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John Foster Forbes - Giants of Britain - Finding the giant of Mold in Flintshire
Identifier
026574
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Official version of this burial concentrates on the gold cape, details of the skeleton have been somewhat supressed. The cape is actually tiny as they have reconstructed it - child size. Only 12 inches wide according to the British Museum.
"The Mold Gold Cape was discovered by labourers in pieces at Bryn yr Ellyllon ('Hill of Elves') just off Chester Road, Mold in 1833 along with the bones of a man and some amber beads. Only one amber bead survives out of the 'quantities' found with the cape, the rest are thought to have gone home in the labourers' pockets. Missing fragments of the cape have turned up over the years, the last fragment was found only 10 years ago. The entire cape was found crushed and broken and was repaired using reinvented technology to replace the missing 15% of the metal by Conservator Ian Macintrye. It is dated between 1900 and 1600BC. It is made from the equivalent of 23-carat gold, weighs one kilogram and was created from one ingot of gold and decorates with ribs and bosses giving the impression of folded cloth.. It is believed to have been a garment worn for religious ceremonies, although this can only be guessed at. We know that it was not just used as a burial offering as it showed signs of repair. It would have fitted over the shoulders, upper arms and body of its wearer, who would have had to have had assistance in putting on the cape and once on would have had severely restricted arm movement.
While the original Cape resides in the British Museum, a replica can be seen in the heritage centre situated above Mold library"
A description of the experience
John Foster Forbes - Giants of Britain 1945 [as precised in Pail Screeton Quicksilver Heritage]
My favourite story relating to a barrow burial is the one John Foster Forbes tells, connected with the discovery of a giant clothed in a gold corslet beneath a tumulus at Mold, Flintshire. Apparently a woman living nearby dreamed repeatedly of a giant in full armour standing above the tumulus, and her persistance in believing the mound to contain a great burial led to the excavation which proved her right.
AND
We shall preface our account with a "ghost story," which is as singular as it is true. A considerable time previous to the discovery, an old woman, on her return from Mold late one night, saw an apparition "of unusual size, and clothed in a coat of gold, which shone like the sun," crossing her road to the identical spot where the treasure was afterwards found*, and which was commonly known by the name of "Bryn yr Ellyllon," or the Goblins' Hill. We stop not to enquire into the probable nature of this spectre, whether it was really an emigrant from the unseen world, or merely the effect of imagination, or some other optical illusion; it is sufficient for us that the old woman herself was convinced of its personality. And no less curious is it, that she should have mentioned the circumstance on the following morning, amongst others, to the very person whose workmen dug out the breast-plate!
*This circumstance is mentioned by the Rev. C.B. Clough, Vicar of Mold (and now Archdeacon of St. Asaph,) in a letter communicated by him to John Gage, Esq., Director of the Society of Antiquaries, where he moreover adds: "Her having related this story is an undoubted fact."