Identifier: mythslegendscelt00roll (find matches)
Title: Myths and legends ; the Celtic race
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas William), 1857-1920
Subjects: Celts Celts Celtic literature Legends, Celtic
Publisher: Boston : Nickerson
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
lozenges. This entrance faces exactly south-east. The
passage is formed of upright slabs of unhewn stone
roofed with similar slabs, and varies from nearly 5 feet
to 7 feet 10 inches in height ; it is about 3 feet wide, and
runs for 62 feet straight into the heart of the mound.
Here it ends in a cruciform chamber, 20 feet high, the
roof, a kind of dome, being formed of large flat stones,
overlapping inwards till they almost meet at the top, where
a large flat stone covers all. In each of the three re-
cesses of the cruciform chamber there stands a large
stone basin, or rude sarcophagus, but no traces of any
burial now remain.

Symbolic Carvings at New Grange

The stones are all raw and undressed, and were
selected for their purpose from the river-bed and else-
where close by. On their flat surfaces, obtained by
splitting slabs from the original quarries, are found the
carvings which form the unique interest of this strange
monument. Except for the large stone with spiral
carvings and one other at the entrance to the mound,
70
Text Appearing After Image:

Entrance to Tumulus at New Grange
Photograph by R. Welch, Belfast

THE SHIP SYMBOL AT NEW GRANGE

the intention of these sculptures does not appear to have
been decorative, except in a very rude and primitive
sense. There is no attempt to cover a given surface
with a system of ornament appropriate to its size and
shape. The designs are, as it were, scribbled upon the
walls anyhow and anywhere.¹ Among them everywhere
the spiral is prominent. The resemblance of some of
these carvings to the supposed finger-markings of the
stones at Gavrinis is very remarkable. Triple and
double spiral are also found, as well as lozenges and
zigzags. A singular carving representing what looks
like a palm-branch or fern-leaf is found in the west
recess. The drawing of this object is naturalistic, an
dit is hard to interpret it, as Mr. Coffey is inclined to do,
as merely a piece of so-called " herring-bone " pattern.²
A similar palm-leaf design, but with the ribs arranged
at right angles to the central axis, is found in the
neighbouring tumulus of Dowth, at Loughcrew, and
in combination with a solar emblem, the swastika, on a
small altar in the Pyrenees, figured by Bertrand.

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