Giant Race Born of the Devil in Great Britain
The Cerne (Og) giant depicts the early giant race that inhabited England
The Chronicles of Great Britain, written by John de Wavrin between 1445 and 1455, relate that in the time of Jahir, the third judge of Israel after Joshua, Lady Albine and her sisters came to, and settled in, an island which they named Albion after her, and which afterwards got the name of Britain. While they were living there the devil assumed the shape of a man, and dwelt among the wicked women, and by they had issue great and terrible giants and giantesses, who afterwards much increased and multiplied, and occupied the land for a long time, namely, until the arrival of Brutus, who conquered them. At the time of his visit there were two giants who were more wonderful than all the rest, and were chiefs and lords of the country. One of them was called Gomago (Gogmagog), and the other Lancorigam, who before the arrival of Brutus greatly injured and oppressed their neighbours, the Scotch and the Irish.* Berosus says that the ten antediluvian kings of Chaldea were giants. Milton caught the idea of this early belief in huge stature, when he told us in his Paradise Lost of Satan : " His other parts besides Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood : in bulk as huge As whom the fables name, of monstrous size, Titanian, or Earth-bora, that warr'd on Jove, Briareus, or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held : or that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. • * * » » His spear — to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great admiral, were but a wand."
The Chronicles of Great Britain, written by John de Wavrin between 1445 and 1455, relate that in the time of Jahir, the third judge of Israel after Joshua, Lady Albine and her sisters came to, and settled in, an island which they named Albion after her, and which afterwards got the name of Britain. While they were living there the devil assumed the shape of a man, and dwelt among the wicked women, and by they had issue great and terrible giants and giantesses, who afterwards much increased and multiplied, and occupied the land for a long time, namely, until the arrival of Brutus, who conquered them. At the time of his visit there were two giants who were more wonderful than all the rest, and were chiefs and lords of the country. One of them was called Gomago (Gogmagog), and the other Lancorigam, who before the arrival of Brutus greatly injured and oppressed their neighbours, the Scotch and the Irish.* Berosus says that the ten antediluvian kings of Chaldea were giants. Milton caught the idea of this early belief in huge stature, when he told us in his Paradise Lost of Satan : " His other parts besides Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood : in bulk as huge As whom the fables name, of monstrous size, Titanian, or Earth-bora, that warr'd on Jove, Briareus, or Typhon, whom the den By ancient Tarsus held : or that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. • * * » » His spear — to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great admiral, were but a wand."
