Recent from talks
Corineus
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Corineus
In medieval British legend, Corineus was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants, and the eponymous founder of Cornwall.
Corineus first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history History of the Kings of Britain (1136), where he led the descendants of the Trojans who fled with Antenor after the Trojan War and settled on the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea. He is described as "a modest man in matters of council, and of great courage and boldness"; his giant-fighting prowess is also described, and later reinforced by boasts of having killed "heaps" of Tyrrhenian giants.
After Brutus, a descendant of the Trojan prince Aeneas, had been exiled from Italy and liberated the enslaved Trojans in Greece, he encountered Corineus and his people, who joined him in his travels. In Gaul, Corineus provoked a war with Goffarius Pictus, king of Aquitania, by hunting in his forests without permission; in the ensuing battle, Corineus single-handedly killed thousands with a battle-axe. After defeating Goffarius, the Trojans crossed to the island of Albion, which Brutus renamed Britain after himself. Corineus settled in Cornwall, which was then inhabited by giants. Brutus and his army killed most of them, but their leader Goemagog was kept alive for a wrestling match with Corineus. During the fight, Goemagog broke three of Corineus' ribs; enraged, he picked Goemagog up, ran to the coast, and threw the giant from a high rock into the sea, with the craggy rocks below tearing him to pieces.
Corineus was the first of the legendary rulers of Cornwall, which was named after him. After Brutus died the rest of Britain was divided between Brutus' three sons, Locrinus (Loegria), Kamber (Cambria) and Albanactus (Alba). Locrinus agreed to marry Corineus's daughter Gwendolen, but fell in love instead with Estrildis, a captured German princess. Corineus threatened war in response to this affront, and to pacify him Locrinus married Gwendolen, but kept Estrildis as his secret mistress. After Corineus died Locrinus divorced Gwendolen and married Estrildis, and Gwendolen responded by raising an army in Cornwall and making war against her ex-husband. Locrinus was killed in battle, and Gwendolen threw Estrildis and her daughter, Sabren, into the River Severn.
Geoffrey probably took the name from the character Corynaeus in the Aeneid, a Trojan follower of Aeneas. Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley suggests that this name was chosen by Geoffrey due to its similarity to the word Cornwall, and his "naive (or ironic) fondness for eponymy as a form of historical research".
Curley also suggests there is a parallel between Corineus and Hercules in Lucan's Pharsalia, who defeated the giant Antaeus in a wrestling match by lifting him from the earth, the source of his strength.
Geoffrey's main source for the History of the Kings of Britain was the Historia Brittonum. It does not mention Corineus, but two parts of the Historia were used as sources for Corineus' location on "the shores" of the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he is found by Brutus. The first is the Historia's account of Brutus' banishment: unlike the History of the Kings of Britain, where Brutus immediately goes to Greece, Brutus instead first travels to "the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea", where, instead of Corineus, he finds Greek colonists living, who expel him due to Aeneas' killing of Turnus. The second is a variant of the story of Goídel Glas, in which the hero travels from Egypt to Iberia via a sequence of named places – Africa, then Aras Philaenorum, Lacus Salinarum, between Rusicada and the Mountains of Azaria, along the River Malua through Mauretania to the Pillars of Hercules, then the Tyrrhenian Sea – Geoffrey uses precisely the same sequence of locations for Brutus' journey after getting his prophecy from Diana, and even explains the backtracking from the Pillars of Hercules to the Tyrrhenian Sea by saying Brutus was fleeing from Sirens; it is at this point in the story of the History of the Kings of Britain that Brutus finds Corineus on "the shores" of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The fight between Corineus and Gogmagog is described in the History of the Kings of Britain as ending at a place called Saltus Goemagog or 'Goemagog's Leap', which Geoffrey says still retained the name. John Milton's The History of Britain (1670) referred to the place as Langoëmagog, 'the Giants leap', which is sometimes changed to Langoënagog or Langnagog. The Middle English prose Brut (c. 1419) places their fight "at Totttenes" (Totnes, Devon), where Corineus and Brutus had landed in the History of the Kings of Britain, while Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) placed the "leape of Gogmagog" at Dover.
Hub AI
Corineus AI simulator
(@Corineus_simulator)
Corineus
In medieval British legend, Corineus was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants, and the eponymous founder of Cornwall.
Corineus first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history History of the Kings of Britain (1136), where he led the descendants of the Trojans who fled with Antenor after the Trojan War and settled on the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea. He is described as "a modest man in matters of council, and of great courage and boldness"; his giant-fighting prowess is also described, and later reinforced by boasts of having killed "heaps" of Tyrrhenian giants.
After Brutus, a descendant of the Trojan prince Aeneas, had been exiled from Italy and liberated the enslaved Trojans in Greece, he encountered Corineus and his people, who joined him in his travels. In Gaul, Corineus provoked a war with Goffarius Pictus, king of Aquitania, by hunting in his forests without permission; in the ensuing battle, Corineus single-handedly killed thousands with a battle-axe. After defeating Goffarius, the Trojans crossed to the island of Albion, which Brutus renamed Britain after himself. Corineus settled in Cornwall, which was then inhabited by giants. Brutus and his army killed most of them, but their leader Goemagog was kept alive for a wrestling match with Corineus. During the fight, Goemagog broke three of Corineus' ribs; enraged, he picked Goemagog up, ran to the coast, and threw the giant from a high rock into the sea, with the craggy rocks below tearing him to pieces.
Corineus was the first of the legendary rulers of Cornwall, which was named after him. After Brutus died the rest of Britain was divided between Brutus' three sons, Locrinus (Loegria), Kamber (Cambria) and Albanactus (Alba). Locrinus agreed to marry Corineus's daughter Gwendolen, but fell in love instead with Estrildis, a captured German princess. Corineus threatened war in response to this affront, and to pacify him Locrinus married Gwendolen, but kept Estrildis as his secret mistress. After Corineus died Locrinus divorced Gwendolen and married Estrildis, and Gwendolen responded by raising an army in Cornwall and making war against her ex-husband. Locrinus was killed in battle, and Gwendolen threw Estrildis and her daughter, Sabren, into the River Severn.
Geoffrey probably took the name from the character Corynaeus in the Aeneid, a Trojan follower of Aeneas. Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley suggests that this name was chosen by Geoffrey due to its similarity to the word Cornwall, and his "naive (or ironic) fondness for eponymy as a form of historical research".
Curley also suggests there is a parallel between Corineus and Hercules in Lucan's Pharsalia, who defeated the giant Antaeus in a wrestling match by lifting him from the earth, the source of his strength.
Geoffrey's main source for the History of the Kings of Britain was the Historia Brittonum. It does not mention Corineus, but two parts of the Historia were used as sources for Corineus' location on "the shores" of the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he is found by Brutus. The first is the Historia's account of Brutus' banishment: unlike the History of the Kings of Britain, where Brutus immediately goes to Greece, Brutus instead first travels to "the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea", where, instead of Corineus, he finds Greek colonists living, who expel him due to Aeneas' killing of Turnus. The second is a variant of the story of Goídel Glas, in which the hero travels from Egypt to Iberia via a sequence of named places – Africa, then Aras Philaenorum, Lacus Salinarum, between Rusicada and the Mountains of Azaria, along the River Malua through Mauretania to the Pillars of Hercules, then the Tyrrhenian Sea – Geoffrey uses precisely the same sequence of locations for Brutus' journey after getting his prophecy from Diana, and even explains the backtracking from the Pillars of Hercules to the Tyrrhenian Sea by saying Brutus was fleeing from Sirens; it is at this point in the story of the History of the Kings of Britain that Brutus finds Corineus on "the shores" of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The fight between Corineus and Gogmagog is described in the History of the Kings of Britain as ending at a place called Saltus Goemagog or 'Goemagog's Leap', which Geoffrey says still retained the name. John Milton's The History of Britain (1670) referred to the place as Langoëmagog, 'the Giants leap', which is sometimes changed to Langoënagog or Langnagog. The Middle English prose Brut (c. 1419) places their fight "at Totttenes" (Totnes, Devon), where Corineus and Brutus had landed in the History of the Kings of Britain, while Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) placed the "leape of Gogmagog" at Dover.
Recent media