tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post7616693120680429561..comments2024-03-25T15:10:13.792+00:00Comments on English Buildings: Arthur's Stone, Dorstone, HerefordshirePhilip Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-75160814406226499932008-05-17T17:47:00.000+01:002008-05-17T17:47:00.000+01:00Many thanks for that fascinating synthesis of lege...Many thanks for that fascinating synthesis of legends, Neil. Arthur's Stone seems to offer an object lesson in the way these traditional beliefs accrue and transform – and then get overlaid with Christian ones too. The only bit I knew about in all this was the 19th-century robbing of some of the stone and the discovery of stone artefacts when it was excavated and restored. (I hadn't heard about the chips!)Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-27467475125891757712008-05-17T11:10:00.000+01:002008-05-17T11:10:00.000+01:00Once the Arthurian legends really got going, from ...Once the Arthurian legends really got going, from the 9th century onwards, all sorts of prehistoric monuments and landmarks received Arthurian names. The folklore of such sites is very fluid. A man named Joseph Gwynne told Francis Kilvert in 1878 that one of the stones bore 'the marks of a man's knees and fingers . . . made by King Arthur when he heaved this stone up on his back and set it upon the pillars' (quoted in Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Hereford & Worcester, 1992). Ella Mary Leather's The Folklore of Herefordshire (1912) tells us: 'According to some, Arthur's Stone is so-called because "Owd Artur" fought a desperate battle there with another king, broke his back, and buried him under the stones. Others say it was a giant whom Arthur slew, and that the stone on the left approaching the dolmen from Bredwardine, under the hedge, is yet marked by the giant's fall; the hollows now visible are called the marks of the giant's elbows, and others, again, declare the impressions were made by the knees of Arthur himself, when he knelt on the stone to pray. This stone, which seems more important in the legend than the dolmen itself, is also called the "Quoit stone," having hollows for the heels of the players.' By the time Leslie Grinsell was gathering information in 1958, for his book Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain (1976), the rival king had been forgotten, the stone with impressions of the giant's elbows appears to be a different stone to the Quoit stone, which is said to bear the marks of either Arthur's knees as he knelt to pray, or his thumb and fingers while he was playing quoits. Grinsell then adds a completely new explanation: 'These hollows are said by others to be where Jesus knelt to pray.' This Christian interpretation may derive from - or have inspired - the custom of holding a Christian service at the site on the fourth Sunday in July, which Grinsell says dates back 'some years'. This site suffered depredations in the 19th century, when some of the stones standing in a circle around the grave were broken up and carted away for building work; a practice stopped by an enlightened landowner, Velters Cornewall, the owner of the Moccas estate. In 1901 the site was excavated and some stones set back in position. Leather writes, 'During the work of excavation, stone hammers, heavy mauls for dressing the stone, and chips were found, and not a single metal tool of any kind was discovered, indicating so far that the stones were erected previous to the bronze age. The mauls were heavy, unpolished, and not fixed in handles.' Note that even before the Bronze Age, British workmen were evidently unwilling to undertake heavy work without chips.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18020242863144175965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-53761354366143583212008-05-12T15:42:00.000+01:002008-05-12T15:42:00.000+01:00No railings are anywhere to be seen now – the litt...No railings are anywhere to be seen now – the little patch of grass on which Arthur's Stone is situated is surrounded by a wooden fence. English Heritage have provided some information panels, but these have faded in the sun, one almost to illegibility, as if the environment is re-imposing the air of mystery that surrounds the place.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-90591042990260084942008-05-12T15:09:00.000+01:002008-05-12T15:09:00.000+01:00Dear Alfred Watkins talks about this stone in his ...Dear Alfred Watkins talks about this stone in his 'Old Straight Track' and on page 12 deplores the spiked iron railings around it. I assume from your pic. that they have been replaced by more comfortable wooden post and rails. If the old railings are still in the undergrowth I'll borrow Diplo's pick-up and get down there.Peter Ashleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00027878122724846472noreply@blogger.com