From Mr M. Causon

Guidebooks refer to several legendary links between the five sites where megalithic remains have been found. Mgr Gauci is a good source for obtaining this information, as also is a more modern, and much more romanticised booklet, Realms of Fantasy – Folk Tales from Gozo, by George Camilleri.

The map shows that Ta' Cenc is common to both major alignments, and so it is for the legends. The stones for the dolmen at Ta' Cenc originate from there but were placed in their particular spot by a “giant woman”. The same giant woman, who was of great strength, brought the stone for the Qala Menhir from Ta' Cenc to Qala. She is said to have sat on the stone and watched over her crops while resting from her work in the fields. She ate large quantities of beans while sitting thus, and sang songs of love and war.

The legend says that one year, a drought came, causing the bean crop to fail and the giant woman to lose her strength. She crept off to vanish in a cave beneath the hills of Gozo. This seems to be a very direct parable connecting the Earth Goddess of agricultural fertility to the megaliths. It also implies that Ta' Cenc was a significant power centre of some kind.

The stones from Ta' Cenc were brought by the same bean-eating giant woman to Ggantija, meaning “giant’s bower”. This time, in an even more direct allusion to fertility, she also had a giant baby. As she carried the stones she is said to have eaten more beans and nursed the baby.

The legend for Tal Qighan does not provide such a direct link as for the last three sites, but it is interesting in another way. The story is told of a mysterious horseman riding daily through Tal Qighan at dusk in the direction of Qala to light a lamp at the shrine of Our Lady. This shrine is in the very old church of the Immaculate Conception in Qala which, according to Gauci, is on the site of a Neolithic temple. (The shrine is somewhat to the southeast of the Qala Menhir but it is said that a “white lady” brought the stones for the church.)

One night an Arab, or “foreigner” tried to catch the rider but died in the attempt and was buried under the stones at Tal Qighan; the other name for the site, “Borg il-Gharib”, translates as “the heap of stones (or mound) of the foreigner”.

The two sources mentioned above have no legends specifically about Xewkija Church. However, in view of the earlier dolmen on the site and its location in the shadow (at sunset at least) of Ta' Cenc, it is hard for anyone who has visited Gozo not to believe that they were related in some way.

There are some legends, according to Camilleri, for locations around and close to Xewkija. Gauci is considered the more reliable guide to folklore, as his book is older and less romanticised. But it seems that he is more interested in the building of the present massive churches than with any legends from Xewkija and, in any case, the megalithic and legendary aspects of his book are incidental rather than the main theme.

Even so, the riches of folklore hinted at by Gauci indicate that there would be handsome rewards awaiting an exhaustive investigation. If such an investigation is to be undertaken it needs to be started soon, as the pace of “modernisation” is accelerating rapidly and, under its influence, the traditional way of life and the legends will probably soon disappear. It seems nothing is sacred forever.

Mark Causon