This may have a relation to pagan Celtic practices of foundation sacrifice.
2.
These legends are one of the few instances of foundation sacrifice in Great Britain.
3.
Human remains have been found at the foundations of structures from the Neolithic time to the Roman era, with injuries and in positions that argue for their being foundation sacrifices.
4.
William Henderson in his 1878 " Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties " attributes it to a foundation sacrifice and points out that the Kirkogrim of Sweden appears in the form of a lamb, which in the early days in Christianity in Sweden was buried under the altar.