Latest Folklore

Janet and Colin Bord (in ‘Prehistoric Britain from the air’) add that after his death, King Arthur lived on – lives on? – at Badbury Rings in the form of a Raven.*

According to an ‘ancient chronicler’ mentioned in the superbly illustrated ‘Readers Digest Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain’:
“Arthur carried the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and nights on his shoulders, and the Britons were victorious.” (I assume that’s a metaphorical cross or it would have got in the way of the fighting). The Battle was said to have given Britain 21 years of peace – until Arthur had to take up arms against his treacherous nephew Mordred.

*According to Westwood and Simpson (’Lore of the Land, 2005) this idea came from A H Allcroft, who in 1908 linked a passage in Don Quixote about Arthur and ravens to this particular site. They also mention the folklore current in the 1960s – that at midnight you might see King Arthur trotting around the hill with his knights.

Grinsell in his ‘Dorset Barrows’ picks out one of these mounds – at SY699854. It is locally known as Culliford Tree, or the Music Barrow. It used to be the meeting place of the Hundred.

If you listen right at its apex, right at midday, you ought to hear fairy music.

Though, as Grinsell said: “The present writer has done so (May 1954) but heard only the cuckoo and some jet aircraft.”

Perhaps he just wasn’t listening hard enough.

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There’s some confusion about this, as I read in John Symonds Udal’s ‘Dorsetshire Folklore’ (1922). He’s quoting Charles Warne’s ‘Celtic Tumuli of Dorset’ (1866) so I suppose the best thing is to find that book first hand.

He says Warne states “on Bincombe Down there is a ‘Music Barrow’ of which the rustics say that if the ear be laid close to the apex at midday the sweetest melody will be heard within.” And then, Udal says “Mr Warne speaks of a similar superstition attaching to a certain tumulus at Culliford Tree as he has attributed to the Music Barrow on the neighbouring Bincombe Down.”

Are there two musical barrows or one? It’s all very confusing (and probably bemusing, if you are a cynic who doesn’t believe in musical barrows). I advise anyone who is truly interested to take a different barrow each day and press their ear to them.

This stone is also associated with the legends of the Fianna, led by Finn MacCool / Fionn MacCumhaill / Fingal. It is said that Finn used to tie his dog, Bran, to this stone while he was at his nearby fort, hence it’s shape, and it’s name Bhacain, or tether-stake.

Archie McKerracher wrote of a legend that this stone was “used to protect maidens’ virtue, for when the girls returned from harvesting in the godless Lowlands they were sent underneath it, and no unwanted children occurred”

‘The History of Colerne’ (1975 – no author) says that local tradition has connected them with the Danes and the large mound was a one time known as “The Danes Tump”, where a Danish King was supposed to have been buried.

Legend has it that a travelling packman sat down in the shade of this standing stone one hot summer’s day, and as he threw off his pack, it fell behind the stone and he was strangled by the straps.

The OS Name Book in 1860 said that the stone was “Supposed to mark the grave of one of the heroes who fell at the battle of Mons Grampus”

The inscription, probably made long after the menhir was orginally erected, reads
RIALOBRANI (Royal Raven)
CUNOVALI FILI (’Famous leader’ or ‘Glorious Prince’)
The raven is a bird of carrion, linked with death and the battlefield and was believed to have magical power for those who worshipped it. The raven is one of the forms taken by the Irish Morrigan, goddess of war and death.
Celtic legend links the name of Bran (in RialoBRANi) to a ancient British warrior king, keeper of the cauldron of immortality, whose decapitated head continued to have powers of speech and was later buried on the site of the Tower of London, where ravens still live. Bran also appears in Arthurian legend under a variety of names and he was a Celtic solar war god.

The story of RIALOBRANI (Ryalvran) is clearly very ancient. An invader attacked the Glorious Prince, seized his lands and occupied the Lescudjack hillfort at Penzance, which protected the harbour. The defeated royalty fled possibly to the area around Carn Euny or the hillfort of Caer Bran (Raven Castle). The Royal Raven tried to reclaim his territory and a battle took place, but Ryalvran was killed and buried by the stone which apparently was the same height as the dead warrior.
From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall

Holed stones have a long tradition of healing properties. At Men An Tol children were passed through the hole as an act of baptism and to seure good health during their lifetime. Engagements were sealed at new year by young people holing hands through the hole and for young women in particular it was considered to help in having easier childbirth and to cure infertility, as well as promote an abundance of crops and cattle.

From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990.

The legend
Robert Hunt in the 19th century says:
In the parish of Burian are the Dawns Myin or Men – the dancing stones, commonly called the Merry Maidens; and near them are two granite pillars named the Pipers. One sabbath evening some of the thoughtless maidens of the neighbouring village instead of attending vespers, strayed into the fields and two evil spirits assuming the guise of pipers, began to play some dance tunes. The young people yielded to the temptation, forgetting the day, commenced dancing. The excitement increased and soon the music and dancuing became extremely wild; when lo! a flash of lightening from the clear sky transfixed them all, the tempters and the tempted and there in stone they stand.

No clubbing on a Sunday, then, Pop-pickers.

From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990

The name
Pre-20th century descriptions of Cornish stone circles frequently refer to them as ‘Dans Men’ or ‘Dawns Meyn’, usually interpreted at as ritual places where ceremonies including dancing mayhave taken place. However, ‘Dans Men’ may be a mispronunciation of ‘Zans Meyn’ the Cornish phrase meaning ‘stone circle’.

So, ‘maiden’ may be a simple misinterpretation of the Cornish word for stone: men, maen or meyn.

The word ‘merry’ may be a corruption of the word Mary, the name of an ancient goddess and nothing to do with Christianity. She was Ma-Ri, her name signifiying a fruitful or fertile mother.

From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990

The tale of ‘Duffy and the Devil’ tells of how the squire, out hunting hares one night, chased one from the nearby Merry maidens, past the Pipers and down into the fogou. Once inside the fogou he witnessed a ceremony of witches, disturbing them as they met with the Devil. He reportedly had to run for his life.

From William Bottrell’s ‘Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall’ (1873)
sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/swc2/index.htm

Local oral tradition has it that the three big standing stones are the remains of an old man, his horse and dog, turned to stone for reasons now not remembered.

The petrification story is similiar to that of other folktales from around the Cotswold, including the Rollrights and the Goose stones.

There is also a local story of a ghost which can be seen walking from the tomb along the old road into the the village of Enstone.

The two Hoar stones at Steeple Barton, Oxon, are recorded as far back as 1210CE, referring to them as Nordlanglawe, Langlaue and Succelaue, which mean respectively, ‘valley of the long barrow’, ‘the Northern long barrow’ and ‘the grave of the goblin’. Later 13th century references call one of them Stanlow or ‘burial stone’, Demnesweye or ‘goblin’s pathway or track’ and Wyrstaneslawe which means either ‘Wyrstons’ tomb’ or ‘the Wyr stone at the long barrow’, but the reference doesn’t distinguish which stone it belongs to.

The Manx National Heritage information board next to the south western part of the site has this to say about King Orry:

King Orry is an almost legendary character revered by the Manx as their greatest king. He was King Godred Crovan, who seized the throne in 1079 and created the kingdom of Man and the Isles stretching from the Irish Sea to the Outer Hebrides. Several monuments are named in deference to him, but there is no connection between the historical figure and these prehistoric remains.

The large portal stone is known as the Toothie Stane as hammering a nail ito it was supposed to cure toothache. At leat two dozen nails and screws were visible in 1972 but these have now rusted away leaving some pockmarks on the stone.

Maybe you’d half expect the following experience, as it is told, to happen to someone like Colin Wilson – after all, he has written extensively and sympathetically about things that go bump in the night.

He was visiting Boscawen-un in 1975 with some friends, and left them in the circle while he nipped off, hoping to visit a nearby hillock and the ‘Giant’s Footprint’. I can only assume this would be at Creeg Tol. He was trying to be quick because his friends needed to catch a train, so finding that it was taking him longer than he thought to battle through all the bracken, he decided to turn back before he actually reached the landmark. He clearly saw the direction he had come from, though the circle was not in view, so he plodded downhill.
Then, to his own surprise, he found himself lost. He veered left to the path at the bottom of the hill, and climbing over a wall found himself in a strange field altogether. It took him ‘half an hour’ to find his way back to the circle, via winding up at the main road – which was in completely the wrong direction. I mean if you look at a map the path goes directly from Creeg Tol to the Circle, so it does seem a bit peculiar.

Wilson put his experience down to the crossing point of ley lines – well afterall, this is a node on the major ‘Michael and Mary’ cross-England leys, y’know.

Maybe that was it – or maybe he was ‘pixie-led’ – a common enough experience in the presence of the little people. Either you’ll find yourself utterly lost in a place you know well, or perhaps you’ll find yourself unable to find your way out of a quite ordinary space like a field, and spend your afternoon wandering round and round.

I’m going for the pixie explanation myself. Though it is possible he just got confused. On my own visit I liked the way the circle only appears right at the last minute when you burst through the gap in the hedge – perhaps it is easy to miss unless you’re heading in just the right direction. But that’s just boring.

(Story described in Patrick Harpur’s ‘Astray with the Fairies’ in Fortean Times 142 – PH having read Colin Wilson’s ‘Mysteries’)

Very close to the stones at Borve is a broch, which was once inhabited by the fairies. For some reason the local villagers didn’t get on with their otherworldly neighbours and were determined to get rid of them. One day they hatched a plan, and early the next morning surrounded the fairies’ fort. They raised a huge racket, shouting that the fort was on fire. The fairies rushed out at once. On realising they’d been duped, they felt so disgusted that they promptly left the district.

However, perhaps the fairies ultimately got their own back, because the village of Borve has never flourished.

The story was collected by Grinsell, for his ‘Folklore of prehistoric sites in Britain’ (1976) – I haven’t noted his source.

He also mentions the name of the site, which like the ‘River Avon’ is a double naming: Dun and Borve both mean fort, in Gaelic and Norse respectively.

Grinsell reported from his source that..

... a Bronze Age stone cist was discovered by a crofter in his garden. Inside was a huge skeleton, so huge that when the crofter lifted up the skull he was able (as you would want to) to place it completely over his own head. What a ghastly idea.
He was unable to get any sleep at all until he reburied the bones.

(L V Grinsell: Folklore of the Prehistoric Sites of Britain)

John Aubrey claimed the site had ‘a tradition of a fight’ and that a great man was supposed to be buried in the mound. (from Burl’s ‘Prehistoric Avebury’ p178).

Tradition has it that travellers crossing the Minch Moor should leave pieces of food (cheese prefered!) for the little people to ensure a safe passage across the moor (which can be a bloody cold and bleak place at times so get yer sandwiches out for the wee folk!!)

According to a local farmer, the stones were said to have been the site of a grave of one of the “pot people”.

The local folklore is that king Caradoc (or Caractacus) made his last stand against the romans here, and after he was defeated, hid from the romans in the cave on the west face of the hill. This is a very well-known legend in the stretton valley. Similar tales have been connected to the other Caradoc hillfort near Clun. But having lived next to the Church Stretton Caradoc all my life I am naturally inclined to believe that this fort is the site of the last stand.

“Beside the road in the Black Wood of Chesthill stood the tall upright Clach nan Tagnairn.” Every Hallowe’en wildcats would come and walk in circles around the stone, to welcome a huge black cat which sat on top of it. In 1838 a traveller is supposed to have stumbled on this ceremony and was attacked by the cats. Fighting them off as he fled, when he reached Woodend House a dead wildcat was found still clinging to his back.

“Opposite” the Cat Stone was the Stone of the Demon, where Macnab of Carnban Castle met a sticky end. He apparently forced a girl work naked in the fields, so her mother cast a spell on him, and he was thrown from his horse at this stone, his neck broken.

“It is believed that the entire summit of Warton Crag was once a fort, built by the Brigantes (an early British tribe) in the 1st century AD, making use of the defences provided by the natural rock formation. The path crosses the remains of semi-circular ramparts which can just be traced within the woodland to the north of the summit. The fort evidently gave Warton its name, meaning the turn (town) by the Weard (a watch place, or look-out)”

From

lancstowns.co.uk/warton.htm

(which also gives very detailed directions for the walker)