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| “ | Do what you can to get away, Or you'll become the giants prey, He's gone to fetch his brother who Will likewise kill and torture you. |
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| ~ An unknown voice warning Jack, History of Jack and the Giants, 1800. |
Blunderbore is a legendary Giant found in many folk tales from English folklore, specifically the Cornish section, where he is frequently noted as one of the main antagonistic Giants hunted down and slain by Jack the Giant-Killer.
As a result of the folk tales, Blunderbore would become a stock figure of sorts in many later stories, with the name being used to refer to numerous Giants and Ogres, many of whom would be defeated by varied incarnations of Jack.
History
Folk Tales
In old folk tales Blunderbore was said to live in a manor in the Cornish village of Ludgvan, where he would frequently attack travellers on their way to the nearby St. Ives.
Jack the Giant Killer
In most versions of the story Blunderbore is the second or third Giant to be faced by the legendary Jack. He is described as a man-eater, with the ground around his lair being strewn with the bones of his many victims. A version of the story from 1800 has Blunderbore gloat about eating men's hearts and livers with vinegar. Having made his home in Penwith, he kidnapped three lords and ladies, planning to eat the men and force the women to be his brides. A sadistic brute by nature, he would punish the captive women for refusing to eat their own husbands, hanging them by their hair in his dungeon and leaving them to starve.
It would be this cruel nature that soon brought Blunderbore's demise as he would stumble across Jack, who had stopped near the area to drink and rest. Blunderbore recognized the Giant-Killer from his previous slaying of Cormoran and thus captured the hero and locked him in a cell in his dungeon.
Blunderbore then left his lair to summon a fellow Giant (sometimes called his brother) Rebecks so the pair may feast upon Jack, however Jack quickly escaped and fashioned nooses with some nearby rope. Managing to arm himself he waited for both Giants to return at which point he dropped the nooses around them and choked them until they were "black in the face". He then slit their throats, killing them and ending Blunderbore's reign of terror once and for all.
Tom the Tinkeard
Another giant named Blunderbore appears in the Cornish fairy tale "Tom the Tinkeard". In this incarnation the Giant has built a large hedge over the King's Highway between St. Ives to Marazion and claimed the land as his own.
Like his previous incarnation, this Giant is cruel and lecherous, capturing at least twenty women to be his brides. He is also short-tempered as he attacks the hero, Tom, when he innocently woke the Giant with his wagon and oxen.
However Tom proves himself to be inventive and uses an axle from the wagon to fight and fatally wound the Giant. As he lay dying this version of Blunderbore showed some odd honor as he conferred all his wealth to Tom, requesting a proper burial.
Personality
Blunderbore was a cruel, vicious creature who would take what he wanted via force and held no regard for life he saw as beneath himself. This cruelty is especially strong in his "Jack the Giant-Killer" incarnation, where he went as far as forcing kidnapped women to be his unwilling brides and made them eat their own husbands, trying to starve them when they refused to obey him.
Blunderbore as depicted in Tom the Tinkeard had a more honorable side to him, however this was only done in his dying moments. Prior to this he was a vicious, short-tempered brute who like his "Giant-Killer" incarnation was fond of capturing women as forced-brides.
Abilities
Blunderbore was a Giant and thus much larger than a normal human as well as much stronger, though he could vary both size and strength as desired, sometimes he would simply be twice the size of a man, other times he may be depicted as a towering monster.
Like many giants he was also a fearsome fighter and capable of welding several types of weapons, though he preferred clubs.
Trivia
- in several stories the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk is also called Blunderbore.
