Giant tragedy
The giant Trecrobben of Trencrom Hill used to play with his friend Cormoran on St Michael’s Mount. When they got bored of throwing rocks at each other and whooping at the splashes made or even the sparks created when the flint struck the shale, they would lob a mighty sledgehammer over the water. It was really Cormoran’s sledgehammer, but Trecrobben wasn’t above using his friend’s tools. And the giant of St Michael’s Mount loved sharing his possessions with his friend. He was not so nice about sharing his hard won gold with the small humans who had begun to trickle into the south west of Cornwall. Really, he ignored them, he enjoyed his life on the mount with his beautiful giantess wife and sharing his simple pleasures with his friend on Trencrom Hill. He gathered his gold and treasures of the deep and hid them about his castle. He knew his friend on the Hill did the same for his gold. 'Perhaps he has dug them into the foundations of his castle,' he mused one day, 'or perhaps has burrowed into the side of the hill to hide them.' No matter, he was not greedy, he had enough with his wife to love him.
One day the wind got up and the storm witches untied two knots. 'What fun!' thought the giant on Trencrom Hill. 'This makes the games so much more exciting.' He called to his friend, “Lend me your sledgehammer, I have a nut to crack!” His friend laughed heartily so the sound rolled across the strait like thunder. “Ho ho! Then throw it back afterwards, I have a cheese to squeeze!” The pair enjoyed throwing the hammer back and for, always with a wisecrack. They had to move fast to catch the flying mallet. The pair of them lunged over their grounds striking rocks with knees so hard the fragments spun off in different directions.
Then the giantess came out to call her husband in for his dinner. She had to come close to bellow in his ear as the wind was howling and the waves were crashing. His attention diverted momentarily, the giant stumbled and failed to catch the sledgehammer which landed right on the top of the giantess’s head. She died instantly. Cormoran let out a roar of agony and despair. “My wife, my wife! You have killed my wife!” He gathered her up and took her away to be buried.
On Trencrom Hill Trecrobben stood still. Then he bellowed so hard and so long you could hear it all the way to Scotland. The giants on the whole of the mainland heard his cry of grief and knew something terrible had happened. They added their cries to the sound until the earth creaked and groaned with sorrow. Trecrobben sobbed. He mourned the loss of his friend’s wife, he mourned the loss of his friend, he mourned the loss of happy innocent days. He tore down his castle. He buried his gold so deep that even the serpentine dragon wouldn’t be able to find it. He set spriggans to guard his treasure and walked into the sea. He was never seen again.