Stonehenge

Pierres Gros d'Ierlande

Stonehenge - According to tradition which can't be found in Malory, but in Vulgate II, Merlin brought Stonehenge from Ireland to Salisbury Plain, moving the stones by magic in order to make them a funerary monument for kings slain in battle. This gives us a lovely magical act, but takes away the grandest of purely Pagan religious centers.

Examples of the numerous smaller stone antiquities to be found throughout Britain, Brittany, and so on which might be considered pagan "chapels" are the Hurlers, the Nine Sisters, the Stone Circle near Land's End, Plouhinec, and many others not included here.

The Druids, of course, are supposed to have used oak groves, which suggests they did not erect many permanent structures. Some of the forests with "perilous" or "magical" properties originally may have been Druid holy places. Modern archaeologists believe that Stonehenge far antedates the Druids.

King Arthur and Stonehenge is another legend developed by the twelfth-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth in his work entitled the History of the Kings of Britain. We are told Merlin brought the stones to Salisbury Plain from Ireland after a massacre of 460 British noblemen by the treacherous Saxon leader Hengist in the fifth-century. King Aurelius Ambrosius wanted a monument to all the dead men.

Merlin suggested the moving of the Giant's Ring Stone Circle (Ireland) to Britain. Yet Monmouth informs us that the stones were originally brought to Ireland from Africa by giants and located on Mount Killaraus where they were used at the site for performing rituals and healing. King Uther along with his men and Merlin arrived in Ireland but did not have the strength to move the collection of huge stones. Merlin interceded and used his magical arts to manoeuvre the stones, and then they were shipped back to Britain. The stones were then reassembled again into a great circle around the mass grave of the noblemen.

We are also informed by Monmouth that Aurelius, Uther and Arthur's successor, Constantine were later also buried there.