Sympathy for the Devil: the legend of Gog and Magog

In an effort to ensure England’s political presence on the on the European stage, a Welsh monk named Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote Historia regum Britannie which, among other elements, included the arrival of Britain’s first civilised settlers who had to rid the land of the indigenous population of giants. In Geoffrey the giants are seen as monstrous and brutish; 150 years later a poem was written in Anglo-Norman, Dez Grantz Geantz in which the giants were treated more sympathetically: they were given a voice and allowed to explain their origins. This paper examines the legend of Gogmagog (or Gog and Magog) and discusses his/their presence in the London Guildhall with reference to later pageants and stories