The windswept summits of the Gog Magog hills have always been of incredible strategic importance. From its iron age fort on Wandlebury to queen Boadicea, whoever controlled the hills controlled Cambridgeshire. The hills are shrouded in mystery and legend, with its very name being given to it from two giants, Gog and Magog, who are supposedly buried there. But perhaps its most famous and interesting story is that of the warrior of Wandlebury camp.
Up on the highest peak, there lies the old iron age camp of Wandlebury, now abandoned and overgrown with grass and plants. But although its ramparts lay empty and its keeps unmanned, there was one soldier who had not left. A phantom, a ghost left behind to defend Wandlebury from any hostile force. It had no name, it had no voice, only its armour, weapons and horse. These were all jet-black, and the greatest in the land. The armour was impenetrable, its sword sharp as a razor, and its horse was quick as lightning. But these factors did not deter anyone from challenging it. Many came to try and defeat the famously undefeatable knight and claim its possessions for themselves. All they had to do to challenge it was head up to the hill on a moonlit night, and shout “Knight to knight, come forth!”. The knight would then ride forward, ready to do battle inside the fort. All failed to beat it, and all were killed.
However, one man devised a cunning plan to obtain one of the famous possessions of the warrior. His name was Osbert, a local knight garrisoned in Bury St Edmund. He decided that the best of the warriors possessions was its horse, and that in order to obtain it, he would challenge the knight, desaddle it and then ride off with its horse. The fighter would be unable to pursue as it would have no mount, and he would get to keep the fastest horse in the land. So he rode off one beautiful evening towards the Gog Magog hills, ready to face the knight.
He arrived to the ring by the light of the moon, drew his sword, and muttered the challenge. No sooner had the words left his mouth, a horse appeared on the grassy bank and galloped down to face him. Osbert swung at him, but his sword could not penetrate the knights armour, ricocheting off. The warrior swung a blow at him, but narrowly missed his head, charging across the flat circle and turning once he hit the bank. Osbert knew he wouldn’t be as lucky as that again, and so had to act fast to secure his life, let alone the horse. The knight charged again, and this time Osbert was ready: instead of attacking the knight, he aimed to block his sword. When the knight rode up close and attempted to hack him, Osbert swung his sword into the oncoming attack. The sword shook violently, and was heavily dented, but stood it ground. Osbert then aimed a kick into the riding knight, hitting him square in the chest, dislodging him from his saddle and throwing him to the floor.
Osbert couldn’t believe his luck, and quickly rode after the riderless horse, attempting to grab its reigns. However, he had forgotten that the legendary warrior was still alive, and now angered at the loss of its horse, it was baying for blood. Osbert now had the horse under its control, and so tried to ride away from the hill with it and out into the country, back to Bury. But before he could escape the ring, the knight flung his spear at Osbert, in one last attempt to kill him. The spear missed his body, but struck him straight in the leg, painfully digging into his flesh and causing blood to splatter everywhere. But Osbert was still alive, and so could successfully escape the ring with his prize.
He rode out into the fields, unsaddled his horse and kitted up his new shadow black stallion. He rode back to Bury, and had never seen a horse with such speed in his life. It was so quick that he managed to arrive before the sun rose, able to return home and recover from his deadly ordeal. He hitched his horse outside, went up to bed, and slept into the late afternoon. When he awoke, he got dressed and breakfasted and went down to marvel at his new prize horse. But he found no horse there, and after frantically searching around for hours, saw no traces of it anywhere.
But this was not the only punishment in store for Osbert, as every anniversary of the battle, the wound reopened as if it had just been cut, and all the pain came flooding back. Today you can go and visit the ancient fort atop Wandlebury, and maybe even challenge the legendary knight there to a duel, although weather you would win is uncertain.