Why Is There A Picture Of 'Yoda' In A 14th Century Letter From The Pope?

Just as Taylor Swift is being accused of time travel after a suspicious 1981 commercial surfaced, another pop culture icon has coincidentally turned up in another time period. While the legendary "Star Wars" character Yoda technically surfaced in 1980 via "The Empire Strikes Back," a creature who looks awfully similar to the little green fella has been discovered in a manuscript from the papal archives.

However, this is not a letter from Pope Francis, or even his predecessors Pope Benedict XVI or Pope John Paul II. Instead, it's from centuries ago around the time of Pope Gregory IX, notes Julian Harrison, the curator of the British Library's Medieval Manuscripts blog.

"The Yoda image comes from a 14th-century manuscript known as the Smithfield Decretals," Harrison told NPR. "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!"

According to NPR, historians Damien Kempf and Maria L. Gilbert highlighted the Yoda lookalike on the Medieval Manuscripts blog, which featured him among other, as they deemed, "Medieval monsters."

Of course, there are some differences between the Yoda from "Star Wars" lore and the Smithfield Decretals. The green creature in the manuscript is much taller than the Yoda "Star Wars" fans know and love. Plus, while the green creature is wearing a flowing gown similar to Yoda's in the "Star Wars" movies, it is more orange in color opposed to Yoda's tan robe.

However, the creature in the manuscript definitely has Yoda-like ears and a hair on the top of his head, although much more than the sparse strands of hair Yoda sported in the "Star Wars" movies. The creature in the manuscript also has webbed hands instead of individual fingers and thumbs.

Going on the belief that Yoda existed in our time, NPR presented a valid scenario that it could have been indeed the Jedi master in the manuscript since he lived until he was 900 years old. That scenario, however, has its flaws since the creature would have to be very young at the time of the decretals. Meaning it probably would have looked more like Grogu — aka Baby Yoda — than a full-grown version of Yoda.