Addlebrough is a prominent, flat topped hill in upper Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, 30 miles to the north west of Harrogate.
Back in the 1870’s, the folklore collector Richard Blakeborough transcribed part of an old manuscript written by David Naitby – a shoemaker in the market town of Bedale. Naitby had himself gathered old stories and folklore in the late 1700s, and these were recorded in his manuscript. Another Bedale resident called Willie Plews had shown Naitby his family bible which had a handwritten page dated “March ye 7th 1680“, which noted details of a giant who once lived on Addlebrough hill …
“Then there was a very fierce monster of a giant had his castle generally, that is when he reckoned to be at home, on the very top of Addleborough – for he could shift it anywhere he wanted to in a crack [quickly]. They called him Addleback, for it be said that where the mountain now stands there was once a great plain on which stood a prosperous towne. But one night the folk of that town closed their iron gates against Addleback which was a very daft trick for had the giant been so minded he could have knocked all the lot down with one kick. He took no heed of what they did but he went into Westmoreland, pulled up a mountain by the roots, popped it on his back and carried it that way until he came to the towne which had shut its gates against him, and tossed the mountain right on the top of them while they slept. And that’s how it came to be where it stands. It do be affirmed by some of our younger folk that on a certain night when the moon be at full, if it be on the eve of Saint Agnes, that the moans and groans of those underneath may yet be heard if the ear do but be laid upon a certain rock which jutteth out near to its summit.”
This ‘lost’ story only came to light through the work of Prof. David Kirby who studied Richard Blakeborough’s archive for a book he wrote about the town of Bedale – (Kirby, 2005). The story is of interest because it could well be the origin of a similar legend connected with lake Semerwater, which is located close to Addlebrough hill. The gist of this story is that a prosperous town once stood where the lake is today, and one day an angel disguised as a beggar visited the town in search of charity, but he was turned away at every door. No one would give him food or shelter, so he left the town and was taken in by a poor man and his wife who lived in a humble cottage on the slopes of Addlebrough hill. After staying there overnight, the beggar blessed the old couple, but then turning to face the town below, he called on God’s judgement to punish the towns folk for their unchristian ways. Immediately the ground opened and water flooded out to swiftly cover the whole town, submerging it below the lake that stands there today.
The Semerwater story can be traced back in print to the 1850’s, but the similarities with the earlier Addleback folklore seems to be too much of a coincidence. Either the giant version had been totally forgotten, or someone used it as a basis for a more sensible story (ie. not involving giants), which also had a religious and moral message.
Although Addleback’s name was forgotten at some point, a fragment of folklore does connect a giant with Addlebrough hill. This records that for some reason the Devil and a giant threw rocks at each other, with one boulder (now called the Carlow Stone) landing next to Semerwater lake, while the other rock landed on the side of Addlebrough hill, and is known as the Devil’s Stone. It seems quite likely that the Devil’s stone on Addlebrough is actually the rock mentioned in the Addleback giant story “…a certain rock which jutteth out near to its summit.”where the moans and groans of those buried beneath the hill could be heard.
Again, this story also seems to have been tampered with by inserting the Devil into it. Charles Fothergill visited Addlebrough in 1805, and his uncle told him the original tradition about these stones …
“In days of old in these parts lived two desperate Giants of immense stature and strength, the one on Addlebrough and the other on the Cragg: for a trial of skill or rather muscular power they were each to throw a huge stone of equal size from the top of their respective mountains into Semer water. The Giant occupying Addlebrough suspecting nothing threw his vast fragment of rock very innocently into the lake below; which the other Giant no sooner perceived this than he threw his stone with tremendous force directly at the now defenceless Giant of Addlebrough, which haply fell a little short of the brow of that awful precipiece on the spot where it now lies as a memorial of the event; and superstitious rustics and shepherds wandering that way to this day point out certain grooves worn on the topmost surface by storms and wet as the impression of the mighty hand that hurl’d it thither.”
The Devil replacing a giant in folk tales is quite common – perhaps to spice up the story, or for religious purposes. The ‘Cragg’ mentioned above is the high ridge located 2 miles to the west of Addlebrough hill, while Fothergill was told that the stone by the lake was called the ‘Carl Stone‘ – rather than the Carlow Stone. This would tie in with other folklore where the Carl name seems to refer to a supernatural giant or troll-like being (for example the ‘Carle of Carlisle’), and is probably connected further north with the Carlin or Cailleach – meaning the ‘Old Woman’. ‘Old’ in this case means ancient – having existed since the earliest times, and this Carl and Carlin (the Old Man and Old Woman) seem to be archetypal folklore figures. The Carlin often appears as a giantess in stories where she crosses the landscape creating hills, mountains, and lakes whilst also dropping large boulders from here apron or basket.
The Carlow Stone name may be connected with an area called ‘Carlows’ on the western end of the Crag ridge where the bad giant threw his boulder from. As noted above ‘Carl’ can refer to a giant, and so Carlows perhaps derives from Carl-howes (or carl-hlaw) meaning the giant’s hills or Giant’s burial mound. In other parts of Britain the ‘Giant’s Grave’ name is attached to prehistoric burial mounds. The Carlow Stone by the lake side is located mid way along a line from the top of Addlebrough to the Carlows hill top.
The Eve of Saint Agnes
The original Addleback story from 1680 noted that the stone near the summit of Addlebrough was visited by young people on the eve of Saint Agnes. By putting an ear to the stone they could hear the ‘moans and groans’ of people buried under the hill by the giant. Saint Agnes was the patron saint of young couples and virgins, while the eve of Saint Agnes was more normally linked with love related activities amongst younger folk, so perhaps the moans and groans coming from the hill may have had another explanation! It was once quite a common folklore belief that certain prominent rocks and boulders had fertility powers, and could bless a woman with children and easy childbirth (See the Giant’s lapstone at Westerdale). Newly weds, or couples struggling with infertility would visit such rocks – in some cases sliding down the surface, or in other places actually trying to conceive a child while they were there. The church strongly condemned such superstitious practices, and this might explain why the rock came to be called the Devil’s Stone, in an attempt to deter people from visiting it.
If the Saint Agnes eve visits to the rock were connected with fertility then there may have been an element of symbolism between female anatomy and the long cracks or openings on the stone. These crevices did hold some significance, as they were said to have been made by the Devil, but in the original story these were grooves created by the giant. In Norse mythology, giants were connected with creation and the natural world, while Thor, who was the son of a giantess, possessed a hammer Moljnir, which as well as being a weapon, also had fertility powers and was used to bless marriages and births. If the Giant’s (Devil’s) Stone on Addlebrough hill was originally a fertility site, then the ‘moans and groans’ connected with the rock may have been a memory of its link with conception or childbirth.
End Notes
The old belief that Addlebrough hill was once home to a giant, and that there were people buried under the hill whose voices could still be heard at a large rock on the hill side, has echoes much further north.
In Iceland it was said that the Norse god Thor lived on a hill called Helgafell (meaning holy mountain), and those who worshipped Thor in that area believed that when they died their spirits would live on within the Helgafell – saying that they would ‘die into the hill‘. On one occasion a shepherd saw an opening in the side of the hill, and inside he could see fires burning, and heard voices and merriment coming from within. This story is very similar to the one connected with the Willey Howe Barrow in east Yorkshire, and later beliefs about the faerie folk living inside hills and burial mounds.
The old name for Addlebrough was Otholburgh in 1153 and Authelburgh in 1283, which it has been suggested meant ‘the hill belonging to Audulfr’. However, with the strong Viking settlement of this region It is also worth noting that Othal (Othila-Odal-Edel) is the name of a rune in the runic alphabet. Othal represents the letter O, but also has the meaning of the ancestors, family, clan, and ancestral land etc. As the final rune at end of the alphabet, a link to a hill where spirits of the ancestors dwelt at the end of their lives might be quite appropriate.
References
Fothergill, C. The diary of Charles Fothergill 1805
Kirby D. (2005) Marvel’s, Magic and Witchcraft in the North riding of Yorkshire
