Journal of Geomancy vol. 2 no. 1, October 1977
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Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series of legends linking dragonlore with observable geomantic
features. Contributions of articles on this theme are welcome.
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England is rife with legends of giants and of dragons. However, it is relatively unusual to find a legend which combines the two. Brent Pelham in Hertfordshire provides us with one – that of Piers Shonkes,
The village of Brent Pelham lies within the effigy of Virgo in the Nuthampstead Zodiac. It is a small place which has a church associated with a number of puddingstones, one of which is incorporated into the foundations. Inside the church there is little of note, except an interesting tomb, built into the north wall. The tomb is covered with a coffin-slab upon which can be seen a dragon, floreated cross, angel raising up a soul to Heaven and four indeterminate winged animals.
Piers Shonkes was a benevolent giant 23 feet in height who rid Brent Pelham and its environs of demons. He lived beneath an oak tree on a hillock surrounded by a moat in Great Pepsall’s Field, about a mile from Brent Pelham church. One day, whilst out hunting accompanied by his three winged hounds, he encountered a dragon, the Devil’s favourite. He fought the dragon and despatched it. The Devil, on hearing of his favourite dragon’s demise, swore that he would have the soul of Shonkes, whether he was buried inside the church or outside it.
Many years later, Shonkes was on his death-bed. He called for his bow, and shot one last arrow to divine the site of his grave. Loosing it from Shonkes’s Moat towards Brent Pelham, the arrow struck the church tower, went through a window and embedded itself in the north wall. Shonkes was buried in this wall, ‘neither inside nor outside the church’ and his soul was thereby saved from the Devil.
From the geomantic angle, this legend is interesting from the following points:–
1* A giant legend occurs in the area of a terrestrial zodiac, a folk-memory of the figures themselves.
2* The giant was Christianized, having ‘rid the area of demons’ – perhaps a reference to the stamping-out of Pagan observances associated with the zodiac.
3* The figure 23, the number of feet in Shonkes’s height, was found by Michael Behrend to recur in the landscape geometry of the area (see diagram),
4* Shonkes was buried in a ‘no-man’s-land’, the uncertain twilight zone between areas, which exempted him from punishment. Such uncertain zones are common in Celtic myth, indicating a pre-Christian origin.
5* Folklore does not record the site of the dragon-killing. Paul Screeton has associated dragon legends with Scorpio figures in terrestrial zodiacs, but place-names around Arkesden give no clue.
Shonkes is also associated with psychical phenomena. He was seen subsequently as an apparition which rebuked John of Pelham for theft. Beeches, a house very close to Shonkes’s Moat, was for many years plagued with psychical activity. Six rooms were finally demolished to remove the haunting.
