Wayland's Smithy

Wayland's Smithy

Infobox Megalith
Name = Wayland's Smithy
Photo = Waylands Smitty 2 db.jpg|Wayland's Smithy, Tomb (detail)
Type = Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb
Country = England
County = Oxfordshire
Nearest Town =
Nearest Village = Uffington
Grid_ref_UK = SU281854
Grid_ref_Ireland =
Coor = coord|51.56645|-1.59575|display=inline,title
Condition =
Access =

Wayland's Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb site located, near the Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle, at Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire (historically in Berkshire).

The later mound was 185 feet long and 43 feet wide at the south end. Its present appearance is the result of restoration following excavations undertaken by Stuart Piggott and Richard Atkinson in 1962-1963. They demonstrated that the site had been built in two different phases, a timber chambered oval barrow built around 3700 BC and the second stone chambered long barrow in around 3400 BC.

The wooden mortuary house mainly consisted of a paved stone floor with two large posts at either end. A single crouched burial had been placed at one end and the mostly disarticulated remains of a further fourteen individuals were scattered in front of it. Analysis of these remains indicated that they had been subjected to excarnation prior to burial and deposited in possibly four different phases. Postholes at one end have been interpreted as supporting a timber facade. The whole monument was covered by an earth barrow with material excavated from two flanking ditches and measured around 20m in length.

The later stone tomb consists of two opposing transept chambers and terminal chamber, along with the longer entrance chamber, this gives the burial area a cruciform appearance in plan. It is classified by archaeologists as one of the Severn-Cotswold tombs. The large trapezoidal earth barrow erected over it was revetted with a stone kerb and its material was again excavated from two large flanking ditches. Excavation in 1919 revealed the burials of seven adults and one child.

The site is important as it illustrates the transition from timber chambered barrows to stone chamber tombs over a period which may have been as short as 50 years.

Wayland's Smithy is one of many prehistoric sites associated with Wayland or "Wolund", the Norse and Saxon god of blacksmithing. The name was seemingly applied to the site by the Saxon invaders, who reached the area some four thousand years after Wayland's Smithy was built.

According to legend, a traveller whose horse has lost a shoe can leave the animal and the smallest silver coin (a groat) on the capstone at Wayland's Smithy. When he returns next morning he will find that his horse has been re-shod and the money gone. It is conjectured that the invisible smith may have been linked to this site for many centuries before the Saxons recognized him as Wayland. The Ancient Britons may have been accustomed to making votive offerings to a local god.

In recent years, at this and other ancient sites, such as the West Kennet Long Barrow, offerings have been left in the form of flowers, nuts, grain, fruit, and feathers, presumably by visiting Neo-Pagans.

Views of Wayland's Smithy in a Different Light

Wayland's Smithy can be a very atmospheric place in different conditions, as some of the photos taken in late afternoon gloom show.

ee also

* Flibbertigibbet

External links

*gbmapping|SU281854
* [http://www.pegasusarchive.org/ancientbritain/waylands_smithy.htm Ancient Britain - Wayland's Smithy]
* [http://www.adrian.smith.clara.net/graphics/waylands_plan.gifPlan of Wayland's Smithy]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/alongtheridgeway0607 Improvised music recorded inside chambers of Wayland's Smithy]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Wayland's Smithy — Deckplatten der Grabkammern der zweiten Ausbaustufe Wayland s Smithy ( Wielands Schmiede ) bei Swindon bzw. Compton Beauchamp ist ein Hügelgrab in Oxfordshire, dessen ältester Ausbau vor ca. 5.500 Jahren stattfand. Es wurde auf einem flachen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wayland’s Smithy — Deckplatten der Grabkammern der zweiten Ausbaustufe Wayland’s Smithy (engl. „Wielands Schmiede“) bei Swindon bzw. Compton Beauchamp ist ein Hügelgrab in Oxfordshire, dessen ältester Ausbau vor ca. 5.500 Jahren stattfand. Es wurde auf einem… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wayland's Smithy —    This megalithic chamber tomb in Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire) was identified in a charter of ad 855 as Welandes smidde; the spelling Wayland , popularized by Scott and Kipling, is now the usual one. Way land was a master craftsman in… …   A Dictionary of English folklore

  • Wayland Smith — Wayland (also spelled Weyland , Wieland , Weland , Welent and Watlende ) is a smith of Germanic legend.In Scandinavian sources, he appears (as Völund Smed) in Völundarkviða , a poem in the Poetic Edda , and in the Þiðrekssaga , and his legend is… …   Wikipedia

  • Wayland The Smith — ▪ medieval literary figure Wayland also spelled  Weland,         in Scandinavian, German, and Anglo Saxon legend, a smith of outstanding skill. He was, according to some legends, a lord of the elves. His story is told in the Völundarkvida, one of …   Universalium

  • Wayland Smith — Völund Pour les articles homonymes, voir Wieland. le forgeron Völund. Wieland, dans la mythologie des Saxons immigra …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Wayland — était le célébre forgeron des Dieux et était le fils d’un marin et d’une siréne. L’histoire de Wayland est celle d’une vengeance. En effet le Roi de Suéde, Nidud, lui fit couper les tendons et l’exila dans une ile lointaine pour qu’il lui… …   Mythologie nordique

  • Waylands Smithy — Deckplatten der Grabkammern der zweiten Ausbaustufe Wayland s Smithy ( Wielands Schmiede ) bei Swindon bzw. Compton Beauchamp ist ein Hügelgrab in Oxfordshire, dessen ältester Ausbau vor ca. 5.500 Jahren stattfand. Es wurde auf einem flachen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Blacksmith — For other uses, see Blacksmith (disambiguation). Blacksmith A blacksmith at work Occupation …   Wikipedia

  • Nichtmegalithische Langhügel — sind eine Gruppe von Monumenten, die sich ähnlich wie Hünenbetten ohne Kammer in Europa in einem Streifen von Frankreich über England bis Polen nachweisen lassen, aber Ostengland geradezu dominieren und in Schottland vereinzelt als… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”