Rollright Stones
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The Rollright Stones are a complex of three neighboring Stone Age and Bronze Age monuments south of Long Compton in Warwickshire , located (across the border) in Oxfordshire , England , and built between the 4th and 2nd millennium BC. BC originated.
The complex consists of the stone circle "Kings Men" with 77 stones, which is about 33.0 m in diameter. In addition, there is the higher menhir ( English Standing Stones ), the so-called “King Stone”, about 50.0 m away, northeast on the other side of the road , and the fenced-in dolmen rest “Wispering Knights” about 250 m to the east, all of them originated at different times. The description of the Rollright Stones begins in the 16th century. In the 1980s, archaeologist George Lambrick concluded that the circle was originally a "perfect circle" in which the stones touched each other. A shape that is very rare, as most of the stones in the circles are spaced apart.
The legend
A king had camped his army on the hill, encouraged by a witch's promise that if he reached the circle in seven steps and spotted the village of Long Campton in the valley, he would become King of England. It seemed simple, but the witch betrayed him and made a hill rise to block his view. Failing to keep his end of the agreement, he and his men turned to stones.
literature
- LV Grinsell: The Rollright Stones and Their Folklore (1977).
- Aubrey Burl: The stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany . Yale University Press 2000, ISBN 0-300-08347-5 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 58 ′ 31.9 ″ N , 1 ° 34 ′ 14.9 ″ W.