Now here was a time to
celebrate! A wedding to join two of the bonniest young people you
would ever know. And all the village was there, and folk from
further off too, all come for the festivities. And there had to be
music for the dancing, so they called for a piper. He played such
merry tunes that even the old aunts hopped to their feet to dance
together with sober cousins.
All evening, one dance
followed another, but then it drew close to midnight and the next day
being the Sabbath, the piper told them he must stop. But the bride,
she had gotten in a whirl with dancing see, finding such joy she’d
never known before and didn’t want it to stop. She begged the
piper keep playing saying he was the finest in the land.
Some warned her against
this, how it was wrong to dance on the Sabbath, and others drifted
off to their beds. But such is the folly of the young and such was
the vanity of the piper at her flattery that there were many who
continued in their dancing to the sound of the bagpipe.
And as it passed
midnight, a cloud drew over the moon and the tune fell silent. When
next the light shone, there were the dancers in a circle but standing
still. They had been turned to stone, and the piper also.
And there they are
today, as a reminder to all. So if you hear the hum of a drone, or a
sweet melody as the wind whistles through the stones, you shall know
why.
There are several stone
circles which have this legendary origin, amongst them The Merry
Maidens in Cornwall, The Pipers Stones in County Wicklow and Stanton
Drew Stone Circle in Somerset. This is my retelling of the tale.
