Gog and Magog

I think the question setter (or his or her source) may have got this story a little confused. Gog and Magog are more commonly referred to as the guardians of the City of London – not its founders – although they are involved in the story of the city's foundation. If you read to the end of this piece, you may get to feel you understand their confusion.

The names Gog and Magog appear in the Bible, in three distinct places. Gog was a man, and Magog was originally the land he came from; but over time, "Gog of Magog" came to be rendered as "Gog and Magog".

The story that links Gog and Magog to the City of London was told by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain, 1136), and is related on the Lord Mayor's Show website.

The Roman Emperor Diocletian (or so the story goes) had thirty–three wicked daughters. He managed to find thirty–three husbands to curb their unruly ways, but the daughters were not pleased and under the leadership of the eldest sister, Alba, they plotted to cut the throats of their husbands as they slept. For this crime they were set adrift in a boat with half a year's rations, and after a long and dreadful journey they arrived at a great island that came to be named Albion, after the eldest. Here they stayed, and with the assistance of demons they populated the wild, windswept islands with a race of giants.

Some time later the Roman consul Brutus, great–grandson of the Trojan hero Aeneas, fled the fall of Troy and by way of various scrapes arrived at the same islands. He too named them for himself, so we also know them as Britain. With him he brought his most able warrior and champion Corineus, who faced the leader of the giant brood in single combat and eventually hurled him from a high rock to his death. The name of the giant was Gogmagog, and the rock from which he was thrown became known as Langnagog or 'The Giant's Leap'. As a reward Corineus was given the western part of the island, which came to be called Cornwall after him. Brutus travelled to the east and founded the city of New Troy, which we know as London.

The Lord Mayor's Show website does point out that there is a big historical problem with this story, in that the Emperor Diocletian lived more than 2,000 years after the fall of Troy. I am inclined to think that while the story itself is clearly nothing more than a legend, there may well be some truth in the idea that Diocletian was somehow involved in the founding, or at least the establishment of London, and this fact simply got woven into the legend.

The same website gives a second version of the story, according to which Gog and Magog were the last two survivors of the sons of the thirty–three infamous daughters of Diocletian, who were captured and kept chained to the gates of a palace on the site where the Guildhall now stands, to act as guardians. By the reign of Henry V there were carved giants guarding the gates of the Guildhall, which are said to represent Gogmagog and Corineus. (Brutus and Corineus might seem to make more sense, but all sources – including Wikipedia – refer to them as Gogmagog and Corineus.) These original effigies were lost in the Great Fire of 1666; their replacements lasted only a few years, and were themselves replaced in 1703. This third pair were destroyed in the Blitz, and were replaced in 1953.

Wicker versions have been carried in the procession on Lord Mayor's Day since at least 1554, and in 1605 the Pageantmaster of the Lord Mayor's Day alluded to them as Corineus and Gogmagog. According to Wikipedia however, the effigies 'eventually earned the familiar names "Gog and Magog"', and this would seem to tie in with the story of Gog and Magog being the guardians of the city.