You are on page 1of 16

Some Aspects of the Folklore of Prehistoric Monuments

Author(s): L. V. Grinsell
Source: Folklore, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Sep., 1937), pp. 245-259
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257057 .
Accessed: 06/10/2013 12:44
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. and Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Folklore.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
SOME ASPECTS OF THE FOLKLORE OF
PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS
A
Paper
read
before
the
Society
on March
17th, 1937
BY L. V. GRINSELL
THE
following
notes
are
adapted
from a
paper
read
by
the
author to the Folk-Lore
Society
on March
I7th,
1937.
They
are intended to serve as a brief introduction to the
study
of the
folklore
of
prehistoric
monuments in
England.
A
comprehensive
account based on the
English
material is in
preparation
and
may
be
published
within the next three or
four
years;
in the event of
publication difficulties,
the
MSS will be
placed
in the
library
of the Folk-Lore
Society.
Introduction. The
study
of the folklore of
prehistoric
remains is in a somewhat backward state in this
country.
The folklorists seem to have left it to the
archaeologists,
and
the
archaeologists
to the folklorists. The folk who
possess
the lore are as usual inclined to be reticent when it comes to
imparting
it to
strangers. Moreover, they
have not
always
imparted
the information to the most suitable
people.
Thus we read in the Statistical Account of Scotland the
following
reference to the Borestone in
Perthshire:
"
There are
many
traditions and
legends
connected with this
stone,
but
they
are too absurd to be committed to
writing."
(I)
The
possible
value of these traditions has not therefore al-
ways
been realized
by archaeologists
and
topographical
writers
themselves.
It
must,
of
course,
be admitted that some of the traditions
are of
fairly
recent
origin.
For
example,
the site
confidently
marked Druidicial
Judgement
Seat on the 6 inch O.S. sheet
of Brackenber
Moor, Westmorland,
does not
necessarily
embody any genuine folk-memory. Many,
but
perhaps
not
all,
of the traditions
associating prehistoric
sites with the
245
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
246
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
Danes,
the
Druids,
and the
Devil,
are of no
great antiquity;
some of those connected with the Devil
are, however, early
and will be described in due course.
Many
of the traditions of buried
treasure, though
inter-
esting
in
themselves, appear
to have little
knowledge-value.
The
story
that the barrow known as Norrie's Law in Fife-
shire is so full of
gold
that when
sheep
lie on it their fleeces
turn
yellow, may
have come into
being
before or after the
extensive
array
of silver
objects
was unearthed from
it;
but these stories are
occasionally
found to coincide with
fact.
(2)
In this
paper,
we are concerned
only
with a
group
of
traditions which
may
be of
early date,
and are associated
with
prehistoric
stone monuments or
megaliths
and
long
and round
barrows, ranging
from Neolithic to Bronze
Age.
This earlier folklore of
prehistoric
remains
may
be said to
resemble a section revealed
by archaeological excavation,
in that each race that has
passed
over the
country
has left
its
impressions
on the site in
question.
In the one
case,
it
has left its
pottery,
flint or bronze
implements,
and other
remains
;
in the
other,
it has often left a
tradition,
destined
to be modified or
changed by
each
succeeding
wave of
immigrants;
or sometimes no more than a
place-name,
which
adapts
itself to
changing
conditions and new
peoples.
But whereas the
archaeological
section is
generally stratified,
the
folk-memory, being
a
living thing,
has
changed
as it has
grown.
As the
archaeological
section throws
light
on the material
culture of
prehistoric man,
so the method of folklore
may
be able to
elticidate
his mental and
spiritual
outlook.
In the same
way
as the
archaeologist
tries to
get
an un-
disturbed
section,
the folklorist tries to
get
an undisturbed
tradition. To do this he must
go
to those
regions
which are
most remote from the
paths
of education and
progress,
and
which were most remote from the influence of the various
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric
Monuments 247
invasions which have
swept
the
country
from time to
time.
It is
fortunate, therefore,
that most of the barrows and
megaliths
with folklore attached to them exist in the areas
which have been least influenced
by
modern
development-
the Scottish
Highlands,
the
Hebrides,
the Welsh
mountains,
the moors of Devon and
Cornwall,
the
Cotswolds,
and above
all, Brittany.
It must be
noted, however,
that
many
and
perhaps
all of
the traditions associated with barrows and
megaliths
are
also found connected with wells and trees and natural
phenomena;
at the same time there are certain motives
which tend to be associated more
frequently
with
pre-
historic remains than with other
things,
and these are the
items to be discussed in this
paper.
In the writer's
opinion,
the items in
question appear
to throw
light
on the
history
of
megaliths
and barrows from the time
they
were constructed
until
shortly
after the introduction of
Christianity.
Free-standing
and Buried
Megaliths.
We know that all or
nearly
all of the dolmens or burial-chambers and
many
of
the stone circles were
originally
enclosed in mounds or
cairns; therefore, any
folklore connected with them
may
not have come into
being
until the stones had been
denuded,
frequently many
centuries after the monuments were con-
structed. But on the other hand it is
likely
that the
cap-
stones of the burial-chambers were
frequently
left visible
above the mounds.
Again, although
circles of stones were
sometimes hidden from view in round
barrows, they
were
more
usually placed
in a
conspicuous position
around the
margin
of the mound.
Those students are wisest
who,
while not
omitting
to col-
lect folklore of all the
megaliths,
base their conclusions on
those which are
known,
or believed with
very good reason,
to have been
free-standing,
such as
Stonehenge, Avebury
and other
large
stone
circles,
the stone rows and avenues to
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
248
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
be seen at Carnac and on
Dartmoor,
and the
single standing-
stones or menhirs.
The Fairies. There is a
theory
that the
fairy-traditions
may partly embody
a
memory
of a
prehistoric
race or races.
In a
nutshell,
the
argument
is as follows :
The enormous barrows and
megalithic
monuments erected
during
the Neolithic and Bronze
Ages bespeak
a
very strong
cult of the
dead,
so
strong
that it has even been said that the
prehistoric
races
spent
the best
part
of their lives
erecting
tombs for their
dead,
and it is almost
only
these tombs that
have survived to the
present day.
It seems most
likely
that
the cult in
question
was one of
ancestor-worship.
As soon as the dead were buried in their
barrows,
the
latter would come to be
regarded
as the haunts of the
spirits
of the dead. As time went on it is
possible
that these
ancestral
spirits
became less
ghostlike
and more
fairylike,
until the mounds in which
they
dwelt became known as
fairy-mounds.
This would
explain why
barrows are fre-
quently
called after the fairies over the whole of western
Europe.
Traditions of the
bergmen
or
hillfolk
are
extremely
common in
Denmark,
and an enormous number were col-
lected
by
Kristensen and
others,
some of which are
given
in
Sir
Wm.
Craigie's
book on Scandinavian Folklore. There
are barrows called
Fairy
Knowes in Scotland and there is a
Fairy
Hillock in Caithness : in Yorkshire
they
are known
as elf-houes or
fairy-houes;
a famous
example
near Mold in
Wales is known as
Bryn yr Ellyllon,
or the Mound of the
Goblins. An
example
in Somerset is called the Pixies'
Mound. In
France,
barrows and
megaliths
are called
maisons des
fdes,
chambres des
fles,
tables and
pierres
des
fres.
We
may
note also
that
prehistoric
flint arrow-heads are
known as
elf-darts, elf-shot,
or
fairy-arrows,
over the whole
of western
Europe.
In her books on the
Witch-cult,
Dr.
Margaret Murray
has
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
249
attempted
to attribute both the witch-cult and
fairydom
to
a
memory
of the
people
of the Neolithic and Bronze
Ages;
and
Canon
J.
A. MacCulloch read a
paper
in
1932
before
the British Association in which he discussed a
derivation
of the fairies from a race of
prehistoric
men
(3).
We
are
probably
not far
wrong
in
concluding
with him that
the
memory
of a
prehistoric
race
may
well be one of the elements
comprising
the
fairy-mythology,
but it is
certainly
not
the
only
element.
Here it is
necessary
to meet another criticism. If
the
fairies are a survival of a
prehistoric race,
are
they
a
memory
of Neolithic or
Early
Bronze
Age
or later man? If the
folk-
memory represents
them as of small
size, they
would come
nearest to the Neolithic folk whose
average
stature was
probably
no more than
5
ft. 6 ins.
(4).
Yet we find that the
neolithic
long
barrows
tend
to be called not after fairies but
after
giants! (5).
It
seems, however, quite
clear that
the
attribution of
long
barrows to
giants
is due not to
folk-
memory
but to the
great
size of the
mounds. It is also
considered
by many
authorities that the idea of the small
fairy
is of
fairly
recent
origin,
i.e. not more than about four
centuries old. In the
present
stage
of this
inquiry
we can
hardly
do more than
attribute
fairylore partly
to a
vague
memory
of the
prehistoric
races
generally.
There is a
striking similarity
in some
fairy-traditions
from
widely separated
localities. The
following
items from
Denmark and
Yorkshire are almost identical:
I.
Denmark. A
peasant
was
passing by
a mound near
Slagelse
one
evening
when he saw the whole mound
standing
on four
glowing pillars,
and a crowd of
little creatures
dancing merrily
beneath it. One of
the trolls came and offered him a
large goblet
to
drink
from. The man
pretended
to
drink,
but
poured
the contents over his
back, kept
the
goblet
and rode off
home. The
goblet
was afterwards
given
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
250
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric
Monuments
by
the man to
the
church,
where it is said to be
used
still as a communion
cup. (6)
2. Yorkshire
(Willy Howe).
One
night
a man was
riding
home from North Burton when he
heard,
as he
drew
near,
sounds of merriment
issuing
from the
Howe.
He saw a door
open
in the side of the mound
and,
riding
close to
it,
he looked in and beheld a
great
feast. One of the
cup-bearers approached
and offered
him drink. He took the
cup,
threw out the
contents,
and
galloped off,
and reached home with the
cup,
which he is
supposed
to have
given
to
King
Henry
I.
(7)
This
story
is
very
common in Denmark and at least half
a dozen
instances are known in Britain. To drink from the
cup
is to be
captured by
the
fairies,
and there is a
strong
suspicion
that to enter
fairyland
is to
depart
from this world
and
become a
spirit-and
this is another
point
which
sug-
gests
a
connection between fairies and ancestral
spirits.
Fairy
Smiths. It is evident that stories of
fairy
metal-
workers
cannot as such be earlier than the Bronze or
Iron
Ages.
The
legend
of
Wayland
the Smith is
certainly
of
very early
date because the name Welands Smithan
appears
in a Saxon document
of
A.D.
955, referring
to the
well-known
long
barrow on the Berkshire Downs. The
finding
of
Early
Iron
Age currency
bars on the site in
1919
suggests
that the chamber in the barrow
may
have been
occupied by
a metal-worker of that
period,
and the
memory
of this metal-worker resulted in the name
Wayland's Smithy
becoming
connected with the
site, probably
in Saxon
times,
inasmuch as there seems to be lack of evidence
carrying
back the
Wayland
Smith tradition to
pre-Saxon
times.
(8)
Offerings
at
Megaliths.
The custom of
making offerings
at
megaliths
and other stones is
fairly
common in
Brittany
but is
comparatively
rare in the British Isles. We
may note,
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
251
however,
that
meetings
at the Hundred of Stone in Somer-
set
began by pouring
a bottle of wine over the monolith
from which the Hundred takes its name
(9).
In the Scottish
Highlands standing
stones
are,
or were till
recently,
anointed with oil or
milk,
to
propitiate
those fairies known
as the
Gruagach
or the
Glaistig (io). Offerings
of
honey-
cakes were made at the burial-chamber known as Arthur's
Stone in Gower in the nineteenth
century
(I I).
An
offering
was
generally
made to Odin's Stone in the
Orkney
Islands
until it was
destroyed
in
1814.
(12)
Some of these
offerings may
have been a survival of the
original
ones made at the tomb
at,
or
shortly after,
the
funeral of the
person
in whose honour it was
erected, but,
on
the other
hand, they may
be of
quite
recent and different
origin.
But there is little doubt that
offerings
would have
been made for some time after these monuments were con-
structed,
in order to
propitiate
the ancestral
spirits.
The
Worship of Stones,
and the Christianization
of Pagan
Sites. Another
sidelight
on this
ancestor-worship
is thrown
by
a number of edicts
passed
between
A.D.
500
and
ILoo,
prohibiting
the
worship
of stones and stone idols. It is clear
that if a number of laws were
passed forbidding
stone-
worship,
the latter must have been
practised
at the time in
question.
In some forms it
may
have been
purely
animistic
in
origin,
but in others it
may
have been a survival of the
worship
of the dead buried beneath or near the
stones,
especially
if
they
were
megalithic.
This stone-cult was
almost
certainly part
of the
religion
which existed in
Western
Europe
before the introduction of
Christianity. (13)
In
Brittany
and elsewhere are a number of
probably pre-
historic
standing-stones
which have been christianized
by
the addition of a cross which was
probably generally
added
in the
early days
of
Christianity,
in order to
graft
the new
religion
on to the old. At San
Miguel
in
Portugal
is a church
actually
built round a dolmen
(14).
In
Britain, especially
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
252
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
the western
parts thereof,
are a number of
churches
reputed
to have been built on barrows or
other pagan
sites,
and
we
may
instance
the
Rudston
monolith,
the tallest in
England,
which stands a few
yards away
from Rudston church on the
Yorkshire Wolds
(15).
It is known
traditionally
as the
grandmother
of the
church,
and so
it
may
have
been,
in the
sense of a
place
of
pagan worship
before the church was
built. On the Yorkshire Moors is Lilla Cross erected on a
barrow called Lilla Howe
(16).
One of the most
noteworthy
of the
English examples
is the church of
Knowlton,
built
within the area of a fine earthen circle in north-east
Dorset,
(17)
and
many
similar
examples
are
given
in The Circle and
the
Cross, by
the late A. H. Allcroft.
It is
probably
in the
light
of christianization that we
must
regard
the
change
in name of the
long
barrow on the
downs near
Pewsey, Wiltshire;
in a Saxon charter it was
called Woden's Barrow
;
it is now called Adam's Grave
(18).
Evidently
the name
may
have been christianized after the
introduction of
Christianity.
On the other
hand,
the
change
from
Woden to Adam
may
be no more than a
corruption
as
the names
closely
resemble one another. We
may
also
recall the
Wansdyke,
or Woden's
Dyke,
in the same
locality:
here the
pagan deity
has become transformed into the
Devil,
the entrenchment
being frequently
known as the Devil's
Ditch.
Curative
Property
and
Fecundity.
Another
practice
for-
bidden about
700 A.D.,
was for a father to
pass
his infant son
through
a hole in the earth to make him
strong
(I9)
;
with
this
may
be
compared
the custom of
passing
a
weakly
child
through
a
split
ash tree. A number of holed stones in Ire-
land, Scotland, Cornwall,
Gloucestershire and elsewhere are
said still to effect cures of children from rickets and
whoop-
ing cough,
and adults from rheumatism. Similar
examples,
apparently
of
pagan origin,
exist,
in some
early
churches in
France. It seems well to
mention, though
not to
stress,
the
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
253
fact that the diseases said to be cured coincide
closely
with
those from which
people
suffered in the Neolithic and Bronze
Ages, notably
rheumatism and rickets. Col. W. G. Wood-
Martin,
the Irish
authority, thought
that the stones with
the
largest
holes tended to be the
earliest,
and some of the
later stones have holes so small that
they
will
only
admit of
one limb or an article of the
patient's clothing being passed
through them,
which
is, however,
considered sufficient to
effect the cure
(20).
But Aelfric
prohibited
Christians from
seeking
their health at stones and
trees,
and bade them seek
their health at
holy
relics instead.
In
Brittany
it is
very
common for
megaliths
to be em-
braced
by single
women in order to obtain
husbands,
and
by
newly
married women in order to obtain children. The
latter idea
may
have
originated
in the belief that when a
stone marks the site of a
burial,
the
spirit
of the
person
buried dwells in the
stone,
and can be reincarnated in the
child of the woman.
The Devil.
Although
the
naming
of some
prehistoric
sites
from the Devil is
recent,
the
naming
of others is to be
referred to the
beginning
of the Christian
Era,
when
the
gods
of the
pagan religions
became transformed into the
Devil of the Christian
religion.
In other
words, any
monu-
ment dedicated to a
pagan deity
would
naturally
be attri-
buted to the Devil
by
the
early
Christian
missionaries,
unless
they
could christianize it. On the Wiltshire downs
we have
just
noted the transformation of
Wansdyke
into
Devil's Ditch and of Woden's Barrow into Adam's Grave.
Supernatural Change of
Site. Few traditions are com-
moner than that this or that church was intended to be
built somewhere
else,
but each time the stones were as-
sembled
they
were
mysteriously
moved to another
site;
and then
finally
the church was built on the new site. A
careful
study
of the localities
connected with these tradi-
tions
brings
out the fact that the site where the church was
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
254
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
intended to be built was
very frequently
an ancient
barrow
or other earthwork or
prehistoric
monument. It seems
clear that
attempts
were made to build the churches on
pagan
sites in order to christianize
them,
but that
opposition
was encountered which resulted in the church
being
built
on a different site
(21).
A few instances
may
be cited
:
the
site of West Gifford
Church, Devon,
was moved from a
field
in which was a mound called the Giantess's Grave
(22);
at
La
Bourg
de la Foret in
Guernsey,
the site of the church
was
mysteriously
removed from the
region
of a menhir
called La
Roque
des
Faies
(23);
in
Montgomeryshire
is a
menhir near Berriew near which the church was to be
built;
but the materials were removed
every night
and so the
church was built elsewhere.
(24)
fudgments
and
Petrifaction.
Almost worldwide in their
distribution,
the
petrifaction legends
are
certainly
not the
result of
any
one
cause;
even in Western
Europe they may
have had more than one
origin,
but several of them
suggest
a
clash between
paganism
and
Christianity.
A
large
number
of stone circles in
Cornwall,
Dartmoor and elsewhere are
said to
represent
maidens who were transformed into stone
for
dancing
on the Sabbath
(25).
A stone of rather
hump-
backed
appearance
near
Llandyfrydog,
in
Anglesey,
is said
to have been a man who stole the Bible and church
plate
from the
village church,
but as he was
carrying away
his
booty
he suffered a sudden transformation into stone.
(26)
The well-known circles and associated stones at Stanton
Drew in Somerset are known as The
Weddings
from the
tradition that
they represent
a
wedding party
turned into
stone for
continuing
their festivities into the
Sunday
morn-
ing;
similar
legends
of
petrified
weddings
have been
pub-
lished about
megaliths
in France
(27). Perhaps
even more
famous are the stone avenues at Carnac in the
Morbihan,
which
represent
an
army petrified by
St.
Comely (28).
The
traditions
connected with the
Rollright
Stones on the border
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
255
of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire have been so
fully
de-
scribed
by
Sir Arthur Evans in Vol. 6 of Folk-Lore that an
account of them here would be needless
repetition, beyond
making
the bald statement that the stones are said to
represent
a
king,
his
knights
and men who were
changed
into
the stones known as the
Kingstone, Whispering Knights
and the
King's
Men.
Stones that move or drink. The belief that
standing
stones
turn
round,
or
go
to a
neighbouring
stream to bathe or
drink when
they
hear the clock strike
twelve,
or the cock
crow,
is
very widespread,
and is so
intimately
connected
with
prehistoric
stones that it
may
well be a
garbled
form of
a
very early
belief. The reason for this curious tradition
seems to have defied all
speculation,
even from the
archae-
ologist!
It dates from before the introduction of
clocks,
because
in the earlier versions the stone turns round when it hears
the cock
crow,
which of course means at the break of
day.
We
may
note the
standing
stone in Northumberland known
as the Cockcrow
Stone;
and the French
examples
are
known
variously
as Pierres de
Chantecoq,
Pierres
Tournantes,
and Pierres de Minuit. We
may perhaps
also
compare
the
Twizzle Stone in the
Cotswolds, which,
I would
suggest,
may
have twizzled round when it heard the cock crow,
Sometimes the stone moves so
quickly
that no one can see
it
moving;
elsewhere the
stone
takes a
century
to
complete
the turn. The stone
may
move
every night,
or more
usually
only
one
night
in the
year,
and that
generally
on Christmas
Eve or New Year's
Day.
In
France,
it is
generally
on
Christmas Eve.
(29)
Sometimes the stone conceals a
treasure,
but if
anyone
goes
to
get
the treasure when the stone is on its
peregrina-
tions,
the stone
immediately
returns to its
place
and crushes
the would-be thief to death.
Occasionally
the
story
is told of a
disbelieving
man who
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
256
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
went to the stone
just
before
midnight
to see if it
really
did
move;
but
invariably
the man has never been seen
since.
All
these
traditions, along
with
many
others which relate
that the stones
grow, dance,
and
speak, suggest
the idea of
primitive
man
investing
the stones with
properties
of
living
beings.
This idea of animism
is,
of
course, very
common
among primitive
races
generally.
We
may
note that in some French and
Spanish versions,
the
spirit dwelling
in the stone moves or
goes
to drink at
the
appropriate time,
and these are
probably
the
early
forms
of the idea.
Here
again
we have the idea of the stone or other site
being
the
dwelling-place
of a
spirit, perhaps originally
that of
the
person
buried on the
site,
but on the other hand
perhaps
purely
animistic in
origin.
In certain
parts
of
India,
where stones are erected over the
graves
of human
beings,
it is assumed that the
spirit
of the
deceased is transferred to the
stone,
and if it is a harmful
spirit
it is
destroyed by throwing
the stone into the nearest
stream,
as described
by
Wm.
Crooke
(30).
While it would
be
extremely
rash to
apply
this line of
reasoning
to our own
stones
going
to
drink,
it is sufficient to make us realize that
there
may
be some
significance
in our own tradition.
Conclusion. We now come to the task of
summing up
and
drawing
conclusions
from.our
study
of this
group
of
traditions connected with
prehistoric
monuments. Our
conclusions
should,
of
course,
be based not so much on the
English
material
as
on that
from
Brittany
which is more
abundant and has been studied so much more
fully, notably
by
Salomon Reinach and the late P.
Saintyves.
The
present
writer claims no
originality
in
advancing
these
conclusions,
which were hinted at
by
Reinach in
1893 (31),
by
S6billot in
1907 (32),
and some of them
by
Fleure in
1931
(33)
and MacCulloch in
1932
(34);
but I do not wish
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
257
to
imply
that these
people
would
necessarily
have
agreed
with all the views
expressed
in this
paper.
In the fairies some
may
see a survival of the ancestral
spirits originally
connected with the
barrows,
while others
may
wonder how these could have survived in
folk-memory
in
spite
of the various waves of culture which have
swept
over the
country
from time to time. But no one can doubt
the existence of
a
stone-cult in
parts
of Western
Europe
before the introduction of
Christianity,
and if it existed then
it is almost bound to have existed in much earlier times.
The
tendency
of this stone cult to be connected with
megaliths, especially
in
Brittany,
and the forms the cult
takes, suggest
the
possibility
of a survival of
pagan
rites at
megaliths,
and some of these rites
may
even have
begun very
soon after the
megaliths
were constructed. Most if not all of
the traditions we have been
considering
seem to have been
essentially pagan, though
in some of them Christian ele-
ments have intruded. But as Salomon Reinach wrote:
"
To attribute to christianized traditions a Christian
origin
would be
equivalent
to
relegating
to a Christian
epoch
the erec-
tion of menhirs which are
to-day
surmounted
by
a cross."
While therefore we must form our own
opinions
on the
extent to which the traditions have
sprung
from
animism,
ancestor-worship,
or
any
other and more recent
causes,
we
shall
probably agree
that the folklore of
megaliths
and
barrows is
not,
as it was once said to
be,
"
too absurd to be
committed to
writing
".
I wish to thank Mr. H. Coote Lake for his kindness in
reading through
this
paper
and
making suggestions.
REFERENCES
(I) Quoted
in
Gomme,
Primitive Folk
Moots, 188o,
264-5.
(2) Johnson, W.,
Folk
Memory, 19o8, p. 164.
(3)
Published in
Folk-Lore, vol.
43, PP. 362-375.
(4) Cameron,
J.,
Skeleton
of
Neolithic
Man,
1934.
(5) Johnson, W.,
Folk
Memory, 19o8, chapter
VIII.
R
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
258
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
(6) Abridged
from
Craigie,
Scandinavian
Folklore, 1896,
pp. 132-3.
(7) County
Folklore,
Yorks.
E.R.,
pp. 7-8. Hartland,
Sci.
Fairy
Tales,
ch. VI.
(8) Antiquaries' Journal,
vol.
I.
(9)
Gomme,
Primitive Folk
Moots, I88o,
p.
io8.
(io) Campbell, J.
G.,
Superstitions of
Scottish
Highlands, 1900oo. p. 185.
(ii)
Wheeler,
R. E.
M.,
Prehistoric and Roman
Wales, 1925, 70.
(12) County
Folklore,
Orkney
and
Shetland, 1901,
p.
2.
(13)
Bonser, W.,
Paganism
in
Anglo-Saxon
Times
(Birmingham
Arch.
Inst., vol.
56).
(14)
Fergusson,
Rude Stone
Monuments,
1872, p. 388.
(15) County
Folklore,
Yorks.
E.R.,
p. 230.
(16) Elgee,
F.,
Early
Man in N. E.
Yorkshire, 1930, pp.
128, 163, 219.
(17)
Sumner, H.,
Ancient Earthworks
of
Cranborne
Chase, 1913, p. 46.
(18) Archaeological Journal,
vol.
76, pp. 159-161 (G.
B.
Grundy).
(19)
Liber
Poenitentialis,
quoted by
R. L.
Thompson, History of
the
Devil, 1929,
pp. 89-90.
(20) Wood-Martin,
W.
G.,
Traces
of
the Elder Faiths
..., 1902, II,
pp.
226
ff.
(21)
Folk-Lore,
vol.
8,
pp. 177-8 (E.
S.
Hartland).
(22)
Trans. Devon
Assoc.,
vol.
60, p. 114.
(23) MacCulloch,
Sir
E.,
Guernsey
Folklore,
19o3, pp. 127-8.
(24)
Other
examples
are
given
in
Folk-Lore, vol. 26,
p. 169.
(25)
Hencken,
H.
O'N.,
Archaeology of
Cornwall,
1932, pp. 59-63.
(26)
Arch.
Cambrensis., 3rd Series, XIII,
p. 346.
(27) Saintyves,
P.,
Corpus
du Folklore
Prdhistorique,
1936, III,
pp. 355,
375.
(28)
Le
Rouzic, Z.,
Carnac-Legendes, Contes, etc.,
du
Pays.
(29) Antiquity,
XI,
pp. 117-9
(Review
of
Saintyves' work).
(30) Encyclop. Religion
and
Ethics,
Art. Stones
(Indian), p. 873.
(31)
Les Monuments de Pierre
Brut. ., (Revue Archaeol.,
1893).
(32)
Folklore de
France,
Tome IV.
(33) Archaeology
and Folk Tradition
(Rhj
s Memorial
Lecture,
1931),
esp. p. 17.
(34)
Folk-Lore, vol.
43, PP. 362-375.
SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. GREAT BRITAIN
EVANS,
SIR ARTHUR.
Rollright (Folk-Lore, vol.
6), 1895.
WOOD-MARTIN,
W. G. Traces
of
the Elder
Faiths, 1902, vol. II,
chap.
6.
(Deals chiefly
with the Irish
material.)
JOHNSON,
W. Folk
Memory,
19o8, chapter
8
(Fairies
and Barrow
Superstitions). (A
brief
survey
of the British
material.)
RITCHIE, J.
Folk-lore of the Aberdeenshire Stone Circles
(In
Proc. Soc.
Ant.
of Scotland, vol. 6o,
p. 192).
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Folk-Lore
of
Prehistoric Monuments
259
DEXTER,
T. F. G. The Sacred Stone
(New Knowledge
Press,
Perran-
porth,
Cornwall,
1930).
A short
booklet;
most of the illustrations
taken from Cornwall.
GRINSELL,
L. V. Ancient Burial-Mounds
of England, 1936. (Pp. 40-56
describe the traditions connected with barrows.)
B. FRANCE
REINACH,
S. Monuments de Pierre Brute dans le
Langage
et les
Croy-
ances
Populaires (Revue Archaeologique, 1893;
also
printed
in
vol. III of
Cultes,
Mythes,
et
Religions, 1912).
This is
by
far the
best short
survey
of the
subject
and includes material from Britain
and Scandinavia.
SAINTYVES,
P.
Corpus
du Folklore
Prdhistorique (1934
to
date). (The
monumental work on the evidence from France and the French
colonies. When
complete
it will be in about five
large volumes,
the
later volumes
being by
Mme
C.
Nourry-Saintyves.)
This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:44:47 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

You might also like