[Scenario Seed] Bolster the Giant.

[Catsmate]

A slightly meandering post, incorporating giants, knights, archaeology, Cornwall, mining and radioactivity.

Last Sunday saw the annual 'Bolster Day' parade in St. Agnes in Cornwall. A fascinating holdover in a county noted for the richness of it's folklore.

According to Cornish legend (and tourist information….) Bolster was a giant said to live near the cliffs at St Agnes who consumed children, sheep, cattle and people at random. Then a brave Knight, Sir Constantine, and other local dignitaries challenged Bolster to a fight to the death, which (also according to legend) says that the fights took place at Chapel Porth.
The Knight lost, the giant overcame all who challenged him.

But there's more! The legend continues to say that he fell in love with a beautiful young girl called Agnes who stole his heart. And young Agnes was the one to finally vanquish the giant. She asks him to fill a nearby hole in the clifftops with his blood to prove his love for her, knowing that there is a crack in the hole which runs out to the sea. Bolster cuts himself to fill the hole and dies due to blood loss.
The events of Bolster day recreate this story in more detail.

There's probably a message there; brains beats brain. Or don’t trust women

St Agnes is a rather pretty village (or small town) on the north coast of Cornwall, about nine kilometres north of Redruth and fifteen southwest of Newquay. Historically it was a centre for mineral mining (the famous South Crofty, the last operational tin mine in the region, is about 17km away), mainly copper, tin and arsenic
Most of the mining ended in the 1920s.
Today the town is a tourist centre, with some fishing.

The St Agnes region and it's history of mining and related industry, had led to a surge in industrial archaeology.
Much of the landscape around the town is of geological interest, and there are stone-age remains (~12kyBP) in the parish, in addition to Bronze Age barrows.

Legends of a giant, mining, tourists and archaeologists, there’s a game scenario there. Something weird, be it nasty, hibernating, dangerous, valuable or anachronistic, might be found by an archaeologist. Is Bolster really dead? Just what was s/he?

• Sir Constantine is probably a reference to a minor king, 'Constantine of Cornwall' who may have been a sixth-century ruler of Dumnonia. He may have converted to Christianity, may be abdicated to become a monk and might be the person roundly condemned by Gildas Badonicus for the treacherous murder of his nephews. To describe records from the era as 'scanty' is being generous.
• Of course this is the perfect reason for a time travelling historian, or group thereof, to pop back and properly document matters. Do I hear the call of 'Max Max' Maxwell?
  
• Constantine almost certainly wasn't a kinsman of King Arthur's kinsman, or his successor, despite what Geoffrey of Monmouth says. Unless of course he was in your game.
  
• Though there's absolutely no prohibition on you making him (or indeed her) a time displaced late-medieval knight (complete with stirrups, lance and plate armour)¹, a Victorian re-enactor or even a modern day SCA type practitioner. I've a fondness for Sir Andre de la Croix....
  

There’s no reason to limit ourselves to the modern day for such a scenario. I'll pass over the Pulp and the UNIT eras, plenty of examples there, and go back to the days of steam trains, Hanson cabs² and gaslight.

The missing Sherlock Holmes case of “the Addleton tragedy and the singular contents of the ancient British barrow” which I mentioned in my posts on 'missing' Holmsian cases could be set here. Interestingly two tellings of the story have included an element of radioactivity in the mystery, as the cause of the mysterious deaths.

• They are Poul Anderson’ ‘Time Patrol’ and Barrie Roberts’ ‘The Mystery of the Addleton Curse’. The former has time travel too.
  

• In fact St. Agnes is about 20km from South Terras, the only specific uranium mine that operated in Cornwall, yielding ‘Green Jim’ (Torbernite) and Pitchblende from ~1870 to ~1930³.

If you do go with the modern day, then such an investigation would be a perfect place for UNIT to send the Misfit Mob ("Giants? Send the weirdo squad"), perhaps to butt heads with Section 9J and the actual archaeologists. And, for Doc Martin fans, don't forget a few locals trying to make money from the discovery. Perhaps the local pub has a lump of Green Jim on a shelf ("From my granddad's day") that's actually a raw Chronos Crystal and has started to glow strangely?


And there I'm done, work calls. You have a uranium mine, suggestions of Sherlock Holmes, knights, meddling archaeologists, giants, and more.

Suggestions or ideas?







1. Perhaps with a couple of companions? Including a a clever female blacksmith.

2. And, by the way, a 'Hansom' (never 'Handsome') is a two-wheeled, two-passenger vehicle with one horse and a rear driver. This fact seems to evade a number of writers of Victorian set fiction and is deeply irritating.

3. The South Terras site remains significantly radioactive, typically 5-20 times background levels (including on the public road) outside the mine area, but inside the level ranges from 50-200 times background. This is mostly gamma rays.

[thewarchief]

To me the interesting thing here is why is there a giant?
Is Bolster a one off ? Unlikely as there are lots of giant stories in Britain, and throughout Europe.
So is Bolster then part of a race of giants? If so are they some offshoot of humanity, or another species that lived on Earth? If the latter were they native to the planet or from someplace else? And where did they all go?

It does seem somewhat odd to me that throughout history there were stories of giants up until the Middle Ages, and then they suddenly stop. Almost as if they died out or left.

Sorry, I didn't seem to work so much with the Bolster story but raised more questions because of it.

Getting back to the story, it's interesting that Agnes literally wanted Bolster's blood. I mean it's unusuall way to test someone's love, and somewhat sad that Bolster died for being true. He didn't stop when he got dizzy, or check for a leak, he just bled out.

Now looking at it from a Doctor Who Sci-Fi angle, maybe Agnes wanted Bolster blood for some scientific purpose and he bled out before she achieved it?

I don't know, like you said there is some sort of scenario in here somewhat, but I'm not sure what. Could Bolster be some alien that crash landed on Earth, ran amok, but became smitten with a Human girl?

[Catsmate]

May 8, 2024 19:53:54 GMT thewarchief said:

To me the interesting thing here is why is there a giant?
Is Bolster a one off ? Unlikely as there are lots of giant stories in Britain, and throughout Europe.
So is Bolster then part of a race of giants? If so are they some offshoot of humanity, or another species that lived on Earth? If the latter were they native to the planet or from someplace else? And where did they all go?

It does seem somewhat odd to me that throughout history there were stories of giants up until the Middle Ages, and then they suddenly stop. Almost as if they died out or left.

Sorry, I didn't seem to work so much with the Bolster story but raised more questions because of it.

Getting back to the story, it's interesting that Agnes literally wanted Bolster's blood. I mean it's unusuall way to test someone's love, and somewhat sad that Bolster died for being true. He didn't stop when he got dizzy, or check for a leak, he just bled out.

Now looking at it from a Doctor Who Sci-Fi angle, maybe Agnes wanted Bolster blood for some scientific purpose and he bled out before she achieved it?

I don't know, like you said there is some sort of scenario in here somewhat, but I'm not sure what. Could Bolster be some alien that crash landed on Earth, ran amok, but became smitten with a Human girl?

Very good points. I did get a little distracted from the giant into general ideas regarding Cornwall.

Wrt giants in general, you're quite right about the abundance of legends in the British Isles.
London has it's legendary protectors, Gog and Magog (or just Gogmagog) which are linked, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, to the Trojan king Brutus, who arrived in 1100 BCE and found the British Isles populated entirely by ‘giants’ and the legendary warrior Corineus.

The New Forest was ‘Jettenwald’, roughly 'wood of the giants' to the Anglo-Saxons, guarded by a giant named Yernagate, who protected the woods from excessive exploitation. According to legend he's still sleeping there

Possibly less mythical there is Colbrand, champion of the Danish petty-kings Anelaph and Gonelaph, who fought Sir Guy of Warwick, champion of Athelstan (King of England 927-939) at Hyde Mead, just outside Winchester.

There are also the scholarly and valiant French giants Gargantua and Pantagruel, who fight  invading armies, defend France against giants, drown Paris in a bath of urine¹ and get up to all sorts of escapades. Gargantua ends up co-founding the Abbey of Theleme.

Cornwall itself has several other giant legends, benign and malicious, but often lazy and hungry; Cormoran, Cormelian, the unnamed giant of Carn Galve, John of Gaunt (not the Duke), Trecobben, Wrath, Blunderbore, Rebecks

With more connection to the real world, there is the 3.25 metre coffin unearthed in 1761 near the village of Tregony and still containing a 6cm tooth.
Or Charles Chilcott (1742-1815) who was about 2.1 metres tall, towering 35cm over the average man of the time. Or the even taller Anthony Payne, ~2.25 metres, whose conduct in the English Civil War gained him the attention of King Charles who ordered the portrait to be painted.
Perhaps there's something in the water?

Doctor Who hasn't seen many giants, but one that comes to mind are the flourosilicate  Grold. Perhaps a few of them landed and were stranded centuries ago?





1. Delivered by Gargantua, standing atop Notre-Dame, which reminds me that the cathedral reconstruction is nearly complete and really needs some attention. There are a vast array of possibilities involving Notre-Dame de Paris

[thewarchief]

May 9, 2024 9:46:45 GMT Catsmate said:

Very good points. I did get a little distracted from the giant into general ideas regarding Cornwall.

THat's the thing with myhs & legends, you have to work with what you are given.

May 9, 2024 9:46:45 GMT Catsmate said:

Wrt giants in general, you're quite right about the abundance of legends in the British Isles.
London has it's legendary protectors, Gog and Magog (or just Gogmagog) which are linked, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, to the Trojan king Brutus, who arrived in 1100 BCE and found the British Isles populated entirely by ‘giants’ and the legendary warrior Corineus.

Yup. I've gone through the Historia regum Britanniae, and it's loaded with giants. In fact, some King Arthur stories depict Arthur as a giant.

May 9, 2024 9:46:45 GMT Catsmate said:

The New Forest was ‘Jettenwald’, roughly 'wood of the giants' to the Anglo-Saxons, guarded by a giant named Yernagate, who protected the woods from excessive exploitation. According to legend he's still sleeping there

Possibly less mythical there is Colbrand, champion of the Danish petty-kings Anelaph and Gonelaph, who fought Sir Guy of Warwick, champion of Athelstan (King of England 927-939) at Hyde Mead, just outside Winchester.

There are also the scholarly and valiant French giants Gargantua and Pantagruel, who fight  invading armies, defend France against giants, drown Paris in a bath of urine¹ and get up to all sorts of escapades. Gargantua ends up co-founding the Abbey of Theleme.

Cornwall itself has several other giant legends, benign and malicious, but often lazy and hungry; Cormoran, Cormelian, the unnamed giant of Carn Galve, John of Gaunt (not the Duke), Trecobben, Wrath, Blunderbore, Rebecks

With more connection to the real world, there is the 3.25 metre coffin unearthed in 1761 near the village of Tregony and still containing a 6cm tooth.
Or Charles Chilcott (1742-1815) who was about 2.1 metres tall, towering 35cm over the average man of the time. Or the even taller Anthony Payne, ~2.25 metres, whose conduct in the English Civil War gained him the attention of King Charles who ordered the portrait to be painted.
Perhaps there's something in the water?

Not to mention the giants of Norse lore and the Formorii of Irish legend.

In fact the Formorii would make great villains for Doctor Who. They arrived from "across the sea" (which could mean space), lived in an "isle of glass" (possibly a skyscraper or spacecraft), and many were mutated and misshapen (radiation?). So some sort of alien invaders could work. Especially when you consider that the Formorians were defeated with the help of a healer.

May 9, 2024 9:46:45 GMT Catsmate said:

Doctor Who hasn't seen many giants,

Oh, but it has. It's just that their being giants was overshadowed by other things. Many of the actors who played the monsters in the 60s nd 70s were very tall (like John Levine), and in costume could have been giants. Ice Warriors, Cybermen, Yeti, it's quite a list. It just that when a cyborg comes to process you, you don't notice his height so much as his hardware.

Agnes is the sticking point here. While I can see at east a half dozen aliens as candidates for Bolster, not to many of them would fall in love with a beautiful young (human) girl. Maybe a malfunctioning cyberman, or better yet a partial conversion.

May 9, 2024 9:46:45 GMT Catsmate said:

but one that comes to mind are the flourosilicate  Grold. Perhaps a few of them landed and were stranded centuries ago?,

Perhaps. I think the legend is so vague (from a Doctor Who perspective) that it doesn't point us in a specific direction. I think some other giant story might give us more of clue.

Personally, I think Agnes might be the more interesting character of the story. She tricks te giant, and has a village named after her. Sainthood might have been posthumously bestowed upon her for defeating the giant.?

What if she wee a time lady that Bolster wanted for some purpose (maybe he was damaged somehow and wanted the secret of regeneration to repair himself) and she tricked him? The bloodletting was "supposed" to trigger his regeneration, but instead killed him. Agnes then left, and so just left a good impression with the locals.

But that's just one version of the story.

What if Bolster was a Time Lord, and became a giant through a malfunctioning dimensional stabilizer? THe changes drove him mad and he went on a rmapage, until Agnes sowed up, and did get him to regenerate through the bloodletting, which restored him to his proper size and healed his mind. Then the par left...leaving traces on tme lord DNA in the crevasse.

May 9, 2024 9:46:45 GMT Catsmate said:

1. Delivered by Gargantua, standing atop Notre-Dame, which reminds me that the cathedral reconstruction is nearly complete and really needs some attention. There are a vast array of possibilities involving Notre-Dame de Paris

Especially if they are going to the trouble and expense to repair it. Maybe it serves another purpose? I wonder where UNIT works from in France? The Louvre?