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Hanging Stones

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  Posted by ronk (U8636096) on Wednesday, 13th June 2007

  Has anyone noticed that there are numerous stone markers or megaliths around the UK which are called "hanging" or "hangman" stones. There is usually a local legend concerning a sheep stealer who accidently hanged himself attached to these sites. It seems unlikely that there were that many accidents involving sheep stealers! However it occurs to me that the connection may be with the OE "henge" word - as in Stonehenge, meaning hanging or hinged stone. This is usually thought to refer to the lintel stones but perhaps it's just a general word for standing stones. Anyone any thoughts?

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  Posted by an ex-nordmann - it has ceased to exist (U3472955) on Thursday, 14th June 2007

  It seems to be one of those areas of archaeology where coincidentally, both interpretations are potentially correct, but neither may apply. The linguistic link to "henge" (in its older pronunciation) is strong, and there is also undeniable evidence that several of these stones were used in more recent centuries as places of punishment or execution. Yet more have no such provenance that can be discerned however and may just reflect that the term had come to apply to any marker stone that broadly matched the profile of the genuine article.
  
  The clue to divining provenance is normally the stone's location rather than its size. Ancient stone markers played a significant role in boundary placement and direction finding up to the modern day, and it is no coincidence therefore that a good number of those that can be linked with confidence to a pre-Briton age found themselves near crossroads or other important boundary locations. Those especially at crossroads also therefore found themselves the focus of some administrative-type traditions and practises, including executions. As a conspicuous feature of both the physical landscape and community life therefore the name applied to them would, through familiarity, find itself used to denote other features of similar appearance. Likewise, the tales and legends that grew up around them would themselves have been transferred to these other locations as well.
  
  Having said all that, and as a form of aside, I myself have yet to find a satisfactory etymology for the use of the word "henge" to describe a megalithic structure - or at least I have found so many that none in particular leap out as terribly obvious and all have an element of contrivance about them. That the word lent itself to be altered to 'hanging' (or similar) may indeed have simply been down to phonetic association, but where it originated, or what it originally meant, seems to be the subject of much (circular) debate!

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  Posted by gerda (U8464279) on Monday, 18th June 2007

  Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:37 GMT, in reply to nordmann in message 2
  
  hanging doesnt just refer to execution- what about woden/odin hanging to get the runes? its in the tarot too.(upside down by one ankle, from a structure with two uprights and a crossbar.)

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  Posted by ronk (U8636096) on Tuesday, 19th June 2007

  Many thanks for the interesting replies. I had a quick look in Bosworth & Toller (standard OE dict)and all the references to hengen are connected with punishment - either literally execution hanging and crucifixion or languishing in prison. I don't know the OE reference to Wodin and the runes. This does tend to give weight to the idea that Stonehenge (for the Anglo-Saxons) meant the stones where people were punished rather than standing or lintel stones. But Nordmann makes the good point that people tended to be hanged at boundaries or cross roads anyway - the marker stone doesn't have to be a prehistoric megalith, although some just so happen to be.
  
  The use of henge for all prehistoric circular structures with ditches is of course a modern archeological term borrowed by analogy from Stonehenge and has no ancient etymolygy.

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