THE SCENE: The medieval passage below, in which a sorcerer uses his powers to travel through the heavens, feels like an early attempt at science fiction.
THE TEXT: I saw a coach with two dragons come flying down. The coach was illuminated with the flames of Hell, and inasmuch as the moon shone in the sky that night I could see my steeds as well. These creatures had mottled brown and white wings and the same color back; their bellies, however, were of a greenish hue with yellow and white flecks.
The voice spake again: Well get thee in and be off!
I answered: I will follow thee, but only on condition that I may ask any question I like.
Good, he answered, be it then in this instance permitted thee. So I climbed up onto my casement, jumped down into my carriage, and off I went, the flying dragons drawing me ever upward; and it did seem a miracle that the coach really had four wheels that crunched right along as if I were journeying over land. –To be sure, the wheels did gush forth streams of fire as they whirled around.
The higher I ascended, the darker did the world become, and when I would look down into the world from the Heavens above, it was exactly as if I were gazing into a dark hole from bright daylight. In the midst of such upward shooting and soaring, my servant and spirit came whirring along and took a seat beside me in the coach.
I said to him: My Mephostophiles, what is to become of me now?
Let such thoughts neither confuse thee nor impede thee, spake he and drave on higher upward.
Departing on a Tuesday, and returning on a Tuesday, I was out one week, during which time I neither slept nor did feel any sleep in me.
During the remainder of the day I discovered that I could look down upon the world and make out many kingdoms, principalities and seas. I could discern the worlds of Asia, Africa and Europe.
As I looked now this way and now that, toward the East, South and North, I observed how it was raining at one place, thundering at another, how the hail did fall here while at another place the weather was fair. In fine, I saw all things in the world as they do usually come to pass.
After I had been up there for a week, I began to observe what was above me, watching from a distance how the Heavens did move and roll around so fast that they seemed about to fly asunder into many thousand pieces, the cloud sphere cracking so violently as if it were about to burst and break the world open. The Heavens were so bright that I could not perceive anything any higher up, and it was so hot that I should have burned to a crisp had my servant not charmed a breeze up for me. The cloud sphere which we see down there in the world is as solid and thick as a masonry wall, but it is of one piece and as clear as crystal. The rain, which originates there and then falls upon the earth, is so clear that we could see ourselves reflected in it.
Now this cloud sphere moveth in the Heavens with such a force that it runneth from East to West despite the fact that sun, moon and stars strive against it, so that the momentum of the cloud sphere doth indeed drive sun, moon and stars along with it. Thus we see how and why these bodies needs must proceed from East to West. Down in our world it doth appear –and I myself thought so, too–that the sun is no bigger than the head of a barrel. But it is in fact much bigger than the whole world: for I could discover no end to it at all. At night, when the sun goeth down, the moon must take on the sun’s light, this being why the moon shineth so bright at night. And directly beneath Heaven there is so much light that even at night it is daytime in Heaven–this even though the earth remaineth quite dark. Thus I saw more than I had desired. One of the stars, for example, was larger than half the world. A planet is as large as the world. And, in the aery sphere, there I beheld the spirits which dwell beneath Heaven.
While descending, I did look down upon the world again, and it was no bigger than the yolk of an egg. Why, to me the world seemed scarcely a span long, but the oceans looked to be twice that size. Thus, on the evening of the seventh day did I arrive home again, and I slept for three days on a row.
– Historia vnd Geschicht Doctor Johannis Faustj des Zauberers, 16th Century AD
