There’s A Yoda Lookalike In This 14th Century Book

If you’ve seen Star Wars — and who hasn’t? — you know that Yoda, the little wise, green being with pointy ears, has powers that defy space and time. It’s not hard to imagine that he was a time traveler, and there’s a Medieval manuscript with a figure that looks exactly like Yoda to prove it. Sort of.

The Yoda figure appears in a illuminated manuscript called the Smithfield Decretals (love those Medieval titles). The manuscript was discovered by British Library curator Julian Harrison. He runs the Medieval Manuscripts blog, and mentioned in an interview with The Guardian a figure that’s a dead ringer for Jedi Grand Master Yoda. Harrison says of the illustration that, “I'd love to say that it really was Yoda, or was drawn by a medieval time traveler. It's actually an illustration to the biblical story of Samson — the artist clearly had a vivid imagination!”

Harrison told The Guardian that one of the most popular posts on the blog is Knight v Snail, which “looks at why images of armed knights fighting snails are common in illuminated manuscripts.” It’s probably safe to assume that Yoda will eclipse those snails.

So if you’re still obsessively watching the trailer for The Force Awakens, take a break and check out that Medieval Yoda. As the Jedi Master once said, "Always pass on what you have learned."