Celtic Lore & Legend (5 page)

Mrs. Bray in her “Traditions of Devonshire”, gives several examples of the prevalence of this superstition over the granite district of Dartmoor.

In many parts of Cornwall we find, more or less perfect, circles of stones, which the learned ascribe to the Druids. Tradition and the common people, who have faith in all that their fathers have taught them, tell us another tale. These stones are the everlasting marks of the Divine displeasure, being maidens or men, who were changed into stone for some wicked
profanation of the Sabbath-day. These monuments of impiety are scattered over the country; they are to be found, indeed, to the extremity of
Old Cornwall
, many of these circles being upon Dartmoor. It is not necessary to name them all. Every purpose will be served if the tourist is directed to those which lie more directly in the route which is usually prescribed. In the parish of Borlan, are the “
Dawns Myin
” or
Men
—the standing stones—commonly called “The Merry Maidens”, and near them are two granite pillars named the “Pipers.” One Sabbath evening, some of the thoughtless maidens of the neighbouring village. Instead of attending vespers, strayed into the fields, and two evil spirits, assuming the guise of pipers, began to play some dance tunes. The young people yielded to the temptation; and, forgetting the holy day, commenced dancing. The excitement increased with the exercise, and soon the music and the dance became extremely wild; when lo!, a flash of lightning from the clear sky transfixed them all, the tempters and the tempted, and there in stone they stand.

The celebrated circle of nineteen stones—which is seen on the road to Lands End—known as the “Boscawen-un circle” is another example. “The Nine Maids” or “The Virgin Sisters” in Stitithens and other “Nine Maids” or as called in Cornish Naw-Whoors in Colomb-Major parish should also be seen in the hope of impressing the moral lesson they convey yet more strongly on the mind.

The three circles which are seen on the moors, not far from Cheesewring, in the parish of St. Cleer, are also notable examples of the punishment of Sabbath-breaking. These are called the “Hurlers” and they preserve the position in which the several parties stood around in the full excitement of the game of hurling, when, for the crime of profaning the Sabbath, they were changed to stone.

Nine “Moor Stones” are set up near the road in the parish of Gwendron or Wendron, to which the above name is given. The perpendicular blocks have obviously been placed with much labour in their present position. Tradition says they indicate
the graves of nine sisters. Hals appears to think some nuns are buried there. From one person only I heard the old story of the stones having been matamorphosed maidens. Other groups of stone might be named, as Rosemedery, Tregaseal, Boskednan, Botalleck, Tredinek, and Crowlas, in the west, to which the same story extends, and many others in the eastern parts of the country; but it cannot be necessary.

Numbers of people would formerly visit a remarkable Logan stone, near Nancledrea, which had been, by supernatural power, impressed with some peculiar sense at midnight. Although it was quite impossible to move this stone during daylight, or induced by human power at any other time, it would rock like a cradle exactly at midnight. Many a child has been cured of rickets by being placed naked at this hour on the twelve o’ clock stone. If, however, the child was “misbegotten”, or if it was the offspring of dissolute parents, the stone would not move and consequently no cure could be effected. On the Cuckoo Hill, eastward of Nancledrea, there stood, but a few years since, two piles of rock about eight feet apart, and these were united by a large flat-stone carefully placed upon them—thus forming a doorway which was, my informant told me, “large and high enough to drive a horse and cart through”. It was formerly the custom to march in procession through this “doorway” in going to the twelve-o’-clock stone.

The stone-mason has, however, been busy hereabout; and every mass of granite, whether rendered notorious by the Giants or holy by the Druids, if found to be of the size required, has been removed.

At a short distance from Sennan church, and near the end of a cottage is a block of granite nearly eight feet long and
about three feet high. This rock is known as the Table-men or the Table-
main
which appears to signify the stone table. At Bosavern in St. Just, is a somewhat similar stone; and the same story attaches to each.

It is to the effect that some Saxon kings used the stone as a dining table. The number has been variously stated; some traditions fixing on three kings; others on seven. Hals is far more explicit; for, as he says, on the authority of the chronicle of Samuel Daniell, they were:

Ethelbert, 5th king of Kent

Cissa 2nd king of the South Saxons

Kingilis 6th king of the West Saxons

Sebert 3rd king of the East Saxons

Ethelfred 7th king of Northumberers

Penda 5th king of the Mercians

Sigebert 5th king of the East Angles—who all flourished about the year 600.

At a point where the four parishes of Zennor, Morvah, Gulval and Madron meet, is a flat stone with a cross cut in it. The Saxon kings were also said to have dined on this.

The only tradition which is known among the peasantry of Sennan is that Prince Arthur and the kings who aided him against the Danes, in the great battle fought near Vellan-Drucher, dined on the Table-men, after which they defeated the Danes.

At low water is to be seen, off the Land’s End towards the Scilly Island (probably so called from the abundance of eel or conger fishes caught there, which are called sillys or lillis) for a mile or more, a dangerous strag of ragged rocks, amongst which the Atlantic Sea and the waves of St. George’s and the British Channel meeting, make a dreadful bellowing and rumbling
noise at half-ebb and half-flood, which let seamen take notice of and avoid them.

Of old there was one of these rocks more notable than the rest, which tradition saith was ninety feet above the flux and reflux of the sea, with an iron spire at the top thereof which was over-turned or thrown down in a violent storm, 1647, and the rock was broken in three pieces. This iron spire, as the additions to Camden’s
Britannia
inform us was thought to have been erected by the Romans, or set up as a trophy there by King Athelstan, when he first conquered the Scilley Islands (which was in those parts); but it is not very probable such a piece of iron, in this salt sea and air, without being consumed by rust, would endure so long a time. However, it is or was, certain I am it was commonly called in Cornish An Marogeth Arvowed i.e. the Armed Knight; for what reason I know not, except erected by or in memory of some armed knight; as also Carne-an-peal i.e. the spike, spire or javelin rock. Again, remember silly, lilly is in Cornish and Arrmoric language a conger fish or fishes from whence Scilley Islands is probably denominated. Mr. Blight says this rock is also called
Guela
or
Guelas
—the “rock easily seen”.

In the slate formations behind Polperro is a good example of a
fauit
. The geologist, in the pride of his knowledge, refers to some movement of the solid mass—a rending of the rocks, produced either by the action of some subterranean force lifting the earth-crust, or by a depression of one division of the rocks. The grey-bearded wisdom of our grandfathers led them to a conclusion widely different from this.

The mighty ruler of the realms of darkness who is known to have a special fondness for rides at midnight, “to see how his little ones thrive”, ascending from his subterranean country, chose this spot as his point of egress.

As he rose from below in his fiery car, drawn by gigantic jet-black steed, the rocks gave way before him and the rent at Polporro remains this day to convince all unbelievers. Not only this, as his Satanic majesty burst through the slate rocks his horse, delighted with the airs of this upper world, reared in wild triumph, and planting again his hoof upon the ground, made these islands shake as with an earthquake; and he left the deep impression of his burning foot behind. There, any unbeliever may see the hoof-shaped pool, unmistakable evidence of the days gone by.

In the western part of Cornwall, all the marks of any peculiar kind found on rocks are referred either to the giants or the devil. In the eastern part of the county such markings are almost always attributed to King Arthur. Not far from the Devil’s Coit in St. Columb, on the edge of Gossmoor, there is a large stone, upon which are deeply impressed marks, which a little fancy may convert into the marks of four horse-shoes. This is “King Arthur’s Stone”, and these marks were made by the horse upon which the British king rode when he resided as
Castle Denis
, and hunted on these moors. King Arthur’s beds, and chairs, and caves are frequently to be met with. The Giant’s Coits are probably remnants of the earliest types of rock mythology Those of Arthur belong to the period when the Britons were so advanced in civilisation as to war under experienced rulers; and those which are appropriated by the devil are evidently instances of priestcraft on the minds of an impressible people.

Giants exercised a fascination for the Celtic mind. The lands of the West in which the Celtic peoples had settled had been formed by volcanoes and ice, and great reminders of this turbulent past were to be seen everywhere. Odd rock formations formed by volcanic activity together with huge boulders carried and deposited by glaciers dotted the landscape, and on these the early Celts gazed with awe. Who had created these? Who had hurled such massive megaliths to the places where they lay? For the Celts there was only one answer. This was the work of giants—monstrous, warlike creatures that had ruled these lands in some previous time. So fundamental was this belief that gradually, legends concerning these beings and their constructions began to appear in both Celtic myth and folktale. The Celts gazed in wonder at geological phenomena such as the Giants Causeway in County Antrim in the north of Ireland, and created wonderful stories of how it had been built by the Irish giant Fion McCumhaill (Finn McCool) as a highway to the West of Scotland that he could cross in order to attack his Scottish counterpart Benandoner.

In most of the tales, the giants are both ferocious and brutish. They were believed to have hurled rocks about and scooped out great clods of earth with abandon, thus creating the standing stones, loughs, and deep hollows that littered the countryside. Apart from one or two who were crafty and artful, most of the titans were dull and stupid and were easily outwitted.

What had become of these monstrous titans? The Celts believed that they had been defeated and exterminated by their forefathers in a series of violent battles. Gradually, stories began to emerge of wars against the giant-kind conducted by ancient kings in the days before history.

Nowhere throughout the Celtic lands were the giants so numerous, so huge, or so fierce than in Cornwall. Celtic legends tell of the confrontation between a wily king (some say it was King Arthur, others say it was another king known as Brute or Brutus who was said to have come from Troy after the siege there) and Cormoran, king of the Cornish giants, at St. Michael’s Mount on the southern tip of England. The result of this clash was the defeat of the monster humankind emerging triumphant. With the defeat of Cormoran, the Cornish giants were said to have died out, although there are legends of some living on in later years. The following account concerns the leader of the giant brood here called Gigmagog. The account of the battle against this monster is taken from Robert Hunt’s collection “Drolls, Traditions and Superstitions of Old Cornwall” (1881), a veritable storehouse of ancient lore. This is yet another version of the traditional tale of King Brute, the Trojan exile, and Cormoran, which is here presented as fact and in the style of ancient history.

The Battle Against Gigmagog

by Robert Hunt

Who can dare question such an authority as John Milton? In his “
History of Britain, that part especially which is now called England. From the first Traditional beginning continued to the Norman Conquest. Collected out of the ancientest and best authors thereof
” he gives us the story of Brutus and Corineus, “who with the battele Ax which he was wont to manage against the
Tyrrhen Giants
is said to have done marvells. With the adventures of these heroes in
Africa
and in
Aquitania
we have little concern. They suffer severe defeats; and then Brutus, finding his powers much lessn’d and this not the place foretold him, leaves Aquitain, and with an easy course, arriving at Totness in
Dev’nshire
quickly perceives heer to be the pomis’d end of his labours” The following matters interest us more closely: