Erratic boulders, wandering – glaciers – ancient history – origin

Glacial erratics are a distinctive feature of the landscape that attracts attention. They are particularly conspicuous in cultivated areas, because a solitary stone in a field is visible from afar. Their solitude and a certain disconnectedness from context stimulated the human imagination, which explained their origin as the work of devils, cyclopes, trolls, or as petrified human or animal beings. Some of them became cult pagan sites.

• The origin of erratic boulders, however, is more prosaic. It is a block of rock that was transported by a glacier over a great distance from its original location, and when the ice melted, the stone thus found itself in a geologically completely different environment. However, this theory did not emerge until the end of the 19th century. century. Granites and gneisses predominate among glacial erratics due to their durability; other rocks may also include migmatites, sandstones, and limestones. For geologists, they are an important criterion in determining the southern boundary of glaciation. Erratic boulders were once also used as a source of building material, for millstones and cannonballs.
• Glacial erratics are always well known in the region, usually associated with some legend, or attributed with some magical property. Legends can also be quite gloomy, but an individual relationship to the stone is always a matter of the person who comes to it. It is difficult to precisely specify any general magical effect of such places, but the atmosphere is always very pronounced. If you visit such a stone and are perceptive, you will figure out many things on your own.