GiantFamous
The Wrekin Giant
One shovel of earth, one sack of shoes, one new hill.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Isolated wooded hill above the plain
- Legend from
- Folk tale, recorded 1880s
- Tone
- Light-hearted
He carried a hill on his spade to drown Shrewsbury. A cobbler with a sack of old shoes stopped him.
The Wrekin rises alone from the plain near Wellington, and Shropshire people say a giant made it. A Welsh giant with a grudge against Shrewsbury set out with a huge spadeful of earth to dam the Severn and drown the town. Near Wellington he met a cobbler carrying a sack of worn-out shoes and asked the way. The cobbler said Shrewsbury was so far that he had worn out all those shoes walking back from it. The weary giant dumped his earth on the spot, making the Wrekin, and scraped his boots, making the smaller Ercall beside it. Burne records variants in which the Devil is the carrier.