Giant's Dance
The Giant's Dance or Giants' Dance is a stone circle in an Arthurian legend first documented c. 1136 in Historia Regum Britanniae, by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136.[1]
In the Merlin legend
Geoffrey of Monmouth describes it as a megalithic stone circle, whose stones were used to build the neolithic Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.
According to Geoffrey, the wizard Merlin disassembled a circle at Mount Killaraus in Ireland and had men drag the stones to Wiltshire, and had giants assemble Stonehenge.[2][1]
Modern use of name
In modern use Giant's Dance has been used to refer to:
- A fictional stone circle that was moved from Ireland to Britain by Merlin[1][3]
- Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England: the megalithic stone circle[4]
- Waun Mawn, Pembrokeshire, Wales: a proposed identification of the dismantled megalithic stone circle[5]
-
Merlin re-assembling the Giant's Dance, with the help of giants -
Waun Mawn, Pembrokeshire, Wales -
Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England
References
- ^ a b c Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1136). Historia regum Britanniae [The History of the Kings of Britain] (in Latin); original title Latin: De Gestis Britonum, lit. 'On the Deeds of the Britons'.
- ^ Pearson, Mike Parker; Pollard, Josh; Richards, Colin; Welham, Kate; Kinnaird, Timothy; Shaw, Dave; et al. (February 2021). "The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales". Antiquity. 95 (379): 85–103. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.239.
- ^ Marshall, Henrietta Elizabeth (1920). "Chapter 11: The story of how the Giant's Dance was brought to Britain". An Island Story: A history of England for boys and girls.
- ^ Kendrick, Sue (2005). "Stonehenge: The Giants' Dance". Time Travel Britain.
- ^ Alberge, Dalya (12 February 2021). "Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales". The Guardian.
Index of articles associated with the same name
This article includes a list of related items that share the same name (or similar names). If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
