Annotation - Chapter 3, Page 19
From Riddley Walker Annotations
- (19:27) "They bilt the Power Ring thats where you see the Ring Ditch now. They put in the 1 Big 1"
This is one of two conflicting explanations for the legendary disaster. Here, the 1 Big 1 was meant to generate light, but got out of hand (the Power Ring suggesting a particle accelerator, also a nod to Wagner and Tolkien); elsewhere, it seems to be clearly the nuclear bomb. The common theme is the danger of power. As Lorna says (20:14), "You hear diffrent things in all them way back storys but it dont make no diffrents."
There are circular formations all over England known as "ring ditches"; in most cases, no one knows what kind of ancient structures they were once part of.