Saint
Thunor's Leap
He laughed at the deer. Then the ground opened.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Chalk pit near Minster; the abbey is nearby
- Legend from
- Anglo-Saxon legend of St Mildred; Hasted (18th c.)
- Tone
- Dark history
A tame deer ran a circle around Thanet to win a princess her abbey. The man who tried to stop it, they say, was swallowed by the earth.
King Egbert of Kent let his counsellor Thunor murder his two young cousins, the princes Ethelred and Ethelbert. To make amends, he promised their sister Domneva as much land in Thanet as her tame hind could run around in one go. As the deer raced across the island, Thunor mocked the bargain and tried to stop it. The ground opened, and he was swallowed alive. The hollow became known as Thunor's Leap. Domneva founded Minster Abbey on the land, and her daughter Mildred later succeeded her. Hasted put the Leap in a chalk pit near Minster.