THE GIANTS WHO BUILT THE MOUNT – A free excerpt from “LEGEND LAND – 14 Legends from POLDARK COUNTRY”

The Giants who built the Mount from LEGEND LAND – 14 Legends from Poldark Country

St. Michael’s Mount, that impressive castle-crowned pyramid of rock that rises from the waters of Mounts Bay, was not always an island. In fact, it is not always an island now. At low tide you may reach it from the mainland along a causeway. But once upon a time the Mount stood in the midst of a forest; its old name, “Caraclowse in Cowse,” means “the Grey Rock in the Wood,” and that was at the time when the Giants built it.

 

Cormoran was one of the Giants; he lived in this great western forest, which is now swallowed up by the sea, and there he determined to erect for himself a stronghold that should rise well above the trees. So he set to work to collect huge stones from the neighbouring granite hills, and his new home grew apace.

 

But the labour of searching far afield for suitable stones, and of carrying them to the forest and piling them one upon another, was a wearying task even for a giant, and as Cormoran grew tired he forced his unfortunate Giantess wife, Cormelian, to help him in his task, and to her he gave the most toilsome of the labour.

 

Was there a gigantic boulder in a far part of the Duchy that Cormoran coveted, unhappy Cormelian was sent to fetch it; and she, like a dutiful wife, never complained, but went meekly about her work, collecting the finest and biggest stones and carrying them back to the forest in her apron. Meanwhile Cormoran, growing more lazy, spent much of his time in sleep, waking up only very occasionally to admonish his wife or to incite her to greater efforts.

 

One day, when Cormelian had been twice as far as the Bodmin moors to fetch some particularly fine stones Cormoran had seen, and was about to set off on a third journey, she, noticing her husband fast asleep, thought to save herself another weary walk by going only a short distance and breaking off some huge masses of greenstone rock which existed in the neighbourhood and placing them upon the nearly completed Mount without being seen. Although Cormoran had insisted that the stone be grey, Cormelian could see no reason why one stone was not as good as another.

 

So, carrying out her plan, she was returning with the first enormous piece of greenstone, walking ever so carefully so as not to awaken Cormoran, when, unfortunately, he did awake. He flew into a terrible rage on seeing how his wife was trying to delude him, and, rising with a dreadful threat, he ran after her, overtaking her just before she reached the Mount.

 

Scolding her for her deceit, he gave her a terrific box on the ear. Poor Cormelian, in her fright, dropped the huge greenstone she was carrying, and ran sobbing from her angry husband to seek refuge in the deepest part of the forest; and it was not until Cormoran himself had finished building the Mount that she would return to him.

 

And to-day, as you walk along the causeway from Marazion to St. Michael’s Mount, you will see on your right hand an isolated mass of greenstone, the very rock that Cormelian dropped. It is called Chapel Rock now, because years and years afterwards, when pious monks lived upon the summit of the Mount and devout pilgrims used to visit their church to pay homage at a shrine, they built a little chapel, upon poor Cormelian’s green rock, of which only a few stones now remain.

 

You may visit Chapel Rock and St. Michael’s Mount from Penzance, which is between three and four miles away and is the ideal centre for some of the most wonderful scenery in Cornwall. Both Land’s End and the Lizard are within easy reach of this, England’s westernmost town, where a climate that rivals that of the Mediterranean may be enjoyed in the depth of winter. Semi-tropical flowers and trees bloom in the open, and in February and early March—in what is, in fact, winter weather for those in less favoured parts—Penzance and its neighbourhood are surrounded by glorious spring flowers, the growing of which forms a very considerable industry.

London and our other big towns often get their first glimpse of coming spring in the narcissi and wallflowers grown around the shores of Mounts Bay, and packed off to the grim cold cities only a few hours away.

From: LEGEND LAND – 14 Illustrated Legends from Poldark Country

ISBN: 9781910882696

Pages: 103

Format: A5 Paperback and eBook (PDF & ePub)

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

1. TRELAWNY
2. THE MERMAID OF ZENNOR
3. THE STONE MEN OF ST. CLEER
4. HOW ST. PIRAN CAME TO CORNWALL
5. THE LOST CHILD OF ST. ALLEN
6. THE GIANTS WHO BUILT THE MOUNT
7. THE TASKS OF TREGEAGLE
8. THE LADY OF LLYN-Y-FAN FACH
9. DAVID AND HIS MOTHER
10. THE VENGEANCE OF THE FAIRIES
11. THE OLD WOMAN WHO FOOLED THE DEVIL
12. THE WOMEN SOLDIERS OF FISHGUARD
13. HOW BALA LAKE BEGAN
14. THE FURRY DAY SONG

 

Available online in paperback and/or eBook formats:

Paperback at http://abelapublishing.com/legend-lands–14-legends-from-poldark-country_p31503131.htm

eBook (PDF & ePUB formats) at https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Anon_E_Mouse_LEGEND_LAND?id=9L5gDQAAQBAJ

GETTING THERE

1. St. Michael’s Mount, also known as “the mount”, is open from February to October, usually from 10:30 to 16:00 each day. however, first check the mount’s webpage at  http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/

To confirm the times the Mount will be open during your planned visit. Use this website to also check what times the causeway from Marazion to the mount will be open due to tidal activity.

 

To get there:

• Take the Great Western Railway (GWR) service from London, Paddington via Exeter and Plymouth to Penzance and alight at Penzance.
• By Bus
• Walk to the bus station across the road from the train station near to the tourist information centre (TIC).
• Take bus 2 or 39A to Marazion from stand E. Busses leave on average every half hour. The journey takes 25 – 30 minutes.

By Taxi

• Taxi from Penzance station to St Michael’s Mount takes 10 – 15 minutes.

Per foot

• The walk from Penzance to the mount is 2 miles, or 3.2km and, depending on how fast you walk, could take up to 1 hour to complete.

 

Next Land’s End (see “The Tasks Of Tregeagle” in the next legend) is approximately 10 miles from Penzance and can be visited by bus, taxi or organised coach tour.

 

LEGEND LAND – 14 LEGENDS FROM POLDARK COUNTRY!

This is a reissue in book form of the first series of leaflets “The Line to Legend Land.” A modern title could very well be “LEGENDS FROM POLDARK COUNTRY.”

 

Originally published by the G.W.R. in 1922, this small volume was an early form of the Great Western Railway’s modern day “Top 10 Things To Do” and gave the rail traveller a list of West Country legends to look up and places to see. This edition has twelve tales plus a poem and a song from the West Country of Devon, Cornwall – the area in which POLDARK is filmed. Each legend has an updated “How to Get There” section with train, bus and distance information. There are also two supplements, “The Furry Day Song” and the iconic “Trelawny”, also known as “The Song of the Western Men.”

 

In older, simpler days, when reading was a rare accomplishment, our many times great-grandparents would gather round their blazing hearths on the long, dark winter nights and pass away the hours before bedtime in conversation and story-telling.

 

The old stories were told again and again and children learned them by heart in their earliest years and passed them on to their children and grandchildren in turn. In origin, most of these old legends date from the very dawn of our history, possibly even in a time before Stonehenge has been erected. They may have even been told around the camp-fires of that first British army that went out to face Cæsar’s invasion, now almost two millennia ago, and again in the marshes of Southern England by the army of Alfred the Great before they finally defeated the Viking invaders.

 

Later, much later, with the spread of education and the introduction of formal curricula, in which folklore seems to have no place, they began to die. Then, when many more folk could read and books grew cheap there was no longer the need to call upon memory for the old-fashioned romances, and so they began to fade from the modern consciousness. Yet there have always been those who loved the old tales best, and wrote them down before it was too late, so that they might be preserved forever. A few of them are retold briefly here with instructions of how to get to the very places in Devon, Cornwall and Wales that these legends originated from.
Be sure to check out the Poldark filming locations map in the images attached to this post.

 

BUY AS A PAPERBACK OR EBOOK
For more information & to buy in paperback – http://abelapublishing.com/legend-lands–14-legends-from-poldark-country_p31503131.htm

 

eBooks in PDF & ePUB formats: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Anon_E_Mouse_LEGEND_LAND?id=9L5gDQAAQBAJ

30 BRAZILIAN FOLK AND FAIRY TALES – AN OLYMPIC’S SPECIAL OFFER

A unique SPECIAL OFFER of 32 BRAZILIAN FOLK AND FAIRY TALES from the land of the 2016 Olympics

Discounted by 25% PLUS FREE SHIPPING

Amazonian tales of Giants, monkeys, how night came and more

Two Illustrated PERFECT BOUND paperbacks printed from certified sustainable forests to ISO Specification

BUY HERE >> http://abelapublishing.com/30-brazilian-folk-and-fairy-tales–olympics-special-offer_p31485781.htm

 

Herein you will find 30 uniquely Brazilian tales from the land of the 2016 Olympics. It should be noted that there are not many volumes of Brazilian Folklore to be found. But within these two unique volumes – Brazilian Fairy Tales and Tales of Giants from Brazil, you will find 30 stories from that vast and amazing country compiled especially by Elsie Spicer Eells. As Spicer-Eells puts it, “Brazil is the land of giant fruits and giant flowers. Of course it is the land of giant stories too.”

 

Stories like HOW NIGHT CAME, HOW THE RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL, HOW THE TOAD GOT HIS BRUISES, WHY THE LAMB IS MEEK, THE PRINCESS OF THE SPRINGS, THE FOUNTAIN OF GIANT LAND, THE LITTLE SISTER OF THE GIANTS, THE GIANTS PUPIL and many, many more.

Residents of the Amazonian forests know that the animals of the forest and the birds which flit through the trees each have their own language. To them the beasts break silence and talk like humans. For them, the magic wonders of these tales stand forth as testament and living truth that the animals do speak to humans, if only we would take the time to stop and listen to what they have to say. These volumes are an interpretation of but a few of the stories they have told.

 

So, find a comfy chair, and when you get bored with yet another program on the Olympics, sit back with a hot toddy, and enjoy a change of scenery and a change of pace with these 30 unique and authentic Brazilian folk stories and fairy tales while the narrator drones away listening to the sound of their own voice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fairy Tales from Brazil – Cover