Giants and Enemies of God: The Relationship between Caliban and Prospero from the Perspective of Insular Literary Tradition

Summary

This chapter engages with a growing body of criticism that analyses early modern drama from the perspective of insular literary tradition. Its eventual focus is on Shakespeare’s Tempest but it begins in Anglo-Saxon literature, before moving on to the foundation myth that appears in the medieval Brut, or Chronicles of England. These sources illuminate the play’s engagement with political and religious controversies that were current in England when the play was first performed in November 1611. This approach adds another dimension to the established post-colonial critique of the play and adds depth and complexity to the relationship between Prospero and Caliban as it exposes additional cultural significance in the manipulation of images deployed in the play. Although these images reflect traditional eschatological and mythical sources, those sources have hitherto been obscured by the overwhelming preoccupation of earlier critics with classical influences.

The best-known form of the mythical founding of Britain recounts the coming of Brutus, grandson of Aeneas of Troy, from Armorica, with a band of Trojans. They kill the giants they find when they land at Totnes in Devon and settle down to create a city-based society. European foundation myths citing Greek or Roman ancestors first appear in the work of the seventh-century Frankish chronicler, Fredegar. These myths offer explanations of how a society, civilization or realm came into being and include etiological material and eponymous characters. Many British myths, legends and stories include giants. From the work of Anglo-Saxon poets to that of sixteenth-century antiquarians, giants appear as the original inhabitants of the island of Britain. They are, of course, part of many foundation myths. The Titans of Greek legend are the classical version, and Genesis 6: 4 tells us that before the Flood ‘there were giants in the earth in those days’. Giants are the quintessential primary inhabitants in the myths of many realms and regions.