Walking with giants

On a meander around the mighty summits of Dartmoor, Manjit Dhillon recalls tales of warring giants, complex marriages and clotted cream

-  Manjit Dhillon

BENEATH Plymouth’s Royal Citadel are two carvings of giants, a Cerne Abbas in duplicate. Their extraordinary story can be found within the weighty tomes of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain, albeit eclipsed by the sexier legend of King Arthur. From the top of Cox Tor on Dartmoor, I watch Plymouth Sound, imagining Brutus’s astonishment on his arrival at Totnes, expecting these isles to be uninhabited and coming face to face with a fierce army of giants. Against the odds, the giants are defeated and their leader Gogmagog left running for his life. He hides on Dartmoor and, as I look down, I can see his towering frame lying low as the soil turns to mire with his tears for losing his beloved Albion.