THE foundation of Britain was the goddess Diana’s fault. At least, so says the monastic historian Geoffrey of Monmouth in his The History of the Kings of Britain (about 1136). He relates how a Trojan called Brutus, great-grandson of the great Aeneas, was exiled from Rome after killing his father. Reaching a Greek island, Brutus finds a temple of Diana and makes an offering. She instructs him to seek an island called Albion, uninhabited but for a few giants, where he will become king and build a new Troy.
Brutus and his men set sail, locating the island and docking near the later site of Totnes. They ultimately kill all the giants save their leader, Gogmagog, who is made to wrestle Corineus, Brutus’s friend. After a rib-cracking struggle, Corineus hurls Gogmagog into the sea and Brutus renames Albion ‘Britain’, after himself and builds the New Troy, ‘Trinovantum’, later renamed London. Geoffrey calls the site of the match​ Gogmagog’s Leap—this was assumed to be Plymouth Hoe, on the Devon coast, by at least the late Middle Ages. Before being destroyed in the 17th century, an image of two wrestlers was carved into the turf of the Hoe, picked out in chalk like the thrusting Cerne Abbas Giant.
In the latter part of the 13th century, a prequel to the Gogmagog legend emerges. It begins in the vaporous past, with a ship bearing 33 Syrian migrants. They are the Princess Albina and her sisters, cast adrift by their father for planning a matriarchal coup. Crammed into a rudderless boat, the​ princesses wash up on the shores of an empty island. There, Albina seizes a handful of earth, claiming the land as her own. She names it Albion.
Having trapped animals for food and grown quite plump, the sisters’ thoughts turn to sex. Ever the opportunist, the Devil ascends with his legion to the fertile archipelago. Nine months later, the race of giants is born.
Denne historien er fra January 08, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 08, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds