Giant's Dance
The Giant's Dance or Giants' Dance is a mythological stone circle documented by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his work History of the Kings of England (Template:Lang-la). Monmouth described it as a megalithic stone circle, whose stones were used to build the neolithic Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in England. That description was based on the legends that still existed at the time. Archaealogists have identified the mesolithic Waun Mawn at Pembrokeshire in Wales, as being this older Stone Age stone circle, which is where bluestones of Stonehenge were taken from. According to Monmouth, the wizard Merlin disassembled a circle at Mount Killaraus in Ireland and had men drag the stones to Wiltshire, and had giants assemble Stonehenge. At the time of Monmouth, the Pembrokeshire region of Wales was considered Irish territory.[1][2]
In modern usage, Giants Dance has been used to refer to:
- mythological stone circle that was moved from Ireland to Britain by Merlin [2][3]
- Stonehenge, England, UK; the megalithic stone circle [4]
- Waun Mawn, Wales, UK; the destroyed megalithic stone circle [5]
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Merlin reassembling the Giants Dance -
Waun Mawn -
Stonehenge
References
- ^ Pearson, Mike Parker; Pollard, Josh; Richards, Colin; Welham, Kate; Kinnaird, Timothy; Shaw, Dave; Simmons, Ellen; Stanford, Adam; Bevins, Richard; Ixer, Rob; Ruggles, Clive; Rylatt, Jim; Edinborough, Kevan (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.
- ^ a b Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of England; Template:Lang-la (in Latin). c. 12th century.
- ^ Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall (1920). "The Story of How the Giant's Dance was Brought to Britain". An Island Story: A History of England for Boys and Girls.
- ^ Sue Kendrick (2005). "Stonehenge: The Giants' Dance". Time Travel Britain.
- ^ Dalya Alberge (12 February 2021). "Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales". The Guardian.
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