The Giant of Carn Galver was one of the kindlier giants of Cornish folklore, dwelling among the granite tors of Carn Galver on the wild coast between Morvah and Zennor. Far from a terror, he was the protector of the little farming and fishing folk of the parish, guarding them against the fiercer giants of the country round about, and asking in return only company and the occasional gift of food.
The story
His story is a tender and tragic one. He had grown especially fond of a young man of Choon, who would come to play games of quoits and bowls with him among the rocks. One evening, in pure affection, the giant tapped the lad playfully on the head with his fingertips as he left — forgetting his own enormous strength — and the young man fell dead at his feet, his skull broken like an eggshell. The giant was inconsolable; he sat among his tors and pined, refusing to eat, and within seven years he had died of grief, leaving the rock-piles of Carn Galver as the only monument to the gentle giant who loved a mortal too roughly.