Legends of Britain
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain
12th century, Latin, manuscript copies at Cambridge University Library; Stadtbibliothek, Berne, Switzerland; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
The giant Gogmagog was twelve feet tall.
'According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote in the mid-twelfth century,' explained Miranda, 'the British people are all descended from a contingent of third-generation Trojan slaves and exiles who were gathered up by Brutus, a great-grandson of Aeneas.'
'Aeneas, who fled Troy at the end of the Trojan War and made his way to Italy via the underworld in the story told by Virgil, and was shown all the souls in the underworld waiting to be reborn into the new city of Rome?'
'Yes. Brutus and his flotilla first sailed to an island in the eastern Mediterranean and at an old abandoned temple to the goddess Diana he received a prophetic dream – there is an island in the western sea. It used to be inhabited by giants. Now nobody lives there. Brutus should make his way to this island.
'After a long voyage, upon landing on the shores of what is now southern England, they find the country to be uninhabited except for a few giants.
They drive these giants into the mountains. In Cornwall they find giants to be particularly numerous and willing to fight back, so they kill twenty of them in one encounter and challenge the last remaining one to a wrestling contest. His name is Gogmagog and he is twelve feet tall. Of course, he is killed, by one of Brutus's champions.