| MAIDEN by Marian Youngblood appeared in summer 1997 issue 127 of The LEY Hunter |
|
| An announcement by the Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Forsyth last week that the Pictish Maiden |
| Stone which has stood on the slopes of Bennachie in Aberdeenshire for 11 centuries was not to be moved |
| but given a shelter brought rejoicing within the 300-strong membership of Friends of Grampian Stones. This |
| volunteer charity has campaigned for seven years alongside community groups to keep the 9th-century |
| Pictish cross-slab in situ. While various wings of the archaeological establishment threatened to move it |
| indoors, support from the Pictish Arts Society and other stone-sensitive groups has helped the cause. |
| Both factions are agreed that the 3-metre high slab of crusty pink Bennachie granite is in need of protection, |
| as even such sturdy material is weathering with its relief symbols becoming difficult to see except in bright |
| slanting sunlight. The threatened solution by the pro-museum faction seemed to be wholesale carting off, |
| but this produced local hue and cry by historians, romantics and, naturally, the sky-watchers who were |
| convinced the Maiden had secrets to reveal where she stood - secrets which might fossilise and lose |
| meaning in an indoor environment. |
|
| Extra pressure had been brought to bear by a trustee of in-construction prehistoric theme park Archaeolink |
| nearby, due to open in April 1997, as it was felt the presence of a 'real stone' in the interpretation centre |
| would attract more visitors. "We shall still consider installing a replica at Archaeolink," said a trust member. |
| But the decision by the Scottish Office, through its executive department Historic Scotland means that a |
| solution will have to be found on the ground. Historic Scotland is the Scots equivalent to English Heritage |
| which protects antiquities through a scheduling process and which last year set up the National Committee |
| on Carved Stones in Scotland. Though the committee states clearly that Scotland's carved stones are at |
| risk! (their exclamation mark), the official line in protection has been less dramatic: |
|
| "In some instances this might involve constructing a shelter around them, particularly where they are on |
| such significant sites that it would be difficult to justify moving them; however, this is not a solution that is |
| likely to be frequently applicable. More often it may be advisable to move stones to a sheltered local |
| environment so that they are fully protected from the elements but still within the area to which they belong." |
|
| In such a framework, the decision not to move the Maiden Stone but to construct a shelter, perhaps similar |
| to the glass cage which encases the Forres Sueno's Stone in Morayshire or the Shandwick Stone in Easter |
| Ross, is miraculous. |
|
| PICTISH ICONOGRAPHY |
|
| Aberdeenshire is famed for its Pictish symbol stones thought to date from at least the 5th century, the earliest |
| found in profusion on fertile farmland of a busy agricultural society, saved from destruction by gunpowder or |
| the plough by deep-seated superstition. Within an oral culture handed down from ancestral times, it didn't do |
| to harm the stones. They were, after all, one of few remnants of the country ('pagan') tradition which |
| predated Christianity, of which the ancestors spoke. Parishes of Northeast Scotland in the farflung reaches |
| of Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Morayshire followed the instruction of the Reformed Church to the letter |
| while at the same time managing to guard handed-down veneration of ancestral places. This apparent |
| anomaly has resulted in the survival of around 600 Neolithic recumbent stone circle sites in the northeast |
| corner, and though separated by 3500 years, roughly 100 Pictish symbol stones (Class I, inscribed; Class |
| II, relief-carved cross-slabs) found in association with the earlier sacred sites. |
|
| Throughout the early years of Christianity in this far-northern corner the sacred sites were in no immediate |
| danger. Pope Gregory I in 596 AD sent through Augustine the instruction: "By no means destroy the temples |
| of the idols belonging to the British, but only the idols which are found in them; inasmuch as they are well- |
| constructed, it is necessary that they should be converted from the dowership of demons to the true God." |
|
| But a century after Augustine, more extreme measures were called for: in Theodore's Penitential, 690 AD, |
| "idolatry, worship of demons, cult of the dead, worship of nature, Pagan calendar customs and festivals, |
| witchcraft and sorcery, augury and divination and astrology" were banned. Yet the old ways persisted. |
|
| Megalithic structures such as the recumbent circles survived ("superstition spares them though stones are |
| so scarce", wrote one 18th-century Aberdeenshire clergyman), but the Pictish stones did not fare so well |
| Ultimately their portability became their downfall. While superstition had spared them until the onslaught |
| of Victorian gentlemanly antiquarianism, from that point on they were coveted, uprooted, "taken in" and |
| "protected" all over the place. The Church, of course, had first priority because by "taking them in" |
| (installing in graveyards, building into the fabric of hallowed structures, or reusing as family tombs) they |
| were being de-paganised and therefore gently being nudged under the Christian umbrella. Class I stones |
| carved with animal and geometric symbols stand within kirk precincts today at the Banffshire churches of |
| Mortlach, Marnoch and Ruthven, in Morayshire kirks at Advie, Birnie, Inverallan, Inveravon, and |
| Knockando, and in Aberdeenshire at Clatt, Rhynie, Tyrie, Fetterangus, Dyce, Deer, Fyvie, Kinellar, |
| Kintore, Bourtie and Inverurie. |
|
| Class II stones, usually a cross-shaft sharing space with familiar animal 'spirits', are found in St. Mary's |
| Monymusk, Migvie, Logie-Coldstone, Tullich-Deeside, Fordoun-Auchenblae (the Mearns), Elgin cathedral. |
|
| The lairds also had their fair share of the spoils. In the rush to comply with post-Reformation instruction to |
| build new churches, often on pagan sites, stones were broken up for building, reused in threshing or milling, |
| or taken off to form a feature at the laird's house. National Trust for Scotland's Leith Hall and Brodie Castle |
| are custodians of three, open to the public. Others, at Newton House, Arndilly, Keith Hall, Castle Forbes, |
| Park House, Logie House, Mounie Castle, Craigmyle House, Tillypronie Lodge, Knockespock House, |
| Blackhills House, Whitestones House and Whitehills are private. Five known Class I stones in Aberdeenshire |
| still stand in their original sites: at Ardlair, Nether Corskie, the Insch Picardy Stone, Brandsbutt Inverurie |
| (re-constituted after blasting) and the Rhynie Craw Stane. Moray Class I stones thought to be in situ stand |
| at Congash (2) and Upper Manbeen. The rest, totalling an unknown figure (32 recorded) abound in museums |
| round the Northeast, are in Edinburgh or are "lost". |
|
| Upwards of 30 carved sacred water bull stones were thought to guard the Pictish port-stronghold of |
| Burghead (L. Tarvedunum, dun, fort of the bulls) which juts out from the mainland into the Moray Firth. |
| All but six bulls were destroyed or thrown into the harbour in early 19th-century reconstruction of the town. |
| Ironically Burghead is the most ardent in keeping Pictish tradition, celebrating the sun's return after winter |
| solstice by "Burning the Clavie" - a man-size torch carried sun-wise round the town on the shoulders of the |
| clavie king and his crew on January 11th each year. |
|
| Sueno's Stone, Forres (Class III with cross but no Pictish symbols - instead panels depicting the saga of the |
| Scots victory over the Picts) was re-erected, possibly the wrong way around after being found buried deep |
| in sandy Moray soil. |
|
| Clusters of Pictish symbol stones found embedded in mediaeval mounds at Kintore, Tyrie and Drumblade, |
| buried face-down at river confluences (Donaldstonehaugh, River Isla) or close to Pictish villages (Aikey |
| Brae and Rhynie Barflat) have disappeared. A Class I stone carved with horseshoe on an earlier stone |
| circle stone was rescued from oblivion in the 19th-century erection of a memorial to the Duke of Lennox |
| and returned to Huntly market square to share honour with the Marquis. Another, carved on a circle stone |
| near Dunecht, was only discovered after a horse with "mange" rubbed himself on the stone and the farmer, |
| fearing spread of the affliction, wiped the stone with lime, revealing long-lost symbols. |
|
| As late as 1978 and 1983 symbol stones from Barflat (Rhynie "Man") and Insch (Wantonwells) were |
| removed from their original location as archaeological prizes: Wantonwells went to Aberdeen's Marischal |
| Museum where it is climate-controlled, but Rhynie Man stands in the vestibule of Woodhill House, local |
| government office headquarters and a prize possession as blatant as any claimed by19th century |
| "gentleman-archaeologists". |
|
| Into this climate of haphazard care, the Maiden Stone interjects herself. One of only four Class II stones |
| in Aberdeenshire, she might have been carried off as a prize, but, perhaps because of her legendary |
| character, she has survived. Earliest remnant of a pre-Christian myth is a wonderfully-confused tale that she |
| was the maid of Drumdurno, turned to stone by the spirit of the mountain (Jock of Bennachie, Sc.Gael. |
| diadhachd pron.Jahck = a god) when she prayed to be rescued from pursuit by the 'devil' who had |
| bargained with her that he could build a causeway up Bennachie (Maiden causeway, prehistoric) before |
| she could finish baking her "firlot" of bannocks. Another, more likely to be based on fact, is that she was |
| the daughter of the laird of Balquhain who was killed by accident after eloping with the son of a rival laird. |
| Third, that she was one of several maiden conquests of a Leslie laird who dragged his prey to the "fort" on |
| top of Bennachie where he had his way with them! Fate saw to it that he died at the battle of Harlaw, 1411. |
|
| All four surfaces, broad E & W faces and narrow sides, are decorated. The pagan side, facing east, depicts |
| four panels each featuring symbols used in earlier Class I stones, but typically late carving in relief. In |
| coarse-grained granite this was no mean feat but the technique allows animal and geometric forms to stand |
| out clearly in low raking sunlight, even after 1100 years. The west face is dominated by an interlaced wheel |
| cross, underpinned by a circular spiral-filled design with key pattern and knotwork, while overhead are |
| mounted two ketos or fish gently cradling a clerical figure. This "Christian" face is badly weathered. |
|
| The Maiden stone has a virtually unique combination allowing sacred Pictish symbols to cover one whole |
| side, while also dominating part of the invading Christian side. If its dating is correct to post-843, after the |
| Scots finally obliterated the kingdom of the Picts in this Northeast corner, the inner sanctum of the vanquished |
| race, it was perhaps politic to share religions. |
|
| Sueno's Stone at Forres, closer to the last Pictish stronghold at Burghead, is more warlike in proclaiming its |
| Christian message of Right is Might, but it, too, shows a central figure supported by two curving shapes on |
| the Christian side, below the cross. In fact on all other known Class II cross-slabs in Northeast Scotland |
| where sacred symbols of the two faiths share space (Monymusk, Fordoun, Migvie, Mortlach, Dyce) the |
| cross occurs on the same face as Pictish animal and geometric symbols. |
|
| The invading Scots perhaps had the presence of mind never to carve here free-standing crosses such as |
| the High Crosses of Iona and West Scotland. The closest to a western motif is the Loch Kinord cross-slab |
| at Cromar, but even its curly-terminal cross is trapped within the oval of the stone. Farther south within |
| Angus/Forfar and Perthshire/Fife a clear dominance by warlike Scots results in a multitude of "Class III" |
| stones, sometimes so-called because they feature crosses and horsemen, but few Pictish symbols. It is an |
| historic fact that central Scotland succumbed to Scots rule long before the Men of Moray who held out |
| culturally until Macbeth (d. 1057). |
|
| So it may be that the Scots who influenced the carving of the late Pictish Maiden Stone had to bow to the |
| strength of a prevailing worship of nature spirits in order to get their message across. It is now accepted |
| that the Picts had their own water cult and that the salmon, dolphin and other great fish (Gk. ketos) were |
| central to that worship. Roman historians were aghast when discovering that Picts ate no salmon, though |
| the rivers were teeming with them. Flesh of the goose, too, (Roseisle Class I stone in Edinburgh) was |
| never eaten, though they roamed wild in profusion. The dolphin (or Pictish "beast" carved on 24 Class I |
|
| stones in east Scotland) was believed to be sacred because it could live both in air and water and shared |
| knowledge of the world beyond the sunset. The salmon was sacred; it also lived in two media - saltwater |
| and fresh - sharing its knowledge of the seven springs of wisdom. References to sacred salmon kept in |
| wells occur as late as the 16th century, usually by the priest or the minister, who by then was supposed to |
| be as learned as they. |
|
| 'A well . . . at which are the hazels of inspiration and wisdom, the hazels of the science of poetry and, in the |
| same hour their fruit and their blossom and their foliage break forth, and these fall on the well in the same |
| shower, which raises on the water a royal surge of purple. Then the sacred salmon chew the fruit and the |
| juice of the nuts shows on their red bellies. And seven streams of wisdom spring forth.' |
| Stokes trans. 1887 Old Celtic Legend. |
|
| All Pictish Class I stones in Northeast Scotland whose original location is known were placed within a mile |
| of water. Would it not then be wise to enlist the support of this great spirit of the water when proclaiming a |
| new faith to a Pictish audience? The fish on top of the cross on the Maiden stone may not only be supporting |
| the little cleric, new at his job, but whispering their knowledge in his ear. On the eastern ('pagan') side, it is |
| probably significant that the four panels depict the highest order of Pictish symbolism, even if adapted in late |
| relief form: at the top a panel shows animals of the forest, but one has the ability to shape-shift to part-human. |
|
| Shape-shifting was legendary among the Picts and incoming clerics made use of this belief to convert, even |
| using shape-shifting themselves (according to tradition) to show the potency of the new faith. Columba was |
| known to encourage belief in his ability to shape-shift, raise and still storms and produce wine from water in |
| order to convince his new flock. |
|
| Panel two shows the great Z-rod & fire altar used in the four annual fire festivals at the doorway to the |
| seasons - Samhain, Oimelc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Interestingly, Burghead's fire-altar the "Doorie", into |
| which the flaming mass of burning creosote, tar and oak staves is thrust as a final gesture in Burning the |
| Clavie, is similar in shape. The Z-rod, thought to symbolise the magic of lightning or a celestial wand, occurs |
| in tandem with fire-altars, serpents, double-sun symbols in a majority of Northeast symbol stones. |
|
| Panel three holds the sacred dolphin, carved without companions or embellishment - alone in his supreme |
| position as carrier of great knowledge. Panel four bears the female symbols of mirror and comb, probably |
| the oldest symbolism of all, of the goddess, the earth herself, but by early Scots times diminished into a |
| lower order. The Picts had a matrilineal system of succession, but this and all it signified was forceably |
| quenched in the Scots order of male rule. Though Macbeth claimed the throne by tanistry (the Pictish right by |
| blood through the female line which enabled brothers to succeed brothers or uncles, but not sons to succeed |
| fathers) he was last to lose to the Scots system which prevailed. |
|
| Etymology plays a part in the jigsaw of piecing together the Maiden's meaning. Gael. Maoid-hean means |
| prayer, entreaty, supplication. If it was used as a place of prayer, as records show many Pictish stones were, |
| it was a habit capitalised on by early clerics in their conversions. Stones around Aberdeenshire named for |
| saints include Marnan's chair, a megalith in St Marnoch's churchyard, and Brandan Stanes recumbent circle, |
| both Banffshire; three symbol stones ogham-inscribed to indicate "Eddernan" or St. Ethernan preached at |
| each; and Clochmaloo or the stone of Moluag, patron saint of inland Aberdeenshire, a glacial erratic |
| perched on a slope of Tap o' Noth topped by a huge five-acre vitrified fort. Also Mâg (plain, pron. mai)-dun |
| means a fort commanding an open plain. |
|
| The astronomers may have the last word: Gael. Madiunn means morning; the morning sun rises to shine on |
| on the pagan eastern face of the stone until precisely midday, when it casts no shadow on either face. |
| Meadhon means mid or centre, either denoting the centre of a powerful area, which the fertile Garioch plain |
| most certainly was, its nickname 'Girnal" (grainstore) of Aberdeenshire handed down for generations; or it |
| could mean mid in a time sense. As noon approaches on any clear day, but spring and autumn give better |
| angular light, the sun which has shone directly at the symbols all morning begins to pick out the gentle curves |
| and cast the tiniest of shadows along the bodies of pagan beast and mystic wand. Shadows lengthen until at |
| at noon they completely fill the space of the recessed background from which the symbols spring in relief - |
| almost as if filling a pool. |
|
| At noon, the sun casts no shadow either on pagan or Christian side - just a brief gnomon-like shade in the |
| short grass. Then as the minutes tick by after noon, shadows appear to fill the spaces on the Christian side |
| and form pools in the four sockets of the wheel cross gradually shortening over the bodies of the giant fish, |
| until around 12:10 p.m. when shadows are once again imperceptible. As a noon sundial, the Maiden is |
| unbeatable. |
|
| Local support for leaving the Maiden Stone untouched was strong, though if the decision had gone the other |
| way, few would have stood up and caused a revolution. It is because the decision has been made in favour |
| of her native setting, hovering over the Water of Crowmallie, that future generations may be able to share the |
| Maiden's knowledge which was originally shouted in a loud voice from the slopes of Bennachie. Only we, |
| her children, have forgotten the meaning of the words. It is up to us now to remember the ways of the natural |
| world, and to take into ourselves the messages left by a culture which may have much to teach us. |
|
| ©1996 Marian Youngblood |
| Published in Summer edition 1997 number 127 of The LEY Hunter |
| used with permission of TLH editor |
|
| Marian Youngblood is author of a book on early church history - |
| Bourtie Kirk - 800 Years , ISBN 0 9526 365 2 2 |
| and has a guide to the stones & other antiquities of Grampian in production. She is newsletter editor and |
| information officer of the charitable society Friends of Grampian Stones. Information on membership can be |
| obtained via email to stones@globalnet.co.uk or clicking to Membership |
|
| The Ley Hunter (TLH) publishes regularly on matters of scientific and philosophical intent. Its former editor |
| Paul Devereux is well-known for his articles and books on alignments, seasonal & cultural ritual and natural |
| phenomena. |
