The sacred and striking Externsteine rock formation

Externsteine early history

Many of the stories about the Externsteine rocks are just wishful thinking or fiction created by Nazi occultists as propaganda.

There is no evidence that the rocks were used as anything but an occasional shelter until the late 700s, when Christian monks settled there and carved some stairways and bas-relief decorations.

The Descent from the Cross and a monks' stairway:

I wish I had known about the Brimham Rocks when I visited Harrogate some years ago.

The Externsteine rock formations make me think of the stone giants in Tolkien’s books.

Many pictures give no idea of the size of the pillars, but this one shows how immense they are:

Vandals at the Externsteine

I see that vandals destroyed one of the Brimham balancing rocks that you mentioned magpiejack , and I posted about the damage to some of the Alice sculptures in the Spa Gardens. After that I was prepared for the worst when I saw in a headline that vandals had defaced the Externsteine, but it was a different kind of vandalism:

“Residents in the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg, Germany, awoke on January first to discover that a local landmark had been defaced in a surprisingly impressive way.

Sometime during the night, an unknown group managed to break into the locked park surrounding the Externsteine, reach the top of a nearly 130 ft. tall stone pillar, and plant a massive wooden Irminsul at the summit. Local authorities remain baffled as to how anyone managed to get the 20+ft. tall structure erected in the first place.”

www.heathenhof.com/heathens-deface-historic-german-landmark/

I too wonder how on earth they got themselves and their trophy up there.

The Irminsul was painted in red, black and white, the colours of the Third Reich, so neo-Nazis are suspected of committing the crime. The Irminsul was not up there for long:

“...Because the danger was very great that the wooden post could crash and injured walkers, the fire department Horn-Bad Meinberg removed the wooden construction already on Sunday. “The action lasted about three hours. "The thing was massive," reported fire service spokesman Claus Müther...”

www.lz.de/lippe/horn_bad_meinberg/21531222_Unbekannte-installieren-Irminsul-Symbol-auf-den-Externsteinen.html

Here is a picture from the crime scene. The Irminsul looks like a 'T' from a distance so it is shown with an artist’s depiction of an Irminsul, an example of what the vandals were trying to replicate:

Swedish metal Irminsul

There is a Swedish Pagan/Viking/Folk metal band called Irminsul.

The picture on their album cover looks like a pillar from the Externsteine: