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Folklore
| King Arthur and his men ride round the hill on silver-shod horses when there's a full moon at midsummer. They ride over the hill to the spring next to Sutton Montis church. You can also hear their horses in Arthur's Lane (is this 'Folly Lane'?). It is also called 'King Arthur's Hunting Causeway'. Normally Arthur and his knights live inside the hill: it's hollow, and they lie sleeping waiting for when the country needs their help. Sounds from King Arthur's Well can be heard at Queen Anne's Wishing Well, which is a good 200 metres away, but still within the ramparts. (partly from J+C Bord's 'Atlas of Magical Britain', also 'Somerset Folklore' by Ruth Tongue, 1965, collected 1906) [King Arthur and his knights] come riding down from Camelot to drink of the waters of a spring by Sutton Monks [sic] Church on the eve of every Christmas Day (J A Bennet, Cadbury, p4). According to another account, related to me by Mrs Church, King Arthur goes down to drink on St. John's Eve, and anyone he meets, if not of perfectly pure life, he strikes dead.From The Rollright Stones and Their Folk-Lore Arthur J. Evans Folklore, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Mar., 1895), p25 in pp. 6-53. In 1872 the Bath Nat. Hist and Antiq. Field Club took an excursion here - they recorded the story about King Arthur riding around the hill with his men on silver-shod horses - and to prove it, they were told that one of the shoes had been found embedded in the track! King Arthur's Lane is also mentioned as 'a nearly lost bridle path leaving Cadbury by its West gate' and heading straight for Glastonbury. S Toulson (in 'Moors of the Southwest, v1' 1983) says that the fairies who lived in the surrounding fields used to bring corn up to the fort to give to Arthur. This was until the installation of bells in the nearby church - at which time they left. |
Posted by Rhiannon9th May 2002ce Edited 30th September 2006ce
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