We will examine Walter Charleton’s most interesting argument, which is how Stonehenge was built. This is interesting because I would not think a philosopher would write about a historical structure. I had the impression that modern philosophers were only drawn to matters in the realm of metaphysics. This is why Walter Charleton’s writings on Stonehenge fascinate me. Not only, the structure itself is enticing, but also the fact that a well-known philosopher such as himself would be drawn to figuring out how the structure was made. This is a testament to his well-known characteristic of being a polymath. Where he had much knowledge in many different topics. The topics range from being a physician, to atomism and idealizing Epicureanistic ideas, to the building of structures in antiquity.
Walter Charleton was born in the United Kingdom and this therefore may have sparked a fascination with the antiquity of Great Britain. One of the greatest structures in the world is in Great Britain, Stonehenge. There have been numerous theories and stories of how Stonehenge was built. From magicians and giants, to the antiquity of Romans, or the Danes. Walter Charleton spent much effort figuring out how this structure had been built. He took his time to research in order to argue that the structure had been built by the Danes. He wrote Chorea Gigantum in response to Inigo Jones who believed that the Romans had built Stonehenge. This is intriguing as it is interesting how different structures such as the taj mahal, Petra, and even the pyramids had been built. Stonehenge falls under this category of fascinating structures that have a mysterious way of being built essentially before their time. We will examine how Charleton argues that Stonehenge was built by the Danes by examining closely his writing of Chorea Gigantum.
Chorea Gigantum and there are honestly a couple of ways to translate this and understanding this makes his argument more enticing. Gigantum is the simple part of the title name, for it is the genitive plural of the word giant. While, Chorea can translate into a couple of different terms such as ring dance, planet movement, multitude, and magistrate court. Chorea Gigantum is commonly translated as “dance of giants. An interesting way and unique way would be to say it is the magistrate court of giants.
Chorea Gigantum was written in 1663, by Walter Charleton. In order to understand how Walter Charleton comes to the conclusion that Stonehenge was built by the Danes, we have to understand what information was there at the time. There are two main arguments that were made before Walter Charleton, one is a legend while another was an argument made by Inigo Jones. The legend story goes, Merlin, the wizard was told by a king to move the giant stones from Ireland to Southern England. The stones were going to be a memorial for people who had died in battle. When Merlin used his magic to move the stones from Ireland to England, giants then arranged the stones into place. Another idea from Inigo Jones is that the stones are the remains of a Roman temple. Walter Charleton being a philosopher and physician it would be easy for him to bypass the idea that Stonehenge was built by magic. As it would sound quite ridiculous to believe magic was how Stonehenge was built. Walter Charleton, wanted to argue against Inigo’s idea that it was built by the Romans. Inigo did not have a strong argument for why the Romans would have built Stonehenge. His argument was backed by the fact that the Romans were the most popular group of people that had inhabited the area.
Walter Charleton’s argument is not based only based off of his own personal observations yet more than that of other historian’s observations and logical thought processes. In the early parts of Chorea Gigantum, Charleton looks into what kind of stones the stones are and where else stones look similar. He had sided with the writings of a well-known and trusted historian at the time, William Camden. He found that the stones closely resembled those which can be found in Denmark. Walter Charleton agrees to this and carries out the idea and reasoning even further. As the Philosopher and Scientist Charleton is, he takes a logical approach to find who is behind the building of Stonehenge. The only group of people to have made Stonehenge according to Charleton would have been the Danes. This is due to the fact that they were the only people that would have the technology and big enough community to build such a structure and as well access to the stones. In order to put Stonehenge together a society such as the Romans could not have built it as they would not have the technology and geographical access in order to build it.
Charleton had initially started to look into the building of Stonehenge at the same time he had just joined the Royal Society. Charleton took this eclectic approach to his research because it was in his liking to look at everything in a holistic approach. He did not have one dignified look into the matter of Stonehenge. Though, he was looking at it in a logical way he had also been looking at it politically. Part of making it logically correct, there has to be an incentive for the Danes to have built the structure. It does not make sense for a group of people to put together these massive stones in a certain area just for fun. Therefore Charleton argues that Stonehenge was built to be an area as a place for the Danes kings. This reasoning matches the history of why other huge monuments have been built. Most monuments in history such as the pyramids were built for the kings at the time. Not only does it make sense logically per history but also by following who he is building this argument to present to. He is looking into Stonehenge for the King as being part of the Royal Society, so it would then make sense for it to have been made for kings. With this, the title then may have been a tribute to the king and even the kings of the Danes. As Chorea could mean magistrate, a magistrate though is a person of lower power than a king. It would make sense for Walter Charleton to name his research Chorea Gigantum, or translated to the magistrate court of giants.
Works Cited
Gillam, Sarah. “Walter Charleton and Stonehenge: A Stupendous Pile of Stones: RCP Museum.” Walter Charleton and Stonehenge: a Stupendous Pile of Stones | RCP Museum, https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/blog/walter-charleton-and-stonehenge-stupendous-pile-stones.
Link.Springer.com. “Annotated Bibliography of the Works of Walter Charleton.” SpringerLink, Springer, 2008, link.springer.com/content/pdf/bbm:978-1-4020-3378-0/1.