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Stones in fiction |
Thorgrim
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|  Posted 22-05-2004 at 22:42
Thinking about favourite books, I wondered why stones and other prehistoric sites don't feature more in novels. Off the top of my head I could only come up with these:
Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell, Fellowship of the Ring (barrows) by Tolkien, Owl Service (Stone of Goronwy and the Blodeuedd legend) by Alan Garner, Over Sea Under Stone by Susan Cooper, Sarum by Edward Rutherford, Before Adam by Jack London - then (apart from Jean Auel's prehistoric soap operas) I came to a halt and could only dimly remember the odd short story by HG Wells and some books by Henry Treece. Any more you can name? 
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ocifant
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| Posted 23-05-2004 at 16:31
I forget which book it was, but Terry Pratchett had the wizards making a computer out of Stones. A 33 Megalith Processsor, IIRC 
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ocifant
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| Posted 23-05-2004 at 17:54
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I forget which book it was |
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Lords & Ladies.
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Vicky
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| Posted 23-05-2004 at 18:52
There's a new King Arthur/Merlin legend book out which has Long Meg and her Daughters on the cover - The Language of Stones by Robert Carter - I have only just started reading it so can't comment as to how good it is yet.
I seem to remember reading some books by Stephen Lawhead years ago which also had a bit of a stones/prehistoric theme. Not sure what they were called but I've got them around somewhere.
Didn't Stonehenge appear in Tess of the D'Uberville's somewhere too?
Cheers
Vicky
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Anonymous
User not Registered | Posted 24-05-2004 at 14:21
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On 2004-05-22 22:42, Thorgrim wrote:
Thinking about favourite books, I wondered why stones and other prehistoric sites don't feature more in novels. Off the top of my head I could only come up with these:
Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell, Fellowship of the Ring (barrows) by Tolkien, Owl Service (Stone of Goronwy and the Blodeuedd legend) by Alan Garner, Over Sea Under Stone by Susan Cooper, Sarum by Edward Rutherford, Before Adam by Jack London - then (apart from Jean Auel's prehistoric soap operas) I came to a halt and could only dimly remember the odd short story by HG Wells and some books by Henry Treece. Any more you can name?
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Rev
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| Posted 24-05-2004 at 14:41
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On 2004-05-22 22:42, Thorgrim wrote:
Thinking about favourite books, I wondered why stones and other prehistoric sites don't feature more in novels. Off the top of my head I could only come up with these:
Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell, Fellowship of the Ring (barrows) by Tolkien, Owl Service (Stone of Goronwy and the Blodeuedd legend) by Alan Garner, Over Sea Under Stone by Susan Cooper, Sarum by Edward Rutherford, Before Adam by Jack London - then (apart from Jean Auel's prehistoric soap operas) I came to a halt and could only dimly remember the odd short story by HG Wells and some books by Henry Treece. Any more you can name?
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I remeber an epsiode of Doctor Who from the seventies called 'Stones of Blood' filmed at the Rollright stones, and available as a novel from Target Books. Also, the eighties revival of 'Quatermass' was all about Extra Terrestrial use of stone circles. This is also available as a novel by Nigel Kneale. I remeber in the series that they claimed that the old child's way of counting, 'eeney, meeney, miney, moe...' was a remenant of how the beaker people used to count. Is this right or just 'poetic licence'?
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Thorgrim
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| Posted 24-05-2004 at 15:53
Thanks - I should have remembered the Stones of Blood and Quatermass. I also have read somewhere that "Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo" is very old counting as is the shepherds' count of "Etherer, petherer "etc Fascinating stuff! Anyone know any more? 
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Thorgrim
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| Posted 24-05-2004 at 15:54
Thanks - I should have remembered the Stones of Blood and Quatermass. I also have read somewhere that "Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo" is very old counting as is the shepherds' count of "Etherer, petherer "etc Fascinating stuff! Anyone know any more?
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TimPrevett
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| Posted 24-05-2004 at 18:54
If not sticking solely to literature, there is of course The Children of the Stones.
Robin of Sherwood - the 80s TV series - sometimes showed a sole trilithon - perhaps as a meeting place of sorts.
Thinking onto Tolkien, is there not a row of stones 'guarding' The Paths of The Dead? (I hope I remembered right).
FWIW
Tim
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Anonymous
User not Registered | Posted 25-05-2004 at 16:44
I recently bought The Children of the Stones from Amazon.com
I watch the series when I was about eleven years old and apart from the one bit of bad acting I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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MarionBenham
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| Posted 27-05-2004 at 17:35
The Narnia books have Aslan's Howe, at one point a chambered mound and in another time an uncovered table like dolmen structure. Not a real place worked into fiction though so I don't know if it counts.
[ This message was edited by: MarionBenham on 2004-05-29 14:39 ]
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Thorgrim
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| Posted 27-05-2004 at 18:46
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On 2004-05-27 17:35, MarionBenham wrote:
The Narnia books have Aslan's Howe, at one point a chambered mound and in another time an uncovered table like dolmen structure. Not a real, place worked into fiction though so I don't know if it counts.
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Yes - it definitely does count! Any more?
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Andy B
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| Posted 27-05-2004 at 23:57
The Highlander books seem very popular in web circles, the imaginary site Craign na Dun shows up in a lot of web searches - as many as places like Castlerigg! More here:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146411369
(silly tip - if you want your links posted in this forum to be clickable - put a space in front of them, see above. Another daft bug to fix)
Andy
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Anonymous
User not Registered | Posted 02-06-2004 at 15:52
And those books about Alderly Edge by Alan Garner.
I think they visit a barrow(ish) in a nether world.
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ocifant
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| Posted 02-06-2004 at 18:33
If we're talking barrows, then Pratchett's Wee Free Men is set in a barrow...
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sem
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| Posted 05-06-2004 at 20:17
There is the monolith in Arthur C Clarke's 2001 A Space Odyssey. The monolith imbues the ape Moonwatcher with a rudimentary intelligence. I do like the name Moonwatcher linked to a monolith.
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traveller
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| Posted 08-06-2004 at 16:27
Switching to the big screen for a mo, I've recently seen the latest Harry Potter film and there are quite a few shown in several scenes, A corcle and a standing stones, not sure whether they are real or not, but I gather part of the film was made in Scotland. Can,t speak for the books tho.
Trav
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TimPrevett
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| Posted 08-06-2004 at 18:29
Having read and enjoyed all the books, no such monuments featured in them.
I recall seeing glimpses of the stones during trailers at the cinema last year.
Cheers
Tim
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TimPrevett
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| Posted 08-06-2004 at 19:41
In fact, my ISP has put up some images from the film, and I am sure THIS ONE is within a circle.
TIm
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Bunnyhugger
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|  Posted 10-06-2004 at 13:45
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - heroine fetches up at Stonehenge.
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