Devil's Dyke
The gulleys were, scientists tell us, formed during the ice age.
Apparently, by the action of glaciers.
But we know better, don't we? The devil, the great horned beast,
Developed a plan to flood the churches in the valley of the Weald,
by cutting gouges down which water would overflow .
He was the patron saint of landscape architects, obviously.
He cut out a lot of earth and rock, which had to go somewhere,
so he deposited it around the countryside.
Where he threw the stones, there are now stone circles.
The biggest lump of earth landed in the channel, and
Of course created the Isle of Wight.
If you get caught in the mist on Devil's Dyke it would
undoubtedly be eerie, and probably dangerous.
There is apparently a hoof print, there, which he left behind.
This legend would put it clearly into the Devil category,
rather than the Demonic.
That's what i would expect
from a prehistoric landscape: reference to the worship
of the horned beast, associated with landscape features, which
would have been around before the arrival of Christianity.
So what pagan god would it have been, who was
the Celtic version of the horned beast?
Or are we talking about a horned god brought over
by the Romans, when they landed in Sussex,
perhaps soldiers from the Middle East, or the Caucasus?
Thry could have tacked their cult of Mithras? or
Maybe an Egyptian deity? onto a local horned god?
Who would be the best contender?
Along come the Christians, and muddle the story further
by connecting Satan to the deity, which they
would consider an idolatrous object of worship.
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