Ertach Kernow - Well-known Cornish places with myths and legends
Cornish legends and stories are an important part of Cornwall’s intangible heritage, forming part of our national identity. These very often surround or are based on a place or site of interest in the Cornish landscape and of Cornwall itself. Such is the case with the relatively small lake Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor. This lake often referred to as a tarn by writers covers just thirty-seven acres with a circumference of about a mile. It was known as Cornwall’s largest freshwater lake until the much larger reservoirs were built and lies close to the Colliford Lake reservoir now the largest Cornish lake. It has no streams flowing into it and when full overflows into Colliford. Due to its remoteness and perhaps on dark wintery days its eeriness has encouraged legends and stories.
One of the oldest is that of Jan Tregeagle who through his evilness, including making a Faustian pact with the Devil, was tasked with carrying out a number of impossible labours. Several places in Cornwall have associations with the ghost of Tregeagle including Roche Rock but the most famous is the task of emptying of Dozmary Pool with a leaking limpet shell. 19th century writers such as Arthur Norway repeat this tale making it sound like one of those horror tales sometimes told to children to keep them quiet.
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There is also the legend that this was the lake from where Excalibur rose from the waters held by an arm ‘clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful’ and given to King Arthur. It was later thrown back by Sir Bedivere as Arthur lay dying and is a 19th century story. The Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson was fascinated by the lake and incorporated it into his ‘Idylls of the king’ although not named as such in the poem. This story has now reached legendary status and is believed to have originated far earlier than it actually did. Those of us who love Bodmin Moor for its remoteness and tranquillity should be thankful that Dozmary Pool’s relative inaccessibility has not led to its ruination by mass tourism like much else in Cornwall.
Maintaining the Arthurian theme, there are of course the multitude of legends surrounding Tintagel which originated during the twelfth century with the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth. This was included in an earlier Ertach Kernow article which can be found on the Kowethas Ertach Kernow website and now a YouTube podcast, along with one on Dozmary Pool. This legend is believed to have led to the construction of the castle at Tintagel by Richard Earl of Cornwall who used what was considered then a true story to associate himself with Arthur. Many other places in Cornwall have been claimed as part of the larger Arthurian mythology Camelford, Slaughterbridge, St Nectan’s Glen and even the Iron Age hillfort of Dimilio now the site of the Church of St Denys at St Dennis. Perhaps one lesser-known story is the tale of Arthur the giant killer.
Long before Geoffrey used his fertile imagination to create basis for the Arthurian myths there was the 6th century Wesh monk Gildas, 9th century Welsh cleric Nennius and of course the 8th century English monk known to history as the Venerable Bede. Geoffrey in his ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ fabricated a mostly fictional history for the Britons which included the ancestors of the Welsh, Bretons and Cornish and said by him to have been based largely on earlier works. The legendary background is that Brutus a great grandson of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who was also an ancestor of Romulus and Remus the founders of Rome, was banished from Rome and led by divine intervention to Britain, landing around 1200 after ‘the deluge’, the biblical flood. On his travels he met Corineus, prince of a group of Trojan exiles, described by Geoffrey as ‘a man of unmatched strength and courage, for in battle a giant was as a mere infant in his hands.’ Corineus gave allegiance to Brutis and joined him and after landing in Gaul (France) battling with the local people then left finding their way to Albion. After fighting with and defeating local giants the Roman/Trojan exiles began building their settlements, Brutis renaming the island Britain after himself.
According to ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ Geoffrey tell us that ‘Corineus who had the first choice, went to Cornwall, as he desired, because the giants were most numerous in that part, and he was eager to combat with them.’ In the meantime Brutus had a further battle with giants defeating and killing them all except Gogmagog who he wanted to fight in a test of strength against Corineus. In the fight Corineus defeated Gogmagog hurling him off a precipice into the sea where he was dashed to pieces. Brutus gave Corineus the country he had explored, which he named in allusion to his own name, Cornwall, and the inhabitants Cornavians hence the name Cornubia from Roman times. Nice story, but just that.
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s history became the basis of the later works by the Jersey born poet Wace in his ‘Roman de Brut’ or in his own original title ‘Geste des Bretons’, or ‘Deeds of the Britons’. Wace was the first to mention the Round Table an integral part of the Arthurian legend and it can be seen how the original deemed history was evolving into the legends of today. Further historic elaboration took place with Layamon and later Sir Thomas Mallory and many others expanding on the overall story and the connections with Cornwall.
St Michael’s Mount is one of the most popular places to visit in Cornwall, by tourists and Cornish folk alike. It too has its origins in legend with giants. Cormoran and his wife Cormelian were giants who set out to build a hill of granite on which they could live. It seems that the good wife was the harder worker, but after tiring saw some nearer greenstone and thought to use that instead. Cormoran was having a nap but on waking saw his wife using alternative stone kicked her, the stone falling to the ground, into what is now the ocean, forming Chapel Rock. The Cornish name for St Michaels Mount is ‘Karrek Loos yn Koos’ (historically Carrek Los yn Cos) meaning grey rock in the woodland. At one time this small island would have been someway inland and surrounded by woodland. The remnants of a submerged forest can be seen at times when storms remove levels of sand from the beach. Cormoran was also part of a further tale concerning ‘Jack the giant killer’ who slayed the giant who had been rampaging the countryside eating cattle. However, this tale has been absorbed from elsewhere into Cornish myth as this legend has been told and adapted over many earlier centuries from elsewhere.
King Arthur’s exploits at St Michael’s Mount have been incorporated into Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ as part of his Arthurian story along with giants. Geoffrey writes ‘Arthur received information that a giant of monstrous size had come from Spain, and carried off Helen, the niece of Howel ap Emyr of Brittany, by force from her guards, and taken her to the top of a high hill, called the Mount of St. Michael; that he had been pursued by the troops of the country, but without success; for if they endeavoured to attack him from their ships he deluged and sunk them; if from the land, his dreadful blows dispatched them; after which, as some say, he devoured all the slain.’ Helen it turns out was slain by the giant and Arthur battled and defeated the ogre; ‘Arthur however quickly recovering, and brandishing his sword Caledvwlch, gave the monster a wound on the forehead, from which the blood gushed down his face, and filled his eyes. Thus blinded, the monster became furious, and rushed on Arthur's sword, as the wild boar on the spear of the hunter and grappling with him brought him on his knees. But Arthur adroitly disengaging himself, gave the monster a sudden and mighty blow on the back of his head, that cleft it to the brain ; whereupon the monster gave a tremendous shriek, and instantly fell at once to the earth, as the oak, Avhich is overthrown by the storm.’ Terrific stuff from Geoffrey with plenty more Cornish and Arthurian tales where that came from, and from which even more were created by others.
Cornwall has much to thank early writers for, especially the fertile imagination of Geoffrey. Although these tales seem today embellished beyond actual possible facts, there may be some historic elements on which they are perhaps based. The Celtic peoples arrived in Britain around 1000 BCE and their culture eventually took over the island of Great Britain. There is much conjecture where they came from. Was it via the Atlantic route or through Europe including Germany, Italy and France and perhaps the source of the Brutus story? Professor Barry Cunliffe and others have written their own theories extensively in a number of books, based on linguistics and archaeology. We may never know, but there may be a minute grain of truth in there somewhere from these early tales.
