what is the real story of the stone hedge?
353933
To be honest: we only can guess!
358557
1.Foundation of stone-Foundation of Stone ch.1\n2.The taming of Smeagol-The taming of Smeagol-ch.2\n3.The riders of Rohan-The burnign of the Westfold ch.5,The riders of Rohan ch.9,The banishment of Eomer ch.6\n4.The passage of the Marshes-The passage of the Marhes ch.12\n5.The Uruk-hai-The Uruk-Hai ch.3\n6.The king of the Golden Hall-The king of the Golden Hall ch.16\n7.The Black Gate is closed-The Black Gate is closed ch.15\n8.The evenstar-The Evenstar ch.25\n9.The White Rider-The white Rider ch.13\n10.Treebeard-Fangorn Forest ch.14\n11.The leave taking-The story foreseen from Lorien ch.31\n12.Helm´s deep-Helm´s deep ch.27\n13.The forbidden pool-The forbidden pool ch.33\n14.Breath of life-The grace of Valar ch.29,Arwen´s fate ch.30\n15.The Hornburg-Where is the horse and the rider ch.37,The host of the Eldar ch.38,The battle of the Hornburg ch.39\n16.Forth Eorlingas-Forth Eorlingas ch.48\n17.Isengard Unleashed-Aragorn´s return ch.34,The breach of the deeping wall ch.41,Retreat to the Hornburg ch.43\n18.Samwise the brave-The tales that really matters ch.50\n19.Gollum´s song-End credits ch.53\nThe numbers of the chapters(ch.)aren´t from the extended version...
651131
Mr. Scratch\n\nThe story is about a New Hampshire farmer in 1840 with unending bad luck. Jabez Stone swears that "it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil!" When Mr. Scratch (the Devil) arrives the next day, the farmer reluctantly makes a bargain for better luck. Mr. Stone enjoys seven years of prosperity, and later bargains for three more years, but as the "mortgage falls due," he convinces famous lawyer and orator Daniel Webster to argue his case with the Devil.
1048748
I've heard all this too.  I really wish he had shared with someone how he did it.\nI've also read theories about magical dwarves which sung the stones into place at megalithic sites around the world. I have to wonder if they either really sang with their voices or if they had some kind of device which made noise and was a type of levitation device. I am not saying these dwarves were aliens (other have said this) but it is something to think about.\nYou've probably already seen the links below (especially since you quoted word-for-word including the strange punctuation from one of them--please GIVE CREDIT when you do this; it's STEALING) but others might be interested.
697614
The Old Farmer's Almanac gives this story:\nhttp://www.almanac.com/question/oneanswer.php?questionnumber=12065\n\nThere's also a band called "Cooter Brown" that gives the same tale:\nhttp://www.cooterbrown.com/
1012030
The waterbeetle brought mud from the bottom of the sea. It began to grow into an island. The water always exists the Earth gets too populated (too heavy) and falls back into the sea.\nNow this is how the story begins in the book. As if the birds and fish have always existed.\n\nHa, I found it!
1115309
It is said to be real.....but reenacted
256888
By 'frame' story do you mean, I assume you mean like an outline of what happens?\nWell basically somehow this English guy ends up back into the 15th Century, in King Arthur's Court. And he describes how Medieval they are.  For he is speaking is the "Queens English" were they are all talking "Old English" with 'where for art thou' language.  ONe unforgettable instance, is his meetings with Merlin.  He describes the wizard to somewhat of a con-artist, wowing the masses with simple magic tricks.  And there is 'battle of magicians' between them.  The English man predicts an eclipse (which he has known of previously) and dares Merlin to reverse his spell, which Merlin is of course unable.  The english man is then made into a kind of knight, and we see him take a wife and live out his life in this 'backward' world.  He even helps in a big battle at the end, in which he brings in battlefield tactics from the future.
566142
Wow, I really wondered about it too, so a couple of years ago, I did some research on it, and I came up with three answers that were repeated over and over. I guess to know for sure which one is right, or if any of them are right, you would have to know the person who is placing the stone, and ask them. Below are the three things I found out:\n\n1. In Judaism, placing stones was traditionally a way to help keep the spirit of the dead in the grave. This appears to have been an Eastern European superstition that spread to the Jewish people who lived in that area of the world. It was thought that the spirits of even very good people stuck around to see their bodies buried, and might stay near the grave for a day or two. The stone was a symbolic lid, meant to keep the spirit in, and evil out, so that the spirit was not taken over by an evil force. The great majority of Jewish people in the US are of Eastern European origin, having emigrated here either before or after WWII,  so that tradition is very strong in American Jewish culture. \n\n2. The stone sometimes symbolizes a cairn. Cairns are little, man-made piles of rocks used to mark the site where someone is buried. Cairns were traditional in Scotland and parts of Northern England. Placing one rock represents a cairn, or someone might build a small cairn as a memorial to the dead, such as on the side of the road where a person had been killed in an accident. Cairns were also used to mark a place that had significance, such as a path or a historical site. If I remember correctly, some other cultures marked burial sites with piles of stones, but I am afraid I only remember the Scottish and English for sure, as that is where the word "cairn" comes from.\n\n3. In most cultures, it is considered respectful to bring something to the grave of a deceased person to bear witness to the fact that you were there and that you acknowledge their death and still remember them. For example, in the US, the most common thing that people bring to graves is flowers, even if the person buried there has been gone for a long time. However, any object will do. Sometimes, that object happens to be a stone. The object itself is not considered as important as the act of actually placing it.\n\nIt took me a long time to find out the little bit I told you about above. I see it all the time, but it was hard to find any concrete reasons why people carry on this tradition. I hope my information answers at least part of your question.
190046
"The Blarney stone"\n\nFive miles north west of the small city of Cork is the village of Blarney - its name being derived from the Irish An blarna meaning 'the plain'. Near the village, standing almost 90 feet in height, is the solidly built castle of Blarney. Cormac MacCarthy erected the present castle, the third constructed at the site, in 1446. Built on a rock, above several caves, the tower originally had three storeys. On the top storey, just below the battlements on the parapet, is the world famous Blarney Stone, said to give the gift of eloquence to all who kiss it. Kissing the stone is for some people a difficult physical feat. In past times, to kiss the Stone people were hung by their heels over the edge of the parapet. One day a pilgrim broke from the grasp of his friends and went hurtling downward to certain death. Since that time the stone has been kissed by another method. First, you sit with your back towards the stone and then someone sits upon your legs or firmly holds your feet. Next, leaning far back and downward into the abyss while grasping the iron rails, you lower yourself until your head is even with the stone to be kissed.\n\nJust how long this custom has been practiced or how it originated is not known. One local legend claims that an old women, saved from drowning by a king of Munster, rewarded him with a spell, that if he would kiss a stone on the castle's top, he would gain a speech that would win all to him. It is known, however, when and how the word Blarney entered the English language and the dictionary. During the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Dermot McCarthy, the ruler of the castle, was required to surrender his fortress to the Queen as proof of his loyalty. He said he would be delighted to do so, but something always happened at the last moment to prevent his surrender. His excuses became so frequent and indeed so plausible that the official who had been demanding the castle in the name of the Queen became a joke at the Court. Once, when the eloquent excuses of McCarthy were repeated to the Queen, she said "Odds bodikins, more Blarney talk!"  The term Blarney has thus come to mean 'the ability to influence and coax with fair words and soft speech without giving offense'. Echoing the power of the stone, an Irish bard of the early nineteenth century, Francis Sylvester Mahony, wrote:\n\nThere is a stone there,\nThat whoever kisses,\nOh, he never misses\nTo grow eloquent.\n'Tis he may clamber\nTo a lady's chamber,\nOr become a member\nOf Parliament.
389587
I believe you are pertaining to the the FACT page of the book.\n\nDan Brown is actually misleading us to believe what is in the book by writing that fact page.  He mentioned in that page that the Priory of Sion (which is the main focus of his novel) is a real organization founded in 1099.  He also mentioned about the Les Dossiers Secrets which was found in Bibliotheque Nationale in 1975.\n\nBut what is the real story of the Priory of Sion?  The Priory of Sion was a club founded in 1956 by four young Frenchmen. Two of its members were André Bonhomme (who was president of the club when it was founded) and Pierre Plantard (who previously had been sentenced to six months in prison for fraud and embezzlement).\n\nThe group's name is based on a local mountain in France (Col du Mont Sion), not Mount Zion in Jerusalem. It has no connection with the Crusaders, the Templars, or previous movements incorporating "Sion" into their names.\n\nThe organization broke up after a short time, but in later years Pierre Plantard revived it, claimed he was the "grand master" or leader of the organization, and began making outrageous claims regarding its antiquity, prior membership, and true purposes. It was he who claimed that the organization stemmed from the Crusades, he (in conjunction with later associates) who composed and salted Les Dossiers Secretes in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and he who created the story that the organization was guarding a secret royal bloodline that could one day return to political power.\n\nThe real history of this organization was written in some French books and even in a BBC special.  The BBC special itself concluded: \n"There's no evidence for a Priory of Sion until the 1950s; to find it, you go to the little town of St. Julien. Under French law every new club or association must register itself with the authorities, and that's why there's a dossier here showing that a Priory of Sion filed the proper forms in 1956. According to a founding member, this eccentric association took its name not from Jerusalem but from a nearby mountain (Col du Mont Sion, alt. 786 m). The dossier also notes that the Priory's self-styled grand master, Pierre Plantard, who is central to this story, has done time in jail."\n\nFor an extensive chronology of the events surrounding Pierre Plantard, the Priory of Sion, and its eventual demise, visit this website of researcher Paul Smith www.priory-of-sion.com.\n\nThe fact page also has certain claims of the Opus Dei which is entirely preposterous.  I will be referring you to some references that will prove that the claims of the book regarding Opus Dei is flat wrong.  http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=7017\n\nHope I have enlightened you at least this part of the book.    The Da Vinci Code can't provide evidences on their claims.
747737
The 'nagmani' or 'snake's gem' is a myth prevalent in rural India - that when a pebble or stone accidentally gets into a king cobra's mouth and pierces its way into one of its poison glands, the snake's poison forms a thick layer around the stone and solidifies as a protective coat to prevent the stone from further damaging the snake's mouth. [The myth must have been based on how a pearl is formed within an oyster !]\nThis 'stone' was rated as having a rare gem-like quality - with allegedly miraculous healing powers. It was also supposed to bring good luck to those who owned, or wore them !\n...Several Indian folk tales, from various regions, relate how brave young men [usually princes] went in search of the snake-gems - and returned with a beautiful princess as well, for a 'bonus'. \n...But no such 'gems' are formed in reality - though even now there are con-men [and women !] who sell such fakes to simpletons, who are still willing to believe in these tall tales !
389855
The Hartford Couurant, a newspaper in Conn. wrote a story about Rory Emerald finding Yoko Ono's bonsai tree. Of course it turned out to be a hoax, a friendly hoax. The Post & other tattler tabloids had a lot of fun with the ruse. (great & thought provoking question)
268328
This is one of the more interesting, bizarre questions I have ever read here.\n\nFrankly, I don't know. Is there something in any scripture that mentions this?\n\nChances are that it's an abomination to Wiccans, but what about other faiths?\n\nWhat if the stone will be used to build a church?\n\nIt's probably lack of sleep, but I'm honestly intrigued.
246491
All of the artwork and architecture is true and the Priory of Sion really was a secret society of which Leonardo da Vinci was a member, but the underlying story is fiction.  Read the fact page at the beginning of the book (it's right after the title page and before the prologue).
766672
I don't remember exactly, but the whole backstory wasn't in the washington irving story. About the mother and the conspiracy. Well here's a website that can you help you a little better. It explains both movie & washington irving story!\nhttp://www.geocities.com/legendofsleepyhollow/home.html
610616
It was a pagan place of ritual and sacrifice. It represented the sun and moon and with the capstones was "closed" from outside.\n\nThe rocks were actually quarried in wales and dragged overland to the site and then erected.. A neat bit of engineering..\n\nLike the Pyramids, slave labour was used.... \n\nIt was the "centre" of a place of power, close to the heavens and many many burial BARROWS are located in the vicinity.\n\nFor me.. it was a great place to take girlfriends to and shag them..\n\nSadly today it's roped off and you can't get close.