Giant Folklore

[Francis]

Thought I'd stick this link up for anyone here who speaks welsh

www.eryri-npa.co.uk/page/index.php?nav1=studycentre&nav2=3&nav3=2&nav5=783&contrast=1&lang=eng

A course being held at Plas Tan y Bwlch in Snowdonia. Twm Elias (his mail is in the contacts bit of the general site) is a real expert on the legends, myths and folklore of North Wales. He's usually happy to respond to e-mails.

The cost is a bit steep though... I believe if you live in the Leader 1 area of Wales you get a massive discount

Stephen

[suelittleowl]

Noooooooooo - being able to count up to 10 in Welsh won't help me I suspect.

On other boards I have posted questions about giants - I am particularly interesting in the occurence and location of stories about giants.

[Heron]

francis said:

Twm Elias (his mail is in the contacts bit of the general site) is a real expert on the legends, myths and folklore of North Wales. He's usually happy to respond to e-mails.

Yes, I went on a Natural History field course he ran a few years back - he is very much steeped in 'Y pethe' and for that reason usually operates in Welsh.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately, my Welsh extends to being able to ask for a cup of tea.

[littleraven]

firinne said:

Unfortunately, my Welsh extends to being able to ask for a cup of tea.

Quite possilby the most useful phrase in the language, if you are wanting a cup of tea.

Don't forget that.

[Deleted]

LOL, true.

I tried learning Welsh at one point (I was thinking of moving to Bangor for uni) but I had a very bad teacher, so I only ever got that far and only then because I wasn't allowed a cup of tea until I said it in Welsh.
I'd love to take the time to learn again some day, if I'm visiting another country I prefer to be able to speak the language, it honours the culture of the place and it's people.

[Brochfael]

Ahh now I can ask where the toilet is, request tea, coffee, Cider and (most importantly) Mead, insult someone's cooking, explain who I am and where I come from and be personally abusive.

Most important options covered!

[littleraven]

brochfael said:

Ahh now I can ask where the toilet is, request tea, coffee, Cider and (most importantly) Mead, insult someone's cooking, explain who I am and where I come from and be personally abusive.

Most important options covered!

Saturday night in Bethesda, that is.

[suelittleowl]

Don't forget he is a student!

BTW tracked down some of the Scottish Mead in the square bottle to bring to camp - mean isn't easy to get in West Yorkshire but I remember Craig raving about it once.

[arth_frown]

suelittleowl said:

Don't forget he is a student!

BTW tracked down some of the Scottish Mead in the square bottle to bring to camp - mean isn't easy to get in West Yorkshire but I remember Craig raving about it once.

Would that mead be called stag's breath by any chance?

[littleraven]

Ever tried Heather Ale? People have died for that, literally.

[arth_frown]

littleraven said:

Ever tried Heather Ale? People have died for that, literally.

Nope might have to try some, for research proposes.

[potia]

Sounds like Moniack Mead. You can get bulk deliveries direct from source for Moniack stuff (they do a lot more than mead).

Blessings
Potia.

[suelittleowl]

Yes its Moniak.

[poseidia]

Ok so giants huh. Well now. To begin with we have the legend that the stones for Stonehenge were brought from Killaraus (in reality Uisneach - well worth a visit to the hill of the Druid Fire cult and to St Brigid's church) on the advice of Merlin to be used as a fitting tribute for the British chiefs slaughtered through Hengist's treachery. Wikipedia:

"According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the rocks of Stonehenge were healing rocks which Giants brought from Africa to Ireland for their healing properties. These rocks were called The Giant's Dance. Aurelius Ambrosias (5th Century), wishing to erect a memorial to the nobles (3000) who had died in battle with the Saxons and were buried at Salisbury, chose (at Merlin's advice) Stonehenge to be their monument."

Hengist was later captured, tried and beheaded, hs body being buried outside the stone circle and, of course, was rediscovered by baffled archaelogists some 50 years ago - the famous "headless man" of Stonehenge. To this day I don't think anyone else has worked out that it is Hengist.

Anyway back to the Giants - They came from Africa and, of course, the Maasai, Dinka and Tutsi populations are known for their tallness. So could they have been nomadic Africans who lived alongside the Welsh around 2000 years before Christ. Welsh legend abounds with stories of giants and the countryside is full of stones allegedly thrown there by giants.

When the British (under Brutus) arrived around 1000 BC they found the islands inhabited by giants and cleared them all. Apparently, Corineus (after whom Cornwall's name is derived) particularly enjoyed wrestling with these giants. Geoffrey of Monmouth relates:

"Brutus on a certain Festival Day solemnly kept on that shore, where he first landed, was with the People in great jollity and mirth, a crew of these Savages breaking in upon them, began on the sudden another sort of Game, than at such a meeting was expected. But at length by many hands overcome, Goemagog the hugest, in height twelve Cubits, is reserv'd alive, that with him Corineus, who desir'd nothing more, might try his strength; whom in a
Wrestle the Giant catching aloft, with a terrible hug broke three of his Ribs: nevertheless Corineus enrag'd, heaving him up by main force, and on his Shoulders bearing him to the next high Rock, threw him headlong, all shatter'd, into the Sea, and left his Name on the Cliff, call'd ever since Langoemagog, which is to say, the Giant's Leap."

Of course, Giant's Leap is the name given today to a cliff near Totnes, Devon. Now this legendary fight between Goemagog and Corineus is celebrated in carvings in London's Guildhall. Wikipedia's entry:

"Two giants, Gog and Magog, are associated with the Guildhall. Legend has it that the two giants were defeated by Brutus and chained to the gates of his palace on the site of Guildhall. Carvings of Gog and Magog are kept in the Guildhall and taken out and paraded in the annual Lord Mayor's Show.

An early version of Gog and Magog were destroyed in the Guildhall during the Great Fire of London. They were replaced in 1708 by a large pair of wooden statues carved by Captain Richard Saunders. These giants, on whom the current versions are based, lasted for over two hundred years before they were destroyed in the Blitz. They in turn were replaced by a new pair carved by David Evans in 1953 and given to the City of London by Alderman Sir George Wilkinson, who had been Lord Mayor in 1940 at the time of the destruction of the previous versions."

In fact the carvings represent Corineus and one giant called Goemagog but that sort of got merged into two giants along the way - well it has been a few thousand years and sometimes the waters get muddied. According to Frederick W. Fairholt in his book "Gog and Magog: The Giants in Guildhall; Their Real and Legendary History With an Account of Other Civic Giants, at Home and Abroad":

"...The name therefore of one of these giants has been split into two and we now call one Gog and the other Magog. The names originally were Gogmagog and Corineus. The name is still preserved in its purity in the Gogmagog hills in Cambridgeshire. The oldest figure in our Guildhall is supposed to represent Gogmagog; the younger Corineus"

Happy giant hunting!

[wandarer]

I think all the countrys of the world have myths about giants, even the bible has urial who was sent to the land of the giants to learn about circle building.
Here in dumbarton we have the giants steps on the lang crags and the sleeping giant, I often wondered if these massive features were an ancient undertaking to scare off any would be atackers. I believe there is another in the hill above Portglasgow.
Or is it simply that southern europes aborigionals were geneticly smaller than the peoples of northern europe as are asian south american, australlian etc. Could it be that the giants are just the way the local inhabitans were percieved? In common stories today and even in movies a giant is anything over 6ft which for Northern europe isnt realy all that tall. I have worked in malaysia, Vietnam and South America and each of these places i have been percieved as giant, The word in those countries meaning someone tall Not necesarly mythical.
I would love to here any stories from people wheather mythical or just folklore localy to them concerning giants. Maybe we could find a patern to them

[Tegernacus]

I saw a documentary where they said that giant myths come from people finding mammoth bones. A mammoth leg-bone looks identical to a human leg-bone, just HUGE. This would have led to the myth of giant ancestors, in the same way other dinosaur bones lead to mythic creatures like the Gryphon etc.

Take a look at this article:

brc.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=GIANTS&action=print&num=1134243380

I can't vouch for it's historical or archaeological accuracy though