The Modern Antiquarian. Ancient Sites, Stone Circles, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic Mysteries

Brittany   Morbihan (56) including Carnac  

Grand Menhir Brise

Standing Stone / Menhir

<b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by postmanImage © Chris Bickerton
Also known as:
  • Men-er-Groach
  • Men er Hroeg
  • Grand Menhir Brisé

Latitude:47° 34' 17.25" N
Longitude:   2° 57' 0.62" W

Added by Kammer


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<b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by Moth <b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by Jane <b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by Jane <b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by postman <b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by postman <b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by Kammer <b>Grand Menhir Brise</b>Posted by Spaceship mark

Fieldnotes

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Grand Menhir Brisé (GMB) is almost too vast to comprehend. After we arrived off the ferry in St Malô the day before we swung by the Menhir du Champs Dolent at Dol-de-Bretagne and I thought that – at 32 feet tall – was a big one.

Turns out that compared to GMB, it's a tiddler.

But GMB no longer stands. It lies fallen and broken in four mammoth pieces on the manicured grass to be marvelled at in the same way as one would view the body of a dead, beached whale. I was aware that a 'fragment' of this great broken stone had been carted off and reused to build Gavrinis which I would see later. So large is this stone that some wonder if it was ever vertical.
Jane Posted by Jane
3rd August 2007ce

Folklore

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La glissade appears rarely to have been practised on true megaliths, for the reason that they rarely present the inclination necessary to its accomplishment. It is, however, said at Loc- mariaker, in the Morbihan, that formerly every young girl who wished to marry within the year, on the night of the first of May got on the large menhir, turned up her skirts and let herself slide from top to bottom. The menhir mentioned was the largest one known; but it is now broken in four pieces which lie on the ground; according to most authors it was still standing at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This custom, which could not be followed when the stone stood vertical, twelve meters in height, is, then, relatively modern, yet it is possible that the young girls of the locality have come to follow, on the pieces, an ancient custom which was formerly held on some natural stone in the neighborhood.
The Worship of Stones in France
Paul Sébillot and Joseph D. McGuire
American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1902), pp. 76-107
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
24th April 2008ce
Edited 24th April 2008ce