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The original Stonehenge?

R

rlvaughn

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The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
In the oldest story of Stonehenge's origins, the History of the Kings of Britain (c. AD 1136), Geoffrey of Monmouth describes how the monument was built using stones from the Giants’ Dance stone circle in Ireland. Located on legendary Mount Killaraus, the circle was dismantled by Merlin and shipped to Amesbury on Salisbury Plain by a force of 15 000 men, who had defeated the Irish and captured the stones. According to the legend, Stonehenge was built to commemorate the death of Britons who were treacherously killed by Saxons during peace talks at Amesbury. Merlin wanted the stones of the Giants’ Dance for their magical, healing properties.
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This 900-year-old legend is fantasy: the Saxons arrived not in prehistory, but only 700 years before Geoffrey's own time, and none of Stonehenge's stones came from Ireland. Yet the fact that Stonehenge's ‘bluestones’ derive from Wales—far to the west of Salisbury Plain—has led to speculation that there may be some truth in Geoffrey's pseudo-history (Piggott 1941; Burl 2006: 19–21; Darvill & Wainwright 2009). Moreover, at the time Geoffrey was writing, this region of south-west Wales was considered Irish territory (Davies 1982: 87–88 & 95, 1990: 39; Thomas 1994: 51–112). One possibility is that the bluestones did indeed derive from a stone circle in west Wales, which was dismantled and re-erected as Stonehenge.
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