[Truth666]

some help

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois,
Du ciel viendra un gran Roy d'effrayeur.
Resusciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois.
Avant apres Mars regner par bon heur.

The expression 'du ciel' means 'of/from heaven' or 'of/from the sky'.
No wonder the usual translation associates "A king of terror" with the sky and not with heaven ...

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22From+heaven+will+come+a+great+King+of+terror%22 - 725 results

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22From+the+sky+will+come+a+great+King+of+terror%22 - 9 results
but again, that's the effect of suggestion. To start with, people don't come / are not sent from the sky ...

[Truth666]

Reminder for the purpose of completeness (no problem finding this information with google).
Since Ericka Cheetham, The Man Who Saw Tomorrow: The Prophecies of Nostradamus, History’s Greatest Psychic (New York: Berkeley Books, 1973):
"Angolmois" was believed to be an anagram of Mongolois (the Mongols) which, historically, could be interpreted as a reference to East, Central Asia, Genghis Khan, etc
Nostradamus used it as part of the cryptic technique explained above - a door to be used for any interpretations.

[Truth666]

I was hoping that someone would pose intelligent questions, like about (d')effrayeur

• In Nostradamus time, the word "effrayeur" meant "he, who chases away fright" : exactly the opposite of its current meaning.
• " d' " was not used in the first editions of "Les Propheties".
• Why do all Americans translators use the word "terror" to translate "effrayeur" ? Nostradamus used the word "effrayeur" derived from the verb "effrayer" (to frighten). If he had wanted to, he could have used the word "terreur" which corresponds to the verb "terroriser" (to terrorise). In Modern French, the words "effrayer" and "terroriser" mean the same thing but the latter is far stronger than the former. It corresponds to the paroxysm of fear : a rat may scare (effrayer) someone but it can not terrorize (terroriser) them ! It may therefore be said that the use of the word "terror" in the translation is disproportionate and not justified either in Old or Modern French.
  

[Truth666]

... or  like about Mars

• shouldn't it be interpreted as War?
• or is it the month of March? (in French Mars means both the planet and the month)

[Truth666]

Let's check what the current situation in this thread is:
I presented, for each cryptic word,
- what Nostradamus meant
- the main interpretations for those words presented to the masses, while they waited for the 1999 events to unfold

[AnAmericanMother]

The final word on ol' Mike, as far as I'm concerned, is from Cecil Adams (Ed Zotti) of The Straight Dope.

Executive summary: "Nostradamus did for bull$#!t what Stonehenge did for rocks."