Can’t imagine the Bear Witch would be much chuffed with it either. But if we’re to follow the logic of Scottish lore, not only has a stone been felled, but a sacred circle has been broken. The climax of Brave saw Mor'du being crushed by the stone Elinor had broken, thus symbolically breaking the cycle of violence. In these tales bad things tend to happen to those who harm the stones.

In other stories the stones are soldiers- private armies ready to be called upon by their master. Sometimes the stones are said to be haunted by faeries or ancestors, or they were giants turned to stone after refusing to convert to Christianity. Were they used in Bronze Age rituals? If so, what about the older sites, such as the Callanish Stones (the inspiration for the stone circle in Brave) which were erected in the Neolithic era? Were stone circles a kind of early lunar observatory? Did they align with surrounding mountain ranges? The explanations in folklore are just as numerous: the Grannie Stone in Irvine tells the story of a Goddess turned to stone. They were eventually forced to move it back (right smack bam in front of the house they had built).Ī great deal of mystery surrounds the purpose of these megaliths. Not so long ago in the 1960s there was a building site in my town that caused a lot of anger in the neighbourhood because they had moved an ancient standing stone. People are still superstitious about standing stones today.

Hell I’m not even that superstitious, but you wouldn’t catch me drawing so much as a handlebar moustache on an old standing stone (mind you, I am a coward). In Scottish folklore, custom, and tradition you just don’t mess with old stones. There are so many loose ends I want to see tied up and, erm, non-bear oriented Scottish mythology to be tackled. I’m never sure if I really want a sequel to Brave or not, but if there was one and I had supreme godly powers over the narrative? Oh my god, hold onto your buttcheeks mate.

Brave merida and young macguffin