The Nine Maidens, also known as the Seventeen Brothers, is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

located near the village of

Belstone Belstone is a small village and civil parish in the West Devon District of Devon, England. Location Lying on the northern side of Dartmoor, the western boundary of the parish is mostly formed by the East Okement River and the eastern by the ...

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The stone circle functioned as a burial chamber, although the

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

has since been robbed and the

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East ...

, known locally as a

kistvaen A kistvaen or cistvaen is a tomb or burial chamber formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''tumulus''. The word is derived from the Welsh ''cist'' (chest) and ''maen'' (stone). ...

, destroyed.

Description

The Nine Maidens is an incomplete stone circle with sixteen still standing. The circle stands to the west of the village of Belstone in an area of clitter. This additional source of stone may have saved the destruction of the circle by local masons. None of the stones are much higher than three feet (one metre) and the diameter of the circle is approximately twenty-one feet (seven metres). Samuel Rowe, a nineteenth-century rambler, provided a description of the stones in his 1848 book ''A Perambulation of the Ancient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor and the Venville Precincts'': The missing seventeenth stone may have since fallen down to join several other stones that are no longer upright. The Book of Belstone says the tally of stones can be increased to twenty should 'small stones and five toppled or insecure temporary ones' be included. Dora James wrote in 1930 that four stones had been 'wantonly defaced and broken' in 1929.

Folklore

Despite the fallen stones, locals are said to be apprehensive of restoration work, believing that tamperers will be cursed. Locals cite a film crew which added a stone to the circle in 1985—the 'curse' was the unfortunate loss of the only copy of the film, The Circle of Doom, in the post. St Michael's ley-line, which runs 350 miles from

Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

Hopton-on-Sea Hopton-on-Sea is a village, civil parish and seaside resort on the coast of East Anglia in the county of Norfolk. The village is south of Great Yarmouth, north-west of Lowestoft and near the UK's most easterly point, Lowestoft Ness. The vill ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, runs through the Nine Maidens. This ley-line goes through many sites dedicated to

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

, such as St Michael's Tower on

Glastonbury Tor Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building. The entire site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument. T ...

, with the line matching the sunrise on 8 May when the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

celebrated the apparition of St Michael. Local folklore suggests that the stones dance: The stones are said to have originally been nine maidens who were cast into stone and damned to dancing every noon for eternity as a punishment for dancing on the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

. Equally, the story has involved seventeen brothers. It is also said that the ringing of the nearby church bells brings them to life.

Etymology

The differing number of stones cited in the name is explained in folklore through the fact that the stones are not still enough whilst dancing to count their number accurately. John Chudleigh noted in 1892 that heated air which rises from the ground gives the appearance of movement, which may give an origin to the legends of dancing maidens. Another etymological explanation is based on

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n tin traders. The Phoenicians worshipped the god of life and fertility

Baal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...

with Belstone representing a corruption of 'Baal's ton', that is 'Baal's settlement'. The stone circle could be related to this interpretation, with a reference to the Phoenicians dragging a stone in the shape of a

sacred bull Cattle are prominent in some religions and mythologies. As such, numerous peoples throughout the world have at one point in time honored bulls as sacred. In the Sumerian religion, Marduk is the "bull of Utu". In Hinduism, Shiva's steed is Nan ...

to the summit of the tor and worshipping it. It has been suggested that locals who knew of this legend placed a stone there to fulfil the legend. Other explanations for the name Belstone have been given including the Old English 'belle' (bell) and 'stan' (stone), which

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...

suggests could be in reference to a

logan stone Rocking stones (also known as logan stones or logans) are large stones that are so finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them to rock. Typically, rocking stones are residual corestones formed initially by spheroidal w ...

Folkloric poetry

A poem illustrating the folklore surrounding the stones is recorded in ''The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor by Ruth St Leger-Gordon, originally written by

Eden Phillpotts Eden Phillpotts (4 November 1862 – 29 December 1960) was an English author, poet and dramatist. He was born in Mount Abu, India, was educated in Plymouth, Devon, and worked as an insurance officer for ten years before studying for the stage a ...

in the Book of Avis trilogy: :And now at every Hunter's Moon :That haggard cirque of stones so still :Awakens to immortal thrill'' :And seven small maidens in silver shoon :Twixt dark of night and white of day :Twinkle upon the sere old heath :Like living blossoms in a wreath :Then shrink again to granite grey. :So blue-eyed Dian shall ever dance :With Linnette, Bethkin, Jennifer, :Arisa, Petronell and Nance. St Leger-Gordon suggests Phillpotts could be referring to another stone circle due to certain inaccuracies in the poem, although these inaccuracies could simply be a generous usage of

artistic licence Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...

. Hunter's moon refers to the first full moon following the

harvest moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). This means ...

and usually occurs in October. Victorian archaeologists interpreted the stone circle as representing a full sun and full moon.

Description

Folklore

Etymology

Folkloric poetry

References

Further reading