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    Wessex Tales: "In the land of the great stone rings" (Story 5)
    Wessex Tales: "In the land of the great stone rings" (Story 5)
    Wessex Tales: "In the land of the great stone rings" (Story 5)
    Ebook41 pages32 minutes

    Wessex Tales: "In the land of the great stone rings" (Story 5)

    By Robert Fripp

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    About this ebook

    Turig, a Bronze Age farmer, tells his grandson how he had been drafted for labor service decades before. The work was long and dangerous but his supervisor’s flirtatious daughter presented the larger threat. Two years later, Turig helped lift the last sarsen stone onto a structure we know as Stonehenge. [PS: New research revises this date by a full millennium, from 3,600 to 4,600 years ago.]

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Fripp
    Release dateJan 17, 2013
    ISBN9780991857500
    Wessex Tales: "In the land of the great stone rings" (Story 5)
    Author

    Robert Fripp

    Nature, wildlife and public affairs television, earth sciences, gothic vaults and liturgy: Robert Fripp’s fiction and non-fiction share many slices of life. § Here, Fripp introduces his 38 “Wessex Tales” stories. Thomas Hardy used that title over a century ago. Fripp moves it forward with a new collection of “Wessex Tales” covering “Eight thousand years in the life of an English village.” § First come Stone Age hunters. Then villagers discover a new “stone,” bronze. Locals build Stonehenge. A Roman mosaic depicts Jesus. We advance: from Viking raiders to potions for maidens, a medieval wedding, civil war, smugglers, and the second battle of the Somme. § Smashwords releases several stories, here. Read them—free, for a time—choosing a format for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, Mac, PC, iPhone (via Stanza), Sony, Kobo and Androids. All 38 “Wessex Tales” stories will come alive in paperback within two years.

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      Book preview

      Wessex Tales - Robert Fripp

      ~ WESSEX TALES ~

      Eight thousand years in the life of an English village

      ‘ In the Land of the Great Stone Rings ’

      * ‘In the Land of the Great Stone Rings’ (Story 05)

      is among 38 stories in my Wessex Tales collection.

      Robert Fripp

      Copyright 2013 Robert Fripp

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for reading my e-story. It will be free to read for several months. However, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, Robert Fripp, who reserves all rights. This e-story may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoy it, please encourage your friends to download a copy at Smashwords.com, where they will find more of my stories.

      To find these e-stories on the web,

      try this Search Term => Wessex_Tales:Fripp

      Thank you for supporting me.

      Cover

      Photographer Lucille Pine (LuluP) writes,

      "A dramatic rainbow at Stonehenge.

      Saturday 30th December 2006,

      after the downpour, soaked to the bone."

      Permission: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

      Cover design by The Design Unit,

      www.thedesignunit.com

      In the Land of the Great Stone Rings

      ISBN 978-0-9918575-0-0

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Author’s note

      Books by Robert Fripp

      Reach me Online

      A List of my Stories

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      ‘In the Land of the Great Stone Rings’

      4,600 years ago, give or take a lunar cycle or two

      Chapter 1

      "The Moon viewed from [the island of Britain] appears to be but a small distance from the Earth. … The account is also given that the god [the Moon?] visits the island every nineteen years, the period in which the return of the stars to the same place in the heavens is accomplished. … There is also on the island both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo [the Sun] and a notable temple… and the supervisors are called Boreadae, and succession to these positions is always kept in the family."

      Diodorus, History of the Ancient World, c. 50 B.C.

      What did you do in the old days, Grandpa?

      The boy’s question took Turig by surprise. Nobody bothered with old folks nowadays. Ah, he replied, the olden days. Well…

      They were alone in the hut. The boy’s parents were off trading barley and flax for a cow, staying with Turig’s other daughter and her family at a farmstead high on the chalklands, half a day east, in the principal lands of the Lords of the great Stone Rings. Livestock grew stronger bones there; the high chalk country made for better breeding than the soil surrounding this windy, north-facing promontory of hill.

      The boy would have gone along too but for the broken leg he suffered falling from a tree. His leg had been

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