Nostradamus in popular culture

On the basis of Nostradamus' by now well-known technique of projecting past events into the future, Lemesurier[3] suggests that X.72 therefore refers to the restoration to health of the captive Francis I of France (who was Duke of Angoulême) following a surprise visit to his cell by his host, the then Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1525.

If the word is changed a tiny bit, e.g. def(f)rayer - meaning something financial, ‘to lend money’, ‘to exempt from expenses’, as well as something entirely different, i.e. ‘to be the subject/matter/entertainment in a conversation’, a new possibility appears.

[6] The September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City's World Trade Center led to immediate speculation as to whether Nostradamus had predicted the event.

[7][8] In addition, Nostradamus himself in his dedicatory letter to King Henri II states that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa, and part of Asia Minor only.

The nearest that the former could come up with was quatrain VI.97, which in the original 1557 edition ran: With instant evidently a version of the Latin instanter ("violently, vehemently"), a reasonable English translation (after Lemesurier) would thus appear to be: "Five and forty degrees" was said to be the latitude of New York City (New York's latitude is 40°47'), and was interpreted as "40.5 degrees" (even though the decimal point had not yet come into use in the Europe of Nostradamus' day).

[9] Lemesurier suggests that the verse is merely an undated projection into the future of the capture of Naples by the Normans in 1139 during a year marked by a notably violent eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius that is recorded in the contemporary Annales Cassini.

Once again, however, a rather more sober investigation by Brind'Amour[11] had already revealed (bearing in mind that, in French, faire la guerre aux rochers, or "to make war on the rocks", simply means "to struggle fruitlessly") that the reference was probably to Naples and its nearby volcano.

Subsequent investigation by Lemesurier[3] and his colleague Gary Somai[12] suggested that it applied particularly to the Annales Cassini's report of its lava eruption of 1036, at a time when the Lombards of Capua and the Byzantine dukes of Naples were constantly at war over the city prior to the decisive intervention of the Normans.

For 968, similarly, Leo Marsicanus had reported in the same annals that "Mount Vesuvius exploded into flames and sent out huge quantities of sticky, sulfurous matter that formed a river rushing down to the sea".

Lemesurier consequently suggests that X.72 does not predict the 9/11 attacks at all, but refers back to the allegedly "miraculous" restoration to health of the captive Francis I of France in August 1525 by his then Roy deffraieur ("host-king") Charles V, and then projects it forwards into the future as a prophecy.

As for the various interpretations of the line usually rendered as "To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols", the verse in fact contains no such line (the word mongolais which, since Leoni [1961] has often been proposed as an anagram for Angolmois, doesn't exist in French anymore), but merely refers to the well-known French region of Angoumois, of whose capital (Angoulême) Francis I was duke: he was thus, as the verse states, Le grand Roy d'Angolmois ("the great King from Angoumois") of Nostradamus's own day.

[13] In these and other ways, Nostradamus's statement in his open letter to his son Cesar that his quatrains were "written in a nebulous rather than plainly prophetic form" is widely taken by enthusiasts as carte blanche for suggesting that they can mean almost anything that they want them to say.

The fifth line was added by an anonymous Internet user, completely ignoring the fact that Nostradamus wrote his Propheties in rhymed four-line decasyllables called quatrains.

[20] Towards mid-December 2012, an internet hoax related to South Korean singer and rapper Psy being one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was widely circulated around social media platforms.

The hoax text, purportedly written by Nostradamus in 1503, is as follows:[21] "Calm morning" is said to be in reference to Psy's birth country – South Korea, derived from the characters for one of its older names, Joseon (조선/朝鮮).

[citation needed] During World War II, leaflets with false Nostradamus quatrains predicting the defeat of France were launched by German planes over European skies.

In the science fiction series First Wave, the protagonists use a previously unknown book of quatrains of Nostradamus to fight back against an alien invasion.

The anime Occult Academy revolves around an artifact called the Nostradamus Key, an object that will open a dimensional rift on July 21, 1999, that would trigger an alien invasion in the year 2012.

Bob Bainborough portrayed Nostradamus in an episode of History Bites, appearing in an infomercial to sell his books, referencing C1Q35, among others, as an example of his prophecy.

Nostradamus is featured in the Robot Chicken episode "Petless M in: Cars Are Couches of the Road", voiced by Alfred Molina.

One of the prophecies appears to refer to the future fall of the Berlin Wall and the unnatural death of a Pope named Pol; events which might have been considered predictable, even if the date was not.

In 1984, Manfred Mann's Earth Band released the album Somewhere in Afrika, which contains a cover of the Al Stewart song, mistitled as "Eyes of Nostradamus".

German power metal band Helloween's 1996 album The Time of the Oath is based on Nostradamus' supposed prophecy of a world war between 1994 and 2000.

In 1997, Finnish metal band Stratovarius recorded a concept album loosely based on the life and prophecies of Nostradamus.

In 2008, the British heavy metal band Judas Priest released a concept album based on the life of Nostradamus.

"Nostradamus said 'I predict that the world will end at half past six' / What he didn't say was exactly when" are the opening lyrics of "Tinderbox", penned by Bernie Taupin and sung by Elton John.

Modest Mouse vocalist Isaac Brock seems to take a stab at Nostradamus in a song called "Education" from the band's fifth studio album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

In author's commentary in the Finnish album release, Don Rosa says he was inspired to write the story based on the legend that whoever drank from Nostradamus's skull would be given the gift of prophecy.

In the Marvel Comics series S.H.I.E.L.D., Nostradamus is held prisoner of Isaac Newton and kept alive for centuries using the Fountain of Youth so he can read the future for him.

In the horror video game Fear and Hunger Nostradamus is a supportive NPC, being portrayed as a young man with long hair and a white robe, a few ingame books that can be found were written by him.