Col wrote in message ...
:
:"Sytze Stel" wrote in message
.nl...
: One of the former directors of the KNMI once told me that he saw St.
: Elms fire over a wood many years ago.
:
:Was that a joke or a typo?

In fact it may be neither. Remember that Sytze is Dutch.

In Dutch many saints are known by the Latin form of their names - e.g. St
Petrus and St Martinus for St Peter and St Martin.

St Elmo in Dutch is St Elmus. Sytze may have assumed - wrongly in this
case - that the English form of the name could be obtained simply by
removing the Dutch "us".

Colin Youngs
Brussels