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An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones, which usually consist of flint, have been discovered by Archaeology in both Great Britain and Egypt. Commonly, they are found in Northern Germany at the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas.
In Britain they are also called hag stones, witch stones, fairy stones, serpent's eggs, snake's eggs, or Glain Neidr in Wales, milpreve in Cornwall, adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine nan Druidh ("Druids' glass" in Scottish Gaelic) in the north. In Germany they are called Hühnergötter ("chicken gods").
Various traditions exist as to the origins of adder stones. One holds that the stones are the hardened saliva of large numbers of snake massing together, the perforations being caused by their tongues. There are other claims that an adder stone comes from the head of a serpent or is made by the sting of an Vipera berus. The more modern and perhaps easier to attain artefact would be any rock with a hole bored through the middle by water. Human intervention (i.e., direction of water or placement of the stone) is not allowed.Roud, Steve (2003). The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. Pub. Penguin : London. P. 420.
There is a sort of egg in great repute among the Gauls, of which the Greek literature have made no mention. A vast number of Snake are twisted together in summer, and coiled up in an artificial knot by their saliva and slime; and this is called "the serpent's egg". The druids say that it is tossed in the air with hissings and must be caught in a cloak before it touches the earth. The person who thus intercepts it, flies on horseback; for the serpents will pursue him until prevented by intervening water. This egg, though bound in gold will swim against the stream. And the magi are cunning to conceal their frauds, they give out that this egg must be obtained at a certain age of the moon. I have seen that egg as large and as round as a common sized apple, in a chequered cartilage cover, and worn by the Druids. It is wonderfully extolled for gaining lawsuits, and access to kings. It is a badge which is worn with such ostentation, that I knew a Equites, a Vocontian, who was slain by the stupid Roman emperor Claudius, merely because he wore it in his breast when a lawsuit was pending. "Pliny, Naturalis Historia Book XXIX, Ch. 12"
Although not named as Glain Neidr, magic stones with the properties of adder stones appear frequently in Welsh mythology and folklore. The Mabinogion, translated into English in the mid-nineteenth century by Lady Charlotte Guest, mentions such stones on two occasions. In the story of Peredur son of Efrawg (Percival of the Arthurian cycle), in a departure from Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, Peredur is given a magical stone that allows him to see and kill an invisible creature called the Afanc.Lady Charlotte Guest (2025). 026110392X, Voyager. 026110392X In another tale, Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain (Ywain of Arthurian legend), the hero Owain mab Urien is trapped in the gatehouse of a castle. He is given a stone by a maiden, which turns Owain invisible, allowing him to escape capture.
(Gloine)
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