The Legend of the Rollright Stones

Stone circles have always fascinated me. Growing up near Stonehenge and Avebury Circle, I have always been hooked by their mysteries - even after moving away for uni and building my own life. I somehow ended up just moving down the road from them.

As such, I have always loved stone circles. A fellow human from many, many moons ago decided they really liked that bit of rock, others too, and made a big circle out of them. Not that we will ever fully know why; I mean, we have our guesses, but it’s so quintessentially human, I love it. Even my favourite love story of all time, Outlander, has the infamous Craig na Dun, a stone portal into the past/future.

Recently, I discovered the Rollright stones, a Neolithic stone circle in the Cotswolds, on the Oxfordshire-Warwickshire border. Well, it actually consists of three main elements. One is the Kings’ men, the other the Whispering Knights burial, and the Kings Stone, a singular stone. There is also a very important tree.

A Witch and A King

An Iron Age king had set his sights on conquering all of England. They traversed across the Cotswolds when they crossed paths with a witch, who challenged the king. In a moment of consideration, his knights began whispering, but before they had a chance to plot and scheme, the king took seven steps…

“Seven long strides shalt thou take and if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be”

Upon the seventh step, a mound rose from the ground, obscuring the view of Long Compton in the valley.

Clearly the king had offended the witch, and so she finished her spell…

“As Long Compton thou canst not see, King of England thou shalt not be!

Rise up stick and stand still stone,

For King of England thou shalt be none;

Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be, And I myself an elder tree.”

It is said that if the tree is ever cut down, the binding spell will break and the men will return. However, I think after reading this, you’ll begin to understand why no one dares to fell the elder tree.

Uncountable Stones

Adding another layer to the legend, the King’s Men stones are uncountable. If you can count the stones three times, the count must be the same each time. If the counter gets it right, you will be granted your heart’s desire.

A confident baker believed he could count the stones by placing loaves of bread at the foot of each stone. Once he had made a full loop, he noticed that some of the loaves were missing, stolen by mischievous fairies or the devil himself.

The Stones Come With A Warning

A farmer sought to utilise one of the larger stones as a bridge over a stream. Over twenty-four horses and one dead man along the way dragged the stones down a hill. Eventually the farmer made it to the stream, but come morning, the stone had flipped on its side on the bank. Each time the farmer replaced the stone and formed a bridge with it, the same thing kept happening.

Before long, the crops on his farm died. Finally the message got through to the farmer, and he put the stone back where he found it, and this time it only took one horse. Uphill.

Visitors to the stones should also be careful.

“Any passing carrier who chips bits off the King Stone will find the wheels of his cart become irrevocably locked!”

Another piece to the mythical mosaic proclaims that at the stroke of midnight when the church bell tolls, the king comes alive. Additionally, on certain Saint Days the king and his men return to live too.

A Place of Worship

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Rollright Stones were associated with fertility. In the 19th century particularly, many different local customs formed around the stones. In some practices, young women danced naked at midnight on Midsommer’s Eve, in the belief they would see a vision of the man they would marry.

Similarly, earvsdropping on conversations between the living king and his men would reveal the name of the listener’s future spouse. Those married but without children would rub themselves on the King Stone hoping to gain fertility.

To this day, people use the site for Neo-pagan practice. Pagans use the site for meditation and communion with the spirits. They leave offerings such as fruit, candles, incense and flowers. Although there are concerns regarding ritual litter, which could be damaging to the stones or disrupt the energies of the site, with some offerings being left in the stone cracks.

Archaeologists

The Rollright Stones are a mixture of Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monuments. The Whispering Knights came first, and the King’s men came later. Archaeologists believe that hunter-gatherer tribes began farming the land and building structures. They theorise that these structures were places of burial. Or some form of a tomb. The King Stone is a grave marker, though it has never been officially dated.

In the 1980s, excavations on the site revealed it would have been a perfect circle, unlike it is today. Ten years later, an observant visitor spotted a carved shield on the King Stone. Upon looking further, archaeologists discovered there were two shields, a smaller shield inside a bigger shield.

Pseudoscientists

Pseudoscientists theorise that the Rollright Stones run through leylines that also go through the church, going towards Chipping Norton. An investigation, known as the Dragon Project, was conducted to determine if any anomalous phenomena could be detected there. In their findings, they noted that ultrasonic pulsing could be detected at the King Stone at sunrise. Yet, there were no ultrasound readings in the King's Men circle at the summer solstice, suggesting that the stones acted as a shield from the low levels of ultrasound found elsewhere in the landscape.

Final thoughts

There is something about the Rollright Stones that has captured my attention, that I can’t quite put my finger on. As a folklore lover, a neo-pagan and someone who knows a thing or two, I have a few thoughts:

Counting the stones seems like a trap. Getting the number right three times and being granted your heart’s desire is alluring but deceptive. The King desired to claim England. That was his heart’s desire.

Every stone, no matter the circle, has its own personality; what if the stones were already present before the witch cast her spell, and trapped their spirits to wood and stone? Thereby, getting the counting spot on wouldn’t unbind the spell or grant your heart’s desire; it would exchange one spirit for another.

If the site is a tomb as archaeologists theorise, then the stones are guardians of the dead, and someone must always remain at their post. So whoever stole the baker’s bread wasn’t being mischievous; they were being protective. Faries don’t like unwanted guests as it is.

This is all speculation, of course, and simply a folklore hypothesis.

I don’t think much of the farmer; I think he was a fool. Opportunistic, yes, but a fool no less. As for the tree, I wouldn’t risk it, just in case.

We will never truly know the purpose of the stones or the stories behind them, but it does make you wonder…