Did Nostradamus Predict the Tragedy?

'In the City of God there will be a great thunder'

Nostradamus, the most famous astrologer who ever lived, was born in France in 1503 and published his barely scrutable collection of prophecies, "The Centuries," in 1555. Each four-line verse (or "quatrain") purported to foretell world events far into the future, and ever since Nostradamus' time devotees have claimed his work accurately predicted wars, natural disasters and the rise and fall of empires.

With all due respect to true believers, Nostradamus couched his "prophetic" verses in language so obscure that the words can be, and have been, interpreted to mean virtually anything. Inevitably, ponderous tracts will be written in the coming months and years extracting "proof" from the works of Nostradamus that he foresaw the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks of September 11, 2001 — such exegeses-in-hindsight have appeared in the wake of every modern catastrophe — but, thanks to Internet hoaxers, we needn't wait months or years for the he-told-you-sos to begin.

"Spooky" quatrains purportedly describing the events of 9/11 with amazing specificity were already circulating within hours of the first jetliner crash — completely bogus quatrains, as it turned out. It wasn't a question of whether or not they accurately predicted anything; Nostradamus simply didn't write them.
The first foretold "a great thunder" in "the City of God":
"In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb", The third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
- Nostradamus 1654
Let's interpret. Assuming "the City of God" is New York City, then the "two brothers torn apart by Chaos" must be the fallen towers of the Word Trade Center. The "fortress" is obviously the Pentagon, the "great leader" succumbing is the United States of America and "the third big war" can only mean World War III.
Spooky, right?
Wrong.
Let's apply a little intellectual honesty. What earthly (or unearthly) justification could there possibly be for characterizing New York City as "the City of God?" Why refer to the twin towers as "two brothers" when a far more apt word like "buildings" or "monuments" — or even, egad, "towers" — is at hand? Granted, "fortress" accurately describes the Pentagon, but by what stretch of the imagination could one assert that the United States "succumbed" to the 9/11 attacks?
Anyway, quibbling over words is futile, given that Nostradamus didn't even write the passage. He died in 1566, nearly a hundred years before the date of attribution. The quatrain in question is nowhere to be found in his entire published oeuvre. In a word, it's a hoax.
More precisely, its attribution to Nostradamus is a hoax. The passage was lifted intact from a Web page (since deleted from the hosting server due to overwhelming post-9/11 traffic) containing an essay written several years ago by college student Neil Marshall entitled "A Critical Analysis of Nostradamus." Marshall invented the quatrain to demonstrate — quite ironically, in light of its subsequent misuse — how a Nostradamus-like passage can be so cryptically composed as to lend itself to myriad interpretations.


An interesting variant of the faux Nostradamus prophecy turned up in the soc.culture.palestine newsgroup on September 12 under the heading "They followed his prediction":
In the City of God there will be a great thunder,Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb''The third big war will begin when the big city is burning'- Nostradamus 1654
...on the 11 day of the 9 month that...two metal birds would crash into two tall statues...in the new city..and the world will end soon after"
"From the book of Nostradamus"
Again, while the text boasts all the pomp and musty vagueness of Nostradamus' actual writings, it cannot be found in whole or in part anywhere in "The Centuries." This, too, is an Internet hoax, an elaboration on Neil Marshall's invented quatrain.
A third variant is "spookier" yet:
Subject: Re: Nostradamus
Century 6, Quatrain 97
Two steel birds will fall from the sky on the Metropolis.

The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude. Fire approaches the great new city
(New York City lies between 40-45 degrees) Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up. Within months, rivers will flow with blood. The undead will roam earth for little time.
This, it turns out, is not entirely fake, but rather an imaginative revision of an actual verse from "The Centuries." The authentic passage is usually translated from the French as follows:
The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude, Fire approaches the great new city Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up When they want to have verification from the Normans.
As you can see, Nostradamus made no mention of "two steel birds" in the original text, nor did he predict that "the undead will roam the earth." As to the geographical location of New York City, it is found at exactly 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds north latitude, so, while it isn't false to say that it lies "between 40-45 degrees," it is imprecise, as well as an obvious, misleading ploy to make what Nostradamus really wrote ("The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude") seem applicable to the events of September 11.