There has been talk of giants for generations, hundreds of years in fact across multiple continents in varying forms. It could just be that some tales are just too fantastical and stay with us for reasons unknown, or it just could be, that it’s because they were whispers of truth, turned into tales and stories to make sure they stayed with us. To help us to understand that there once was a different time, of giants and titans, of Myths, monsters and legends, when a different atmosphere was perhaps around us and these things were not so out of the ordinary. They seem so outrageous now because everything has been ‘normalised’ and scaled down, but who is to say we will not have a time like that again one day.
Frost giants and Azguard – mentioned briefly in the linked article above, but I had no idea how intricate the lore is, and how when it is read in the context of their being far away frozen lands, inhabited by giant unknown beings, it doesn’t sound as crazy as it once did. Stories of cities in the sky and other things start to link in as well, if you are so inclined to that train of thought.
Jack and the beanstalk – this one is just a children’s story, and fun to think there could be magic beans, but that is not what interests me about it. Take away the magic means and cow to market bit, and focus on the tall tree like structure that grows up into the sky, to the land above. Where there are giants.
Titans / Nephilim – going back to biblical times, and written in the books of Enoch there are titans (think of the film Clash of the Titans, where they are in their godly giant palaces above, tinkering with and setting the fate of man). There are also the Nephilim, which were supposed to be of giant stature and are part of the angels who were cast out and procreated with humans. Lots to unpack there.
The Giants Causeway – In Ireland there is geological wonder called the giants causeway, literally names after a Giant called Finn MacCumhaill. And if you look around the whole British Iles, there are a strange number of tales and folklore about giants, things named after them and records of them. Makes you wonder if they really are all just made up, well, makes me wonder anyway.
Long Meg – There is a tale of a Giantess at the time of Henry VIII, who lived in London Town but came from the countryside. Most might think nothing of it, but having visited a site up north of what is claimed to be large neolithic stones called, Long Meg and her Daughters, I wondered. And we all know it’s fairly easy to make something either stick, or drop from history. Through the cunning use of inquisitions, burning, torture and ridicule, they usually got everyone singing the same tune, if you catch my drift.
Slight side note – I looked up where April Fools came from the other day, as I have been looking at different calendars around the world and in the past. I already knew we have moved the year from April to January, as the tax year is still running to the old one. New year’s eve used to be at the end of March, and April marked the start of the new one. Then some bright spark decided to change it to January (you see where they can then change time, add things, take it away), and everything changed. 1752, they moved it. But not everyone remembered or was on board, so they took to mocking anyone who celebrated new year on April 1st. Calling them fools.
Six fingered giants – Afghanistan, it seems we have recent stories of giants too, not just old school myths. This one during the Afghanistan conflict, where soldiers encountered a six fingered giant in the mountains they say and a number of soldiers were killed rather gruesomely. There have also been a few strange stories emerging from the desert regions, so who knows.
Patagonia – many a traveller and explorer wrote of there being giants in Patagonia, they are named as such and drawn on maps of that time, talked about in local lore, stories, paintings, legends etc. So, I do wonder if they simply were eradicated and then removed from history as much as possible. To make the world an ordinary, scaled down, small version of itself. To hide the true size and fantastical past of this realm, and what it and we are capable of? Perhaps.
BFG – A fictional story by Roald Dahl, and a very enjoyable one I read and watched as a child. And although is meant to be purely fictional, made me think of other lands inhabited by other creatures, lands just above us, or below us. And dreams are another kettle of fish, but the strangeness of this story did not pass me by. It’s not just a simple story about giants, there is more to it, but for this article, it’s about giants.
The Selfish Giant – a moral tale for children, but doesn’t just feature an old grumpy man as with Ebenezer scrooge, no, this one is a giant. Could just be as with the BFG, a story for children and nothing more.
There may be nothing to the tales and legends, and it could all be nonsense. But sometimes I can’t help thinking it isn’t…
I have also recently written a new fictional short story about giants, which can be found here – In the mountain
