Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
The chief of the Scandinavian monuments, and the most interesting
for our present object, comprise those groups of stones which mark
battle-fields. Not only are their dates generally known with sufficient
precision to throw considerable light on the question of the antiquity
of such monuments in general, but they also illustrate, if they do
not determine, the use of many of the groups of stones we meet with
in other countries. Sjöborg devotes ten plates in his first volume to
these battle-fields, illustrating twice that number of battles which
occurred between the fifth and the twelfth centuries after Christ.
[Illustration: 99. View of Battle-field at Kongsbacka. From Sjöborg.]
The first of these, at Kongsbacka, near the coast in Halland, though
of somewhat uncertain date, is worth quoting from its similarity to
the alignments on Dartmoor, Ashdown, Karnac, and elsewhere, though,
unfortunately, no plan or dimensions are given. On the hills beyond is
a tumulus called the grave of Frode, and on the plain a conspicuous
stone bears his name; but whether this was Frode V. (400) or some
other Frode is not clear. Sjöborg assigns it to a date about 500, and
there seems very little reason to doubt he is at least approximatively
correct.[325]
The second battle-field illustrated is similar to the last, except
in the form of the stones, which seem to belong to a different
mineralogical formation.[326] They are plainly, however, seen to be
arranged in circles and lines, and are even more like forms with which
we are familiar elsewhere. It is said to represent a battle-field in
which the Swedish king Adil fought the Danish Snio, and in which the
latter with the chiefs Eskil and Alkil were slain. As all these names
are familiarly known in the mediæval history of these countries there
can be no great difficulty in ascribing this battle also to about the
same age as that at Kongsbacka.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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