Giant (mythology)
From Freepedia
- For other meanings of the word "giant", see Giant (disambiguation)
The mythology and legendarium of many different cultures include mythological creatures of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed example: the gigantes of Greek mythology. In various Indo-European mythologies, gigantic peoples are featured as primeval races associated with chaos and the wild nature, and they are frequently in conflict with the gods, be they Olympian or Norse. There are also historical stories featuring giants in the Old Testament, perhaps most famously David and Goliath. They are attributed superhuman strength and physical proportions, a long lifespan, and thus a great deal of knowledge as well. Yet, they are weak in both morals and imagination. Fairy tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk have formed our modern perception of giants as stupid and violent monsters, frequently said to eat humans, and especially children. However, in some more recent portrayals, like those of Oscar Wilde, the giants are both intelligent and friendly.
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Giants of mythology and folklore
The Bible mentions an ancient race called the nephilim ("the Fallen"), who are often interpreted or translated as giants. Genesis states that:
- There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Gen. 6:4 KJV)
Post-biblical tradition holds that King Nimrod was a member of this race. The Bible also records the famous strife between David and the giant Goliath, ending with the defeat of the latter. Goliath was not one of the nephilim, nor was he ever described as anything more than a "champion." His stature of more than three meters has earned him this title in later traditions, though.
In Greek mythology the gigantes were (according to the poet Hesiod) the children of Uranos and Gaea (The Heaven and the Earth). They were involved in a conflict with the Olympian gods called the Gigantomachy, which was eventually settled when the hero Heracles decided to help the Olympians. The Greeks believed many of them to lay buried from that time under the earth, and that their tormented quivers resulted in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Greek mythology also features the cyclopes—well remembered for their encounter with Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey—giants (though not gigantes) with only one eye. The titans were as well often imagined to be of great size and strength, whence the word titanic.
Germanic mythologies – of whom Norse mythology, due to its extensive Icelandic sources, is the only one well recorded – the giants (jötnar in Old Norse, a cognate with ettin and ent) are often opposed to the gods. They come in different classes, such as frost giants (hrímþursar) fire giants (eldjötnar) and mountain giants (bergrisar). The giants are the origin of most of the monsters in Norse mythology (e.g. the Fenrisulfr), and in the eventual, apocalyptic battle of Ragnarök the giants will storm Asgard, the home of the gods in Heaven, and defeat them in war, thus bringing about the end of the world. Even so, the gods are themselves related to the giants by many marriages, and there are giants such as Ægir, Mímir and Skaði, who bear little difference in status to them. Norse mythology also holds that the entire world of men was once created from the flesh of Ymir—a giant of cosmic proportions, considered cognate with Yama of Hindu mythology.
In folklore from all over Europe, giants were believed to have built the remains of previous civilizations. Saxo Grammaticus, for example, argues that giants had to exist, because nothing else would explain the large walls, stone monuments, and statues that we know were the remains of Roman construction. Similarly, the Old English poem Seafarer speaks of the high stone walls that were the work of giants. Giants provided the least complicated explanation for such artifacts.
In Basque mythology, giants appear as jentilak and mairuak (Moors), and were said to have raised the dolmens and menhirs. After Christianization, they were driven away, and the only remaining one is Olentzero, a coalmaker that brings gifts on Christmas Eve.
Tales of combat with giants were a common feature in the folklore of Wales and Ireland. From here, giants got into Breton and Arthurian romances, and from this source they spread into the heroic tales of Torquato Tasso, Ludovico Ariosto, and their follower Edmund Spenser. The giant Despair appears in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
Giants figure in a great many fairy tales and folklore stories, such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Paul Bunyan. Ogres and trolls are humanoid creatures, sometimes of gigantic stature, that occur in various sorts of European folklore.
Other examples of giants
- St Christopher, from Roman Catholicism.
- Gog and Magog, from the legendary lore of Britain.
- Patagons of Patagonia in South America, giants claimed to have been seen by Ferdinand Magellan and his crew.
- Rübezahl, a kind giant in German folklore who lived in the Bohemian forest.
- The BFG (Big friendly Giant) and other (unfriendly) giants in the book The BFG by Roald Dahl.
- Hagrid in the Harry Potter series is a half-giant, as is Olympe Maxime; Hagrid's half-brother, Grawp, is a giant.
- Mountain Giants in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne are large creatures with rocklike skin and mossy beards, and are allies of the Night Elves.
- Gigantes y cabezudos ("Giants and big-heads"), figures from street processions at Spanish fiestas.
- Author Stephen R. Donaldson makes extensive use of giants as characters in his series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. Donaldson's giants are a jovial seafaring race, long-lived and fond of stories.
