilmer saw the comet that appeared in 1066 and remarked that it had been a long time since he had last seen it. Historians have generally assumed he was referring to the previous appearance of Halley\u2019s Comet in 989. Aitcheson argues that the evidence is less clear than often assumed.<\/p>\n While Halley\u2019s Comet is the usual candidate, another bright comet appeared over Britain and Ireland in 1018. If this was the comet Eilmer remembered from his youth, then he may have been born much later than historians have believed. That, in turn, would push the date of his famous flight forward by several decades.<\/p>\n Aitcheson argues that historians may have placed too much confidence in identifying the comet Eilmer saw as a child. As he notes, \u201cit is not clear that sky-watchers in the Early Middle Ages were able to tell one comet apart from another.\u201d<\/p>\n If Eilmer\u2019s earlier sighting was the comet of 1018 rather than Halley\u2019s Comet, he could have been born around the turn of the eleventh century or even later. William describes him as being in his \u201cfirst youth\u201d when he attempted flight, which would place the event not around 1000 but potentially in the 1020s, 1030s, or even the early 1040s.<\/p>\n Such a revision would place Eilmer\u2019s experiment in a very different historical setting. Rather than occurring during the final years of King \u00c6thelred II\u2019s reign, it may have taken place after the Danish conquest of England and during the rule of King Cnut and his successors.<\/p>\n Aitcheson also urges caution regarding recent claims that Eilmer understood the periodic nature of Halley\u2019s Comet centuries before the astronomer Edmond Halley. While such a possibility cannot be completely ruled out, the surviving evidence does not demonstrate that Eilmer recognized the comet\u2019s orbital cycle.<\/p>\n The article does not provide a definitive new date for Eilmer\u2019s flight. Instead, it challenges assumptions that have become widely accepted and highlights how much uncertainty remains. More than a thousand years after a monk launched himself from a tower in pursuit of flight, historians are still debating exactly when the remarkable event took place.<\/p>\n The article, \u201cThe Date of Eilmer of Malmesbury\u2019s Flight,\u201d by James Aitcheson, was published in Notes and Queries. Click here to read it<\/a>.<\/p>\n James Aitcheson is also a novelist and literary and consultant. Check out his website<\/a> or his books on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.medievalists.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/gumlet\/assets\/images\/pixel.png\"){kind=tracking}
<\/a>Some of the ruins of Malmesbury Abbey \u2013 photo by Medievalists.net<\/p>\n<\/a>Stained glass in Malmesbury depicting Eilmar and his flying machine \u2013 photo by Radicalrobbo \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n