Branwen wrote:
I thought of this legend,but couldn't decide if what I remembered was from The Crystal Cave by Margaret Stewart, and so part fiction. What about the legend of Bran the Blessed, his head is buried at White Mount and if it ever leaves off its placement there, guarding our shores, Britain will fall. (Bran means raven - which gave rise to the obfuscation that Britain would fall if the ravens left the Tower of London at White Mount). That aside, the head and the stone are closely connected in celtic myth and legend.
It was good to see the Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart mentioned. Some years ago my dear father gave me a book of her poetry called Frost on the Window. In the section called Poems of Merlin there is a poem adapted from the Old English poem, 'The Wanderer' called 'He Who is Companionless'. Here is the last verse:
Alas, the bright cup!
Alas, the hall of feasting!
Alas, the sword that kept
The sheep-fold and the apple-orchard
Safe from the claw of the wolf!
The wolf-slayer is dead.
The law-giver, the law-upholder is dead,
While the sad wolf's self, with the eagle, and the raven,
Come as kings, instead.
(from The Wicked Day)
tjj