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The Giant of Dinger tor

Back in the dark ages almost every tor was home to a fearsome giant. Slowly, one by one they all died either at each others hand or through old age. Until the last living ogre was the largest and fiercest of them all - namely Moran the mighty. Now Moran was that big he needed several castles to live in, some were in Devon and some in Cornwall. Along with all his castles he had many wives to look after them. Accordingly he had one favourite - Jenny. Unlike the rest she was pretty, caring and worked hard which made all the others very jealous and consequently he saw very little of Jenny.

Dinger tor was his summer residence and whenever possible he and Jenny slipped away to spend the weekend at this castle of the moor. One day, however his other wives found discovered this and hell did they make his life miserable. They refused to cook his food, clean his castles and keep his bed warm (which he was not too concerned about because they were all as ugly as sin) , “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” etc. So as the weeks past Moran became angrier and angrier. Something had to be done, he was hungry, fed up of living in filth and then to cap it all they hid the key to his beer cellar.

Sitting outside his castle, angrily hurling rocks at the farmers cattle, he finally came to a very hard decision, he would have to take Jenny down to one of his Cornish castles and lock her up in the dungeon by the sea. The following day he took her down to the castle and locked her in the dank dungeon. As he kissed her goodbye the tears were rolling down his cheeks. The only thing this accomplished was to flood the nearby village. So heartbroken he returned to Devon. Every day he would send two ravens to deliver food to Jenny. She in return would send back little notes tied around the ravens feet. It was clear from the notes that although she loved Moran very much she was miserable and lonely. The only company she had was a pirate who was chained to a rock below her window. If memory serves me right he was held captive because of his pillaging activities. Now the only amusement the pirate could find was to cruelly taunt Jenny which just added to her misery.

One moonlit night she was sat at her rocky window when she noticed a ship approaching from the horizon. It appeared to be heading straight for the rock below where the pirate was chained. With sudden fear Jenny tore of her white blouse and waved it frantically to warn the ship of its impending doom. To her joy the captain saw her signal - or maybe the site of a pretty topless girl attracted his attention more. Either way he dropped anchor and put out to shore in a small boat, climbed the craggy rock to her cliff face prison. Oh that is before he killed the pirate because he thought he had deliberately tried to lure his vessel onto the rocks. Having reached the window he was rather miffed she had put back on her blouse and inquired why she should be entombed in the dungeon. She explained her fate.