Waylands Smithy
Statistics
Category
County
Coordinates
Grid
Condition
Features
Age
Cost
Flash Earth
Long Barrow
Oxfordshire
51° 34' 0.28" N, 1° 35'37.76" W
SU281854
Good
Walking
3700 BC
Free
Waylands Smithy
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Legends

Wayland's Smithy is one of many prehistoric sites associated with Wayland or Wolund, the Norse and Saxon god of blacksmithing. The name was seemingly applied to the site by the Saxon invaders, who reached the area some four thousand years after Wayland's Smithy was built. According to legend, a traveler whose horse has lost a shoe can leave the animal and the smallest silver coin (a groat) on the capstone at Wayland's Smithy. When he returns next morning he will find that his horse has been re-shod and the money gone. It is conjectured that the invisible smith may have been linked to this site for many centuries before the Saxons recognized him as Wayland. The Ancient Britons may have been accustomed to making votive offerings to a local god.