Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second SeriesBottrell, William
General
Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second Series
Bottrell, William
Cornwall (England : County) -- Social life and customs; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
Of late the Giant's Lady, as she was formerly called, has been
named the Logan Rock's Lady by those who are ignorant of our
old traditions. When tempests rage, or anything else excites
her, she rocks to and fro; but her movements are languid
with age or sorrow. Pitiless storms have so beaten on her head
for ages that one can't make out a feature, and her fair proportions
are so mutilated that one can scarce discern a semblance of her
gigantic form in the time-worn granite mass. She appears,
indeed, of pigmy stature compared with her husband. If,
however, she had never been larger than her stone image now
appears the story is none the less credible on that score. For do
we not, every day, see mere midges of women united with giants
of men, according to our reduced scale?
Dan Dynas.
Old folks held—and long tradition made it pass for true—that
the outer wall of Castle Treen was built by a deaf-and-dumb
giant, called Dan Dynas, or, as some say, Den-an-Dynas, assisted
by his wife An' (aunt) Venna, who broke up the ditch, filled her
leathern towser (large apron) with the soil, and put it for filling
behind the rocks, as her husband rolled them into their places.
When they had thus constructed a stronghold, in which people
with their tin and cattle were safe from marauding pirates, the
giantess and other women collected hundreds of cartloads of
stones into heaps, near the mound, ready and handy for slinging
at, or to hurl down on, the heads of besiegers. When an incursion
happened to be made An' Venna, with the women and old men,
defended the fortress, whilst Dan and his fighting men slew the
enemy or drove them to sea. The ruins of this good couple's
handiwork may still be traced from Par Pry, on the southern side,
to the inlet of Gampar, or Hal-dynas Cove, towards the east.
A descendant of old proprietors of Treen informed me that a
great quantity of stones remained, in piles, within and near the
embankment, until after wheel carriages came into use. Although
this part of the cliff was then common few persons cared to
remove them, and none durst take a stone from the castle walls
for fear Bad Luck would pursue any one who disturbed
the giant's work. But of late years, great portions of this
ancient rampart have been demolished and its facing-stones
carried away for building.
It is also related—though the story seems somewhat fabulous—that
this deaf-and-dumb giant would stand on Carnole and thence
sink invading ships, entering Parcurno, by hurling rocks on them, or
he wrecked them, when at a distance, with huge stones discharged[138]
from slings made of bulls' hides. When the people couldn't
charge his instruments of war as quickly as he wanted them, he
would roar like thunder, make signs to stand clear, kick the rocks
up out of the ground, smash them to handy pieces, and fire away
again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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