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
editGeoffrey 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
editIn 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
edit- ^ 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.
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