Monthly Archives for August 2009

Candyhenge, or The Little-Known Druid Years of Queen Frostine

candyhenge

photo by Toy Master, with permission

[note: it has come to our attention that our British friends may not have shared the joys of CandyLand as children. It is a board game peopled by fantasy characters like the beautiful Queen Frostine and the evil Lord Licorice. It was often the first game for children because the characters advanced by colored cards matching to colored spaces, with no numbers. And the story inside the lid of the game was some people’s first introduction to the fantasy genre.]

So here’s the plot: Queen Frostine makes an impulse marriage with the Jolly Rancher and together they decide to memorialise their love with a Stonehenge replica. Little do they know that over in the next kingdom a jealous Lord Licorice is breeding a race of sugar-eating bats . . .blah, blah . . . and then everything went horribly wrong! . . . blah, blah . . . happily ever after.

Who says we can’t write a screenplay? The truth is, plans for a Candyland movie do exist, and we doubt they’ll think of the exciting henge angle without our help. When someone sent us a link to this candy replica, we saw our chance to do some hinting. (We wanted Terry Gilliam to direct, but sadly it is not to be.)

Back to the henge. Ann from Heritage Key sent us the link to the picture, which is probably the most recently-made item in the Heritage Key Flickr group. We do like the colours and of course the juxtaposition of food on the ground adds that bit of squeamishness that can substitute for drama in a pinch. Score: 5½ druids. It’s just a ring of trilithons, after all, and it doesn’t quite have the charisma of sausage henge.

We think Hugh Laurie would make a great Lord Licorice! When you read this post, Hollywood movers and shakers, give us a call. We have more henge-movie ideas you’ll love!

Claremont Henge, California

P7200031photos by Simon Burrow, with permission

The old question–doth a trilithon a Stonehenge make? And the answer may be, It depends how desperate you are for material for your blog. In this case we have no qualms including the item since  noted Stonehenge replica scholar Simon Burrow suggested it. We’ll blame him! Looking at his blogs, he seems like such a thoughtful, intelligent, good-hearted person, it’s difficult to understand how he became involved in this sordid henge business, but there it is. You may see his posting of this trilithon here.

You may remember Mr. Burrow from such feats of henging as LaptopHenge and the magnificent Cellphonehenge, as well as some of the photos on the International Virtual Henge Fest page. (Click on the word Henge on the side of his blog, linked in the photo caption above, to see still more.)

P7200032Mr. Burrow likens the spiral on the hitching stone near the trilithon to the Anasazi snail design, but some of our readers may be reminded as we were, of the spiral designs carved in to stones at the Newgrange passage grave in Ireland. Although California is closer to the Anasazi sites, the trilithon’s possible reference to Stonehenge makes the Newgrange reference just as likely. Of course, the spiral is universal, and for all we know could be the logo for their tanning studio!

It’s just a trilithon with two shorter stones that we could charitably call bluestones. As for the spiral stone, well, at least it’s not an Easter Island head! Score: 5 druids. Of course, if it should turn out that everyone on this block had a trilithon and two bluestones, the score would rise rapidly. A community Stonehenge replica . . . for now it remains but a happy dream!