Stonehenge, South West England

While we put all historic sites into categories of their time period, it is interesting to think of them in other time periods.  Everything that came before was still there, Roman remains were there for medieval people to see, as were prehistoric sites.  So what did medieval people think of ancient stone circles?

The first mention of Stonehenge that we know about in the medieval period, comes from Henry of Huntingdon’s 12th Century work 'Historia Anglorum' (History of the English), where he states that Stonehenge is one of the four wonders of England. In which he writes: 

“There are four wonders which may be seen in England… The second is at Stonehenge, where stones of remarkable size are raised up like gates, in such a way that gates seem to be placed on top of gates.  And no one can work out how the stones were so skillfully lifted up to such a height or why they were erected there.”

 What is remarkable about this is that it could have been written today, we are just as baffled and fascinated by Stonehenge as Henry was but we don’t often think of medieval people as being fascinated by Stonehenge, or declaring it one of the four wonders of the English.

As far as we know, Henry of Huntingdon was the first to use the name Stonehenge which he wrote as “Stanenges”, this may be an old English word for stone and hanging, meaning hangings stones.

Geoffrey of Monmouth also gives mention to Stonehenge in his 12th Century work of 'Historia Regum Britanniae', or History of the Kings of Britain.  He attributes Stonehenge to the reign of Aurelius Ambrose an early king.  He states that:

“the British King Aurelius Ambrosius determined to surround these noble dead with a monument. Merlin advised him to fetch from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, a marvellous mystic and healing structure of stones which, set up again around the dead, would stand for ever. The stones were fetched, Merlin using his magic in dismantling them and re-erecting them. Within this Stanheng, this chorea gigantum [Giants’ Dance], Aurelius was buried, as well as Uther and Constantine.”

We can start to see why Geoffrey is not necessarily a reliable source of English history. He goes on to tell us exactly what occurred, as though he was an eyewitness. 

Stonehenge next appears as a drawing in a 14th Century manuscript of Wace’s text 'Roman de Brut’.  Now in the British Library, this appears with a drawing and depicts Merlin building Stonehenge. Again in the 14th Century another drawing appears in the 'Ladder of the World'.  This is a chronicle of world events. 

There is also a 15th Century sketch found in a copy of 'Scala Mundi' rediscovered in 2006. This gives a bird’s eye view of the stones and again Merlin is credited with their construction.