The Riesenstein ( en, giant's stone) is a megalith or menhir, which is situated close to the village of

Wolfershausen Wolfershausen is one of the sixteen constituent communities that form the town of Felsberg, Hesse, Felsberg in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Hesse, North Hesse, Germany. Geography The boundary of the village encompasses an area of about , in which appr ...

. It is the largest megalith in the district of Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Hesse, Germany.

Location

The Riesenstein is located directly north of the village of Wolfershausen. It can be reached from a tarmacked road north of the railway bridge, where it is signposted. It is located on the south-eastern corner of a small woodland. The megalith is also close to the eastern bank of the Eder River, which is just away (over the railway). Side view of the Riesenstein megalith

Composition, Dimensions, and Geometry

Riesenstein is composed of

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

Miocene (from to ) quartzite. In contrast to quartzites produced by metamorphism, the Tertiary sedimentary quartzites were the product of intense weathering of local Triassic Buntsandstein sandstones in a tropical climate. This entailed bleaching of sandstone and silicification by movement of silica-saturated groundwater through the

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

. Consequently, the rock is practically made completely of quartz, with very little porosity. The megalith has an oblate rectangular

cuboid In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a cub ...

shape. It has a maximum height of , a maximum width of , and it is approximately thick. A rough estimate of the surface area of the flat large side is . Hence the Riesenstein has an above-ground volume of ca. . Quartzite is composed wholly of quartz, which has a density of . Therefore, the above-ground mass of the stone is ca. . For comparison, the

sarsen Sarsen stones are silicified sandstone blocks found in quantity in Southern England on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire. Geology ...

(also a kind of silicified sandstone that resulted from

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

acid leaching) stones of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

only weigh ca. . The weak, originally-horizontal

bedding planes In geology, a bed is a layer of sediment, sedimentary rock, or pyroclastic material "bounded above and below by more or less well-defined bedding surfaces".Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds., 2005. ''Glossary of Geology'' ...

of the quartzite are now vertical, which rules out the stone being in a natural position. Furthermore, the surrounding area (in the wood) is covered with small blocks of quartzite, as are many other nearby hills, proving that Tertiary quartzite outcrops or is close to the surface in these places. Riesenstein is therefore unlikely to have been transported far, if at all.

History

Archeological digs found neolithic human remains at the base of the megalith, proving the stone was ''in use'' approximately 3000 yrs B.C. In 1615 the megalith was first referred to in documents as "Großer Stein" ( en, large stone). In 1986 Riesenstein became a German natural monument.

Legends

Two legends are connected with the Riesenstein. In the wide floodplain f the Eder River monks and men from the neighbouring villages built a large monastery. The building took a long time. Finally the Breitenau Monastery was finished and pious monks' song could be heard mixed with the first chimes of the monastery bells. For a long time a malicious giant on the Lotterberg hill had been watching the festivities. Now he couldn't hold back his anger and hate any more. He ripped up a huge rock and threw it with all his might at the monastery to reduce it to rubble. But in his haste he threw wrongly and the stone dropped before it passed the Ellenberg hill on the other side of the

Eder Eder may refer to: People * Eder (surname) * Éder (given name), a Portuguese or Spanish given name *Éder (footballer, born 1986), Brazilian footballer Éder Citadin Martins *Eder (footballer, born 1987), Portuguese footballer from Guinea-Bissau E ...

River. The stone is still present and admonishes future generations to past events. In a different story, two male giants had a fight over the

giantess A giantess is a female giant: either a mythical being, such as the Amazons of Greek mythology, resembling a woman of superhuman size and strength or a human woman of exceptional stature, often the result of some medical or genetic abnormality ( ...

Nagathe, because they were both in love with her. Nagathe had moved in with the Giant Lothar on

Lotterberg Lotterberg is a (Normalhöhennull, NHN) high hill between the villages of Wolfershausen and Deute in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Hesse, Germany. Geology The hill is composed of basalt that fills the volcanic neck, neck of a now-extinct volcano. The ...

, but his rival Kunibert wouldn't accept this. Kunibert left his home at Heiligenberg and kidnapped Nagathe in front of Lothar. In a mad fury Lothar threw a large stone at his disappearing rival, but he missed and the stone was rammed into the soft ground. Because this story was often told, the stone was given the name "giant's stone".

Literature

{{reflist

External links

Photographs of menhirs in Germany by Johannes Groht (in German)

* ttp://regiowiki.hna.de/Wolfershausen RegioWiki about Wolfershausen and Riesenstein (in German)
The Town of Felsberg's website with details of Riesenstein (in German)
Neolithic Prehistoric sites in Germany Megalithic monuments in Germany Buildings and structures in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis