Giants Page 2

The fact that Cornwall has an abundance of extraordinary natural wind, rain and sea carved rock formations, and ancient man-made structures such as quoits (dolmens), menhirs (standing stones) and stone circles, led to the telling of many creation myths. After all, who else but a Giant could have placed the Logan Rock upon Treryn Dinas? Who else but a Giant could have built St Michael's Mount? And what else could have stained the rocks red at the foot of Chapel Porth cliff but a Giant's blood? Robert Hunt noted that it is only in the wilder and more 'primitive' uncultivated landscapes that the works of Giants can be seen:

'Giants, and every form of giant-idea, belong to the wilds of nature. I have never discovered the slightest indication of the existence of a tradition of giants, of the true legendary type, in a fertile valley or in a well-cultivated plain. Wherever there yet linger the faint shadows of the legendary giant, there the country still retains much of its native wildness, and the inhabitants have, to a great extent, preserved their primitive character In other words, they have nurtured a gloomy imagination, and permitted ignorance to continue its melancholy delusions. The untaught mind, in every age, looks upon the grander phenomena of nature with feelings of terror, and endeavours to explain them by the aid of those errors which have been perpetuated from father to son since the days when the priests of superstition sought to rule the minds of men by exciting their fears.'

(Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, page 36.)

 

Giants in the landscape

There is scarcely a pile of rocks anywhere in Cornwall that does not carry some kind of association with Giants: The Giant's Chair at Tol-Pedn-Penwith; the Giant's Pulpit at Boscawen; the Giant's Foot at Tolcarne, near Penzance; the Giant's Cave at Lamorna; the Giant's Hand on Carn Brea; the Giant's hedge at Looe … the list goes on and on. In addition, there are ancient granite monuments such as quoits. Although quoits are prehistoric burial markers, they were once thought of as being the playthings of the giants. Certainly, they look like some kind of stool or table. Any marks dented in them are said to be fingerprints. Click here to see photographs of two of them - Lanyon Quoit and Chun Quoit.

If you'd like to read stories about the Cornish Giants (taken from original sources), follow this link. If you'd like to read the Cornish Folklore retellings of Giant stories, click on the picture below.