This is a Cornish version of the Tom Hickathrift as told by Robert Hunt. It is a long story and seems to have been pieced together from other versions and local variations.

Hunt says:

The similarity of this story to the well–known tale of "Tom Hickathrift" will strike every one. It might be supposed that the old story of the strong man of the Isle of Ely had been read by some Cornish man, and adapted to the local peculiarities. This may possibly have been the case, but I do not think it probable. I first heard the story from a miner, on the floor of Ding–Dong Mine, during my earliest tour in search of old stories. I have since learned that it was a common story with the St Ives nurses, who told it to amuse or terrify their children. Recently, I have the same tale communicated to me by a friend, who got it from a farmer living in Lelant. This story is confined to the parishes of Lelant, St Ives, Sancreed, Towednach, and Zennor.

A version of the story of Tom Hickathrift can be found in James Orchard Halliwell–Phillipps Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales: A Sequel to Nursery Rhymes of England, pages 81–93. This story is set in the parish of the Isle of Ely, county of Cambridge. In this story Thomas is a strong young man and the son of a strong man ("so strong that he was able to do in one day the ordinary work of two"). Young Tom is a large boy ("…he was only ten years old, he would eat more than four or five ordinary men, and was five feet and a half in height, and two feet and a half broad. His hand was more like a shoulder of mutton than a boy's hand, and he was altogether a little monster…" But he is not a giant as in the Hunt story (although there is an ambiguity in the Hunt story on this point).

Tom, pulling a heavily laden cart, takes a shortcut through a marsh whose lord was a montrous giant who "killed or made slaves of every one he could lay his hands on." Tom flings open the giant's gates and confronts the twelve foot high, six foot round giant. After trading threats and insults, the giant runs to his cave for his club intending to dash Tom's brains out. Tom turns over his cart, takes off the axletree and makes a wheel into a shield. Tom manages to land a heavy blow to the side of the giant's head causing the giant to almost reel over. The giant, tired, asks for a pause for a drink of water. Tom refuses and kills the giant. He enters the giant's cave and finds it completely filled with gold and silver.

Tom's fame spread to the surrounding countryside where the giant had been a common enemy of its inhabitants. Tom took the giant's treasures, built a magnificent house, gave part of the giant's land to his mother, Jane, created a magnificent park of deer, built a famous church called St James because he had killed the giant on that saint's day.

Tom becomes a formidable opponent in sports, cracking skulls at cudgel–playing, bear–baiting, and football. Four robbers mistakenly attacked Tom one night; two died, and Tom confiscated their boot of over two hundred pounds.

Tom meets a lusty tinker in the woods one day. The tinker carried a great staff on his shoulder and a large dog to carry his pack and tools. These two also trade insults and fight. Tom confesses that he is fairly vanquished and the two return to Tom's home as sworn brothers in arms.

About ten thousand rebels on the Isle of Ely were terrorizing the gentry of the county and the sheriff had to approach Tom's house by night for shelter and protection. Tom and the tinker confront the rebels and killed hundreds; the tinker having hit a man so hard with his club that he knocked the man's head forty feet from the body. Tom fought until he broke his club, and picked up a miller and used him as a weapon until he had cleared the field.

These exploits were brought to the attention of the king and the two ere brought before the king at a banquet in their honor. The king speaks and names Tom and the tinker, Henry Nonsuch, knights Tom, and gives him forty shillings a year for life.

Tom returns home to find his mother dead and his house empty, so he woos a wealthy young widow for his wife. At first, she is interested, but on the second visit, her head is turned to another, more elegant, wooer. Strangely enough, the two trade insults and fight; Tom kicks him over the tops of the houses into a pond where a shepherd pulls him out with his crook. The man engages two troopers to ambush Tom and Tom "crushes them likes cucumbers." As he is taking his bride to church to be married, one–and–twenty ruffians in armour attack him—Tom borrows a sword from his company and merely chops off arms and legs because he does not want to kill anyone. Tom is married and gives a feast at which a silver cup is stolen. The stolen cup is traced to an old woman of the name of Stumbelup and she would have been hanged had not Tom intervened. He has her drawn through the streets of Cambridge with a placard in her hands saying:

I am the naughty Stumbelup,
Who tried to steal the silver cup.

The king hears of Tom's wedding and invites him back. During his visit with the king, a giant riding on a dragon, and accompanied by a large number of bears and lions, attacks the county of Kent and ravages it. The king appoints Tom the govenor of the Isle of Thanet, making him responsible for its protection from the monster. Tom travels to the govenor's castle from which the country is visible for miles around. He sees the giant who is "mounted upon a dreadful dragon, with an iron club upon his shoulders, having but one eye, the which was placed in his forehead; this eye was larger in compass than a barber's bason [common spelling of basin], and appeared like a flame of fire; his visage was dreadful to behold, grim and tawny; the hair of his head hung down the back and shoulders like snakes of an enormous length; and the bristles of his beard were like rusty wire!" The giant proceeds to Tom's castle, ties his dragon to a tree, but manages to slip so that he could not extricate himself. Tom cuts off the giant's head with one stroke of his two–handed sword, and the dragon's in four. He then sends them up in a "waggon" to the king's court.

Tom's old comparion, the tinker, hears of this story and joins him at Tom's castle desiring to share in his glory. Tom informs the tinker that he wants to clear the island of beasts of prey. Tom sets off with the tinker, with two handed sword and pikestaff respectively, and meet fourteen beasts within five hours, six bears and eight lions. The two fought with their backs to a tree and cut off the beasts heads when they came into cutting range. All were killed except one lion, who crushes the poor tinker to death before Tom kills the last beast, although it appears that "an inconsiderate movement on the part of Tom" played a role in the tinker's death.

Tom is disconsolate at the loss of his friend. He returns home to a feast in commemoration of his important victories, during which he gives this speach:

My friends, while I have strength to stand,
Most manfully I will pursue
All dangers, till I clear this land
Of lions, bears, and tigers, too.

This you'll find true, or I'm to blame,
Let it remain on record—
Tom Hickathrift's most glorious fame,
Who never yet has broke his word!

I summarize this story for its superficial similarities to the one from Hunt that follows. I believe that you will agree that the Cornish version is quite different and has a spirit and impertinance characteristically Cornish.

I have divided the story into three major pieces that represent Hunt's divisions to minimize the file size for the web. I have further subdivided each part using descriptive titles of my own making in order to break the story up visually.