Builders' rites

Jacob Grimm remarked, "It was often thought necessary to entomb live animals and even men in the foundation, on which the structure was to be raised, to secure immovable stability.

"[2] Sabine Baring-Gould likewise claimed, "The old pagan laid the foundation of his house and fortress in blood.

"[3] The 19th-century Folk-Lore Journal claimed that "under the walls of two round towers in Ireland (the only ones examined) human skeletons [were] discovered.

According to the poem, the wife of the chief builder was sacrificed to establish a good foundation for a bridge that was of grave importance to the secluded city of Arta.

A similar legend appears in the Romanian folk poem Meșterul Manole, about the building of the church in the earliest Wallachian capital city.