res historica 49, 2020 Doi:10.17951/rh.2020.49.117-132 Michał Madej (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland) htps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6694-5320 E-mail: michal.madej@doctoral.uj.edu.pl The Story About the Green Children of Woolpit According to the Medieval Chronicles of William of Newburgh and Ralph of Coggeshall Opowieść o zielonych dzieciach z Woolpit w świetle średniowiecznych kronik Wilhelma z Newburgh oraz Ralpha z Coggeshall abstract The Augustinian canon, William of Newburgh, who lived in the 12th century, in his chronicle Historia rerum Anglicarum described an unusual event how in the English village of Woolpit two children appeared that had green skin and spoke an unknown language. This same event was also reported by his contemporary – the Cistercian abbot, Ralph of Coggeshall, in the Chronicon Anglicanum. The main purpose of this paper is a comparative analysis of both versions of the story about the green children and its contextual interpre- tation. The conducted research indicates that despite relatively small diferences between both versions, the story probably fulflled a diferent function in the two chronicles. One can put forward a hypothesis in reference to Historia rerum Anglicarum that the fragment about the children from Woolpit is a medium of William of Newburgh’s inner anxiety and PUBLICATION INFO e-ISSN: 2449-8467 ISSN: 2082-6060 THE AUTHOR’S ADDRESS: Michał Madej, the Insttute of History of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 24 Gołębia Street, Kraków 31-007, Poland SOURCE OF FUNDING: Financed from the author's own funds SUBMITTED: 2018.07.29 ACCEPTED: 2020.01.14 PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2020.12.21 WEBSITE OF THE JOURNAL: htps://journals.umcs.pl/rh EDITORIAL COMMITTEE E-mail: reshistorica@umcs.pl