Blunderbore (also recorded as Blunderboar, Thunderbore, Blunderbus, or Blunderbuss) is a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

of Cornish and

English folklore English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christia ...

. A number of folk and

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

s include a giant named Blunderbore, most notably "

Jack the Giant Killer "Jack the Giant Killer" is a Cornish fairy tale and legend about a young adult who slays a number of bad giants during King Arthur's reign. The tale is characterised by violence, gore and blood-letting. Giants are prominent in Cornish folklor ...

". The stories usually associate him with the area of

Penwith Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after ...

. Cornish folklore remembers Blunderbore as living in Ludgvan Lese (a manor in

Ludgvan Ludgvan ( ; kw, Lujuan) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, UK, northeast of Penzance. Ludgvan village is split between Churchtown, on the hill, and Lower Quarter to the east, adjoining Crowlas. For the purposes of local g ...

), where he terrorized travelers heading north to St Ives. In "Jack the Giant Killer" he is the second or third giant (along with his brother Rebecks) killed by the hero

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

. Under the influence of that story, the name "Blunderbore" is frequently appropriated by other legendary giants; the later fairy tale "Tom the Tinkeard", a local Cornish variant of "

Tom Hickathrift Tom Hickathrift (or sometimes Jack Hickathrift) is a legendary figure of East Anglian English folklore — a character similar to Jack the Giant Killer. He famously battled a giant, and is sometimes said to be a giant himself, though normally ...

", contains a similar account of the hero's battle with a giant named Blunderbore. Likewise, it is usually given as the name of the ogre in "

Jack and the Beanstalk "Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition On Commons and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Co ...

Appearances

Blunderbore first appears in the

". In the version recorded by

Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Jacobs ...

, Blunderbore lives in

, where he kidnaps three lords and ladies, planning to eat the men and make the women his wives. When the women refuse to eat their husbands with the giant, he hangs them by their hair in his dungeon and leaves them to starve. Shortly, the hero

stops along the highway from Penwith to

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

to get a drink from a fountain and take a nap. Blunderbore discovers the sleeping Jack. Recognizing him by his labeled belt and having known of him killing

Cormoran Cormoran ( or ) is a giant associated with St. Michael's Mount in the folklore of Cornwall. Local tradition credits him with creating the island, in some versions with the aid of his wife Cormelian, and using it as a base to raid cattle from t ...

, carries him to his castle and locks him in a cell. While off inviting his friend Rebecks to come help him eat Jack, Jack creates nooses from some rope. When the giants arrive, he drops the nooses, slides down the rope, and slits their throats. A giant named Blunderbore appears in the similar Cornish fairy tale "Tom the Tinkeard" (or "Tom the Tinkard"), a local variant of the more famous "

". Here, Blunderbore has built a hedge over the

King's Highway King's Highway or Kings Highway may refer to: Roads Australia * Kings Highway (Australia), connecting Queanbeyan to Batemans Bay Canada * King's Highways, an alternative designation for the primary provincial highway system in Ontario * King's ...

between St Ives to

Marazion Marazion (; kw, Marhasyow) is a civil parish and town, on the shore of Mount's Bay in Cornwall, UK. It is east of Penzance and the tidal island of St Michael's Mount is half-a-mile offshore. At low water a causeway links it to the town and ...

, claiming the land as his own. The motif of the abduction of women appears in this version, as Blunderbore has kidnapped at least twenty women as his wives. The hero Tom awakes the giant from a nap while taking a

wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

and oxen back from St Ives to Marazion. Blunderbore tears up an elm to swat Tom off his property, but Tom slides one of the

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...

s from the wagon and uses it to fight and eventually fatally wound the giant. In his dying breaths, the giant confers all his wealth to Tom and requests a proper burial.

In popular culture

Blunderbore appears as a monster type in the computer game ''

Diablo II ''Diablo II'' is an action role-playing hack-and-slash video game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 2000 for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and macOS. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror the ...

''.

References

{{Jack Arthurian characters Cornish folklore British folklore English folklore English giants Jack the Giant Killer