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The King Stone

Standing Stone / Menhir

Folklore

[The King's men and the knights] go down the hill "at midnight to drink of a spring in Little Rollright Spinney. According to some accounts they go down every night when the clock strikes twelve; according to others at certain special occasions, "on Saints' days for instance." What is more, the gap in the bushes is pointed out through which they go down to the water. In some versions of the tale, the King also goes down to the stream at the same hour with his men; but others say that "the King* goes down to the water to drink when he hears the clock strike twelve," meaning, as my informant was at pains to explain to me, that as he cannot hear the clock stays where he is. One sceptic assured me that he had passed by the stones many a time at midnight and never seen them move.
*Sometimes too, the king's men with him. In some accounts the stones descend to drink at a stream by Long Compton.
The Rollright Stones and Their Folk-Lore
Arthur J. Evans
Folklore, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Mar., 1895), pp. 6-53.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
21st July 2005ce
Edited 30th September 2006ce

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