Chapter 18

All over Germany there are so many of these stories about stones and hammers being hurled, and giant's fingers imprinted on hard rock, that I can only select one here and there as samples of the style and spirit of the rest. Ruins of a castle near Homberg in Lower Hesse mark the abode of a giantess; five miles to one side of it, by the village of Gombet, lies a stone which she hurled all the way from Homberg at one throw, and you see the fingers of her hand imprinted on it. The Scharfenstein by Gudensberg was thrown there by a giant in his rage. On the Tyrifjordensstrand near Buru in Norway is a large stone, which one jutul fighting with another is said to have flung obliquely across the bay, and plain marks of his fingers remain on the stone (Faye, p. 15). Two or three miles from Dieren in the Meissen country there lie a block of quartz and one of granite; the former was thrown by the giant of Wantewitz at the giant of Zadel, the latter by the Zadeler at the Wantewitzer; but they both missed, the stones having fallen wide of the mark. (51) So two combatants at Refnäs and Asnäs threw enormous stones at each other, one called sortensteen, the other blak, and the latter still shows the fingers of the thrower (Thiele 1, 47). A kind of slaty stone in Norway, says Hallager 53ª, is called jyvrikling, because the jyvri (giantess) is said to have smeared it over with butter, and you may see the dint of her fingers on it. Two giants at Nestved tried their hands at hurling stones; the one aimed his at Riislöv church, but did not reach it, the other threw with such force that the stone flew right over the Steinwald, and may still be seen on the high road from Nestved to Ringsted (Thiele 1, 80; conf. 176). In the wood near Palsgaard lies a huge stone, which a jette flung there because the lady of the manor at Palsgaard, whom he was courting, declined his proposals; others maintain that a jette maiden slung it over from Fünen with her garter (Thiele 3, 65-6; conf. 42).

When giants fight, and one pursues another, they will in their haste leap over a village, and slit their great toe against the church-spire, so that the blood spirts out in jets and forms a pool (Deut. sag. no. 325); which strikingly resembles Wäinämöinen, rune 3. In leaping off a steep cliff, their foot or their horse's hoof leaves tracks in the stone (ibid. nos. 318-9). Also, when a giant sits down to rest on a stone, or leans against a rock, his figure prints itself on the hard surface, (52) e.g. Starcather's in Saxo Gram. 111.

It is not as smiths, like the cyclops, that giants are described in German legend, and the forging of arms is reserved for dwarfs. Once in our hero-legend the giant Aspriân forges shoes (Roth. 2029); also the giant Vade makes his son Velint learn smithwork, first with Mîmir, then with dwarfs.

As for smiðr in the ON. language, it does not mean faber, but artificer in general, and particularly builder; and to be accomplished builders is a main characteristic of giants, the authors of those colossal structures of antiquity (p. 534). On the nine giant-pillars near Miltenberg the common folk still see the handmarks of the giants who intended therewith to build a bridge over the main (Deut. sag.
no. 19).

The most notable instance occurs in the Edda itself. A iötunn had come to the âses, professing to be a smiðr, and had pledged himself to build them a strong castle within a year and a half, if they would let him have Freyja with the sun and moon into the bargain. The gods took counsel, and decided to accept his offer, if he would undertake to finish the building by himself without the aid of man, in one winter; if on the first day of summer anything in the castle was left undone, he would forfeit all his claims. How the 'smith,' with no help but that of his strong horse Svaðilfari, had nearly accomplished the task, but was hindered by Loki and slain by Thôrr, is related in Sn. 46-7.

Well, this myth, obeying that wondrous law of fluctuation so often observed in genuine popular traditions, lives on, under new forms, in other times and places. A German fairy tale puts the devil in the place of the giant (as, in a vast number of tales, it is the devil now that executes buildings, hurls rocks, and so on, precisely as the giant did before him): the devil is to build a house for a peasant, and get his soul in exchange; but he must have done before the cock crows, else the peasant is free, and the devil has lost his pains. The work is very near completion, one tile alone is wanting to the roof, when the peasant imitates the crowing of a cock, and immediately all the cocks in the neighbourhood begin to crow, and the enemy of man loses his wager. There is more of the antique in a Norrland saga: (53) King Olaf of Norway walked 'twixt hill and dale, buried in thought; he had it in his heart to build a church, the like of which was nowhere to be seen, but the cost of it would grievously impoverish his kingdom. In this perplexity he met a man of strange appearance, who asked him why he was so pensive. Olaf declared to him his purpose, and the giant (troll) offered to complete the building by his single self within a certain time; for wages he demanded the sun and moon, or St. Olaf himself. To this the king agreed, but projected such a plan for the church, as he thought impossible of execution: it was to be so large, that seven priests could preach in it at once without disturbing each other; pillar and ornament, within and without, must be wrought of hard flint, and so on. Erelong such a structure stood completed, all but the roof and spire. Perplexed anew at the stipulated terms, Olaf wandered over hill and dale; suddenly inside a mountain he heard a child cry, and a giant-woman (jätteqvinna) hush it with these words: 'tyst, tyst (hush)! (54) tomorrow comes thy father Wind-and-Weather home, bringing both sun and moon, or saintly Olaf's self.' Overjoyed at this discovery, (55) for to name an evil spirit brings his power to nought, Olaf turned home: all was finished, the spire was just fixed on, when Olaf cried: 'Vind och Veder! du har satt spiran sneder (hast set the spire askew).' Instantly the giant, with a fearful crash, fell off the ridge of the church's roof, and burst into a thousand pieces, which were nothing but flintstones. According to different accounts, the jätte was named Bläster, and Olaf cried: 'Bläster, sätt spiran väster (set the spire west-er)!' or he was called Slätt and the rhyme ran: 'Slätt, sätt spiran rätt (straight)!' They have the same story in Norway itself, but the giant's name is Skalle, and he reared the magnificent church at Nidarös. In Schonen the giant is Finn, who built the church at Lund, and was turned to stone by St. Lawrence (Finn Magnusen's Lex. myth. 351-2; and see Suppl.).

It is on another side that the following tale from Courland touches the story in the Edda. In Kintegesinde of the Dzervens are some old wall-stones extending a considerable length and breadth, and the people say: Before the plague (i.e. time out of mind) there lived in the district of Hasenpot a strong man (giant) of the name of Kinte. He could hew out and polish huge masses of stone, and carted even the largest blocks together with his one white mare. His dwelling-house he built on rocks, his fields he fenced with stone ramparts. Once he had a quarrel with a merchant of Libau; to punish him, he put his white mare to draw a stone equal to twelve cartloads all the way to Libau, intending to drop it at the merchant's door. When he reached the town, they would not let him cross the bridge, fearing it would break under the load, and insisted on his removing the stone outside the liberties. The strong man, deeply mortified, did so, and dropt the stone on the road that goes to Grobin by Battenhof. There it lies to this day, and the Lettons, as they pass, point to it in astonishment. (56) Kinte's white mare may stand for the Scandinavian smith's Svaðilfari; the defeat of the giant's building designs is effected in a different way.

King Olaf brooked many other adventures with giants and giantesses. As he sailed past the high hills on the Horns-herred coast, in which a giantess lived, she called out to him:

S. Olaf med dit röde skiäg,

du seilar for när ved min kjelderväg!

(St. Olaf with thy red beard, thou sailest too near my cellar wall). Olaf was angry, and instead of steering his vessel between the cliffs, he turned her head on to the hill, and answered:

hör du kjerling med rok og med teen,

her skal du sidde og blive en steen!

(hear, thou carlin with distaff and spool, here shalt thou sit and become a stone). He had scarce finished speaking, when the hill split open, the giantess was changed into a stone, and you still see her sitting with spindle and distaff on the eastern cliff; a sacred spring issued from the opposite cliff. (57) According to a Swedish account, Olaf wished to sail through Värmeland and by L. Väner to Nerike, when the troll shouted to him:

kong Olaf med dit pipuga skägg (peaky beard),

du seglar för när min badstuguvägg (bathroom wall)!

Olaf replied:

du troll med din råk och ten

skal blie i sten

och aldrig mer göra skeppare men!

(shalt turn to stone, and never more make skipper moan). The giantess turned to stone, and the king erected a cross at Dalky church in Elfdals herred. (58) The Danish rhyme is also quoted as follows:

hör du Oluf rodeskjäg,

hvi seiler du igjennem vor stueväg (through our

chamber wall)?

And:

stat du der og bliv til steen,

og (gjör) ingen dannemand (no Dane) mere til meen! (59)




ENDNOTES:

51. Preusker in Kruse's Deutsch. alterth. iii. 3, 37. Back

52. Herod. 4, 82: icnoj Hrakleoj fainousi en pneon, to oike men bhmati androj, esti de to megaqoj diphcn, para ton Turhn potamon, in Scythia. (Footprint of Herakles in stone, like a man's, but two cubits long.). Back

53. Extracted, from Zetterström's collection, in the third no. of the Iduna, 2 ed. Stockh. 1816, pp. 60-1. Now included, with others like it, in Afzelius's Sagohäfder 3, 83-86. Back

54. Conf. the interj. 'ziss, ziss!' in H. Sachs iv. 3, 3b. Back

55. Almost in the same way, and with similar result, the name of Rumpelstilz is discovered in Kinderm. 55; conf. 3, 98, and supra p. 505n. Back

56. Communic. by Watson in Jahresverhandl. der kurl. gesellsch. 2, 311-2. Back

57. Danske viser 2, 12-3. Thiele 1, 32; conf. Fay, 118-9. Back

58. Fernow's Värmeland, p. 223. Back

59. Nyerup's Karakteristik af Christian 4, p. 17. Back