The Swiss monk Hepidanus, who lived in the 11th century, accurately foresaw the coming of Napolean Bonaparte, the French Revolution, Adolf Hitler, and World Wars I and II. Furthermore, he saw a third World War:

"From North to South, the world will be split into two mighty hosts. The North will march against the South, the son against the father, and bring misfortune with him across the mountains as the night follows the day... A gloomy cloud will appear, and a terrible tempest will come forth from this cloud. It will consume a third of mankind, still living then. And it will destroy a third of all the crops, villages, and cities, and there will be a great misery and lamentation.

"A mighty empire will vanish thereafter, and another will take its place. From the East blows a storm, from the West a hurricane howls; woe to those who come into the sphere of this bloody whirlpool. Thrones a thousand years old will fall from the height... between the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Danube there will be a vast morgue, and a landscape of vultures and ravens... When a sign of fire will appear in the heavens, the time will have come close for these days to engulf humanity... but the date, when this sign will flash across the heavens, no mortal will know."