Chapter 18

The AS. poets use also the Greek, Latin, (19) and Romance appellative gigant, pl. gigantas, Beow. 225. giganta cyn 3379, gigant-mæcg, Cædm. 76, 36; conf. Ital. Span. gigante, Prov. jayan (Ferab. 4232), O. Fr. gaiant (Ogier 8092. 8101), Fr. géant, Eng. giant; also OHG. gigant (O. iv. 12, 61), MHG. gigante die mâren (Diut. 3, 60), (20) M. Nethl. gigant. The ON. word which is usually compared with this, but which wants the nt, and is only used of giantesses, seems to me unconnected; fem. gýgr [[giantess]], gen. gýgjar [[of or from a giantess]], Sæm. 39, Sn. 66. 68; a Swed. folk-song still has 'den leda gijger,' Arvidsson, 2, 302. It is wanting in the other Teut. dialects, but if translated into Gothic it would be giugi or giugja; I trace it to the root giugan, and connect it with the words quoted in my Gramm. 2, 50 no. 536 (see Suppl.).

Our riese is the OHG. risi (O. iv. 12, 61) or riso (N. ps. 32, 16), MHG. rise, MLG. rese (En. 7096), ON. risi [[giant]] (the elder Edda has it only in Grôttas. 12), Swed. rese, Dan. rise, M. Nethl. rese, rose (Huyd. op St. 3, 33. 306), now reus. To these would correspond a Gothic vrisa, as may be gathered from the OS. form wriso which I confidently infer from the adj. wrisilîc giganteus, Hel. 42, 5. The Anglo-Saxons seem to have had no analogous wrisa, as they confine themselves to þyrs, gigant [and ent]. The root of vrisa is unknown to me; it cannot belong to reisan surgere, therefore the OHG. riso does not mean elatus, superbus, excelsus. (21)

Again, lubbe, lübbe seems in parts of Lower Saxony to mean unwieldy giant, lübben-stones are shown on the Corneliusberg near Helmstadt, and lubbe acc. to the Brem. wb. 3, 92 means a slow clumsy fellow; it is the Engl. lubber, lobber, and Michel Beham's lüpel (Mone's Anz. 1835, 450b), conf. ON. lubbi [[?]] (hirsutus). To this add a remarkable document by Bp. Gebhard of Halberstadt, bewailing as late as 1462 the heathenish worship of a being whom men named den guden lubben, to whom they offered bones of animals on a hill by Schochwitz in the county of Mansfeld. Not only have such ancient bone-heaps been discovered on the Lupberg there (conf. the Augsburg perleich, p. 294), but in the church of the neighbouring Müllersdorf an idol image let into the wall, which tradition says was brought there from the Lupberg (see Suppl.). (22)

The ON. has several words for giantess, beside the gýgr [[giantess]] mentioned above: skass [[?]], neut, Sæm. 144b 154b, and skessa [[giantess, witch]], fem.; griðr [[gríðr - giantess]] f., mella [[?]] f.; gîfr [[witch, hag]] f., Sæm. 143b, Norweg. jyvri (hallag. 53) or gyvri, gurri djurre (Faye 7. 9. 10. 12). This gîfr seems to mean saucy, defiant, greedy.

Tröll neut., gen. trölls (Sæm. 6ª), Swed. troll, Dan. trold, though often used of giants, is yet a more comprehensive term, including other spirits and beings possessed of magic power, and equivalent to our monster, spectre, unearthly being. By trold the Danish folk-tales habitually understand beings of the elf kind. The form suggests a Gothic trallu; does our getralle in Renner 1365, 'der gebûre ein getralle,' rhym. 'alle,' mean the same thing? (see Suppl.).

Giant is in Lith. milzinas, milzinis, Lett. milsis, milsenis; but it would be overbold to connect with it German names of places, Milize (Trad. fuld. 2, 40), Milsenburg, Melsungen. The Slovak obor, Boh. obr, O. Pol. obrzym, (23) Pol. olbrzym, is unknown to the South Slavs, and seems to be simply Avarus, Abarus. Nestor calls the Avars Obri (ed. Schlözer 2, 112-7). The 'Græcus Avar' again in the legend of Zisa (p. 292-5) is a giant. Now, as the Avari in the Mid. Ages are = Chuni, the words hûn and obor alike spring out of the national names Hun and Avar. (24) To the Slavs, Tchud signifies both Finn and giant, and the Russ. ispolin (giant) might originally refer to the 'gens Spalorum' of Jornandes; conf. Schafarik 1, 286. 310. So closely do the names for giant agree with those of ancient nations: popular belief magnified hostile warlike neighbours into giants, as it diminished the weak and oppressed into dwarfs. The Sanskrit râkshasas can have nothing to do with our riese, nor with the OHG. recchio, MHG. recke, a designation of human heroes (see Suppl.).

We find plenty of proper names both of giants and giantesses preserved in ON., some apparently significant; thus Hrûngnir suggests the Gothic hrugga (virga, rod, pole) and our runge (Brem. wb. 3, 558); Herbort 1385: 'groz alsam ein runge.' Our MHG. poems like giant's names to end in -olt, as Witolt, Fasolt, Memerolt, etc.

A great stature, towering far above any human size, is ascribed to all giants: stiff, unwieldy, they stand like hills, like tall trees. According to the Mod. Greeks, they were as tall as populars, and if once they fell, they could not get up again [like Humpty Dumpty]. The one eye of the Greek cyclops I nowhere find imputed to our giants; but like them (25) and the ancient gods, (p. 322), they are often provided with many hands and heads. When this attribute is given to heroes, gigantic ones are meant, as Heimo, Starkaðr, Asperian (p. 387). But Sæm. 85b expressly calls a þurs þrîhöfðuðr, exactly as the MHG. Wahtelmære names a drîhouptigen tursen (Massm. denkm. 109): a remarkable instance of agreement. In Sæm. 35ª appears a giant's son with six heads, in 56ª the many-headed band of giants is spoken of, and in 53 a giantess with 900 heads. Brana's father has three (invisible) heads, Fornald. sög. 3, 574, where also it is said: 'þa fell margr (many a) tvîhöfðaðr iötunn.' Trolds with 12 heads, then with 5, 10, 15 occur in Norske event. nos. 3 and 24. In Scotland too the story 'of the reyde eyttyn with the thre heydis' was known (Complaynt, p. 98), and Lindsay's Dreme (ed. 1592, p. 225) mentions the 'history of reid etin.' The fairy-tale of Red etin wi' three heads may now be read complete in Chambers, (26) pp. 56-58; but it does not explain whether the red colour in his name refers to skin, hair or dress. A black complexion is not attributed to giants, as it is to dwarfs (p. 444) and the devil, though the half-black Hel (p. 312) was of giant kin. Hrûngnir, a giant in the Edda, has a head of stone (Sæm. 76b, Sn. 109), another in the Fornald. s-g. 3, 573 is called Iarnhaus, iron skull. But giants as a rule apear well-shaped and symmetrical; their daughters are capable of the highest beauty, e.g. Gerðr, whose gleaming arms, as she shuts the house-door, make air and water shine again, Sæm. 82ª, Sn. 39 (see Suppl.).

In the giants as a whole, a untamed natural force has full swing, entailing their excessive bodily size, their overbearing insolence, that is to say, abuse of coporal and mental power, and finally sinking under its own weight. Hence the iötunn in the Edda is called skrautgiarn (fastosus), Sæm. 117b; sa inn âm^ttki (præpotens) 41b 82b; storûðgi (magnanimus) 76b; þrûngmôði (superbus) 77ª; hardrâðr (sævus) 54ª; our derivation of the words iötunn and þurs finds itself confirmed in poetic epithet and graphic touch: kostmôðr iötunn (cibo gravatus), Sæm. 56b; 'ölr (ebrius) ertu Geirröðr, hefir þû ofdruccit (overdrunk)' 47ª (see Suppl.).

From this it is an easy step, to impute to the giants a stupidity contrasting with man's common sense and the shrewdness of the dwarf. The ON. has 'ginna alla sem þussa' [[to fool all as giants]] (decipere omnes sicut thursos), Nialssaga p. 263. Dumm in our old speech was mutus as well as hebes, and dumbr in ON. actually stands for gigas; to which dumbi (dat.) the adj. þumbi (hebes, inconcinnus) seems nearly related. A remarkable spell of the 11^th cent. runs thus: 'tumbo saz in berke mit tumbemo kinde in arme, tumb hiez der berc, tumb hiez daz kint, der heilego tumbo versegene tisa wunda!' i.e. dummy sat on hill with d. child in arm, d. was called the hill and d. the child, the holy d. bless this wound away [the posture is that of Humpty Dumpty]. This seems pointed at a sluggish mountain-giant, and we shall see how folk-tales of a later period name the giants dumme dutten; the term lubbe, lübbe likewise indicates their clumsy lubberly nature, and when we nowadays call the devil dumm (stupid), a quondam giant is really meant (see Suppl.). (27)

Yet the Norse lays contain one feature favourable to the giants. They stand as specimens of a fallen or falling race, which with the strength combines also the innocence and wisdom of the old world, an intelligence more objective and imparted at creation than self-acquired. This half-regretful view of giants prevails particularly in one of the finest poems of the Edda, the Hýmisqviða. Hýmir (28) is called forn iötunn (the old) 54ª, as Polufamoj in Theocr. 11, 9 is arcaaioj, and another giant, from whom gods are descended, has actually the proper name Forniotr, Forneot (p. 240), agreeing with the 'aldinn iötunn' quoted on p. 524; then we have the epithet hundvîss (multiscius) applied 52b, as elsewhere to Loðinn (Sæm. 145ª), to Geirröðr (Sn. 113), and to Starkaðr (Fornald. sög. 3, 15. 32). (29) Oegir is called fiölkunnigr (much-knowing), Sæm. 79, and barnteitr (happy as a child) 52ª; while Thrymr sits fastening golden collars on his hounds, and stroking his horses' manes, Sæm. 70b. And also the faithfulness of giants is renowned, like that of the men of old: trölltryggr (fidus instar gigantis), Egilss. p. 610, and in the Faröe dialect 'trûr sum trödlir,' true as giants (Lyngbye, p. 496). (30) Another lay is founded on the conversation that Oðinn himself is anxious to hold with a giant of great sense on matters of antiquity (â fornom stöfum): Vafþrûðnir again is called 'inn alsvinni iötunn,' 30ª 35b; Örgelmir and Bergelmir 'sa inn frôði iötunn,' Sæm. 35ª,b; Fenja and Menja are framvîsar (Grôttas. 1, 13). When the verb þreya, usually meaning exspectare, desiderare, is employed as characteristic of giants (Sæm. 88ª), it seems to imply a dreamy brooding, a half-drunken complacency and immobility (see Suppl.).

Such a being, when at rest, is good-humoured and unhandy, (31) but when provoked, gets wild, spiteful and violent. Norse legend names this rage of giants iötunmôðr, which pits itself in defiance against âsmôðr, the rage of the gods: 'vera î iötunmôði,' Sn. 150b. When their wrath is kindled, the giants hurl rocks, rub stones till they catch fire (Roth. 1048), squeeze water out of stones (Kinderm. no. 20. Asbiörnsen's Möe, no. 6), root up trees (Kinderm. no. 90), twist fir-trees together like willows (no. 166), and stamp on the ground till their leg is buried up to the knee (Roth. 943. Vilk. saga, cap. 60): in this plight they are chained up by the heroes in whose service they are to be, and only let loose against the enemy in war, e.g. Witolt or Witolf (Roth. 760. Vilk. saga, cap. 50). One Norse giant, whose story we know but imperfectly, was named Beli (the bellower); him Freyr struck dead with his fist for want of his sword, and thence bore the name of 'bani Belja,' Sn. 41. 74.

Their relation to gods and men is by turns friendly and hostile. Iötunheimr lies far from Asaheimr, yet visits are paid on both sides. It is in this connexion that they sometimes leave on us the impression of older nature-gods, who had to give way to a younger and superior race; it is only natural therefore, that in certain giants, like Ecke and Fasolt, we should recognise a precipitate of deity. At other times a rebellious spirit breaks forth, they make war upon the gods, like the heaven-scaling Titans, and the gods hurl them down like devils into hell. Yet there are some gods married to giantesses: Niörðr to Skaði the daughter of Thiassi, Thôrr to Iarnsaxa, Freyr to the beautiful Gerðr, daughter of Gýmir. Gunnlöð to a giantess is Oðin's beloved. The âsin Gefiun bears sons to a giant; Borr weds the giant Bölþorn's daughter Bestla. Loki, who lives among the âses, is son to a giant Farbauti, and a giantess Angrboða is his wife. The gods associate with Oegir the iötunn, and by him are bidden to a banquet. Giants again sue for âsins, as Thrymr for Freyja, while Thiassi carries off Iðunn. Hrûngnir asks for Freyja or Sif, Sn. 107. Starkaðr is henchman to Norse kings; in Rother's army fight the giants Asperiân (Asbiörn, Osbern) and Witolt. Among the âses the great foe of giants is Thôrr, who like Jupiter inflicts on them his thunder-wounds; (32) his hammer has crushed the heads of many: were it not for Thôrr, says a Scandinavian proverb, the giants would get the upper hand; (33) he vanquished Hrûngnir, Hýmir, Thrymr, Geirröðr, and it is not all the legends by any means that are set down in the Edda (see Suppl.). St. Olaf too keeps up a hot pursuit of the giant race; in this business heathen and Christian heroes are at one. In our heroic legend Sigenôt, Ecke, Fasolt succumb to Dietrich's human strength, yet other giants are companions of Dietrich, notably Wittich and Heime, as Asperiân was Rother's. The kings Niblunc and Schilbunc had twelve strong giants for friends (Nib. 95), i.e. for vassals, as the Norse kings often had twelve berserks. But, like the primal woods and monstrous beasts of the olden time, the giants do get gradually extirpated off the face of the earth, and with all heroes giant-fighting alternates with dragon-fighting. (34)




ENDNOTES:

19. Strange that the Latin language has no word of its own for giant, but must borrow the Greek gigas, titan, cyclops; yet Italy has indigenous folk-tales of Campanian giants. Back

20. The Biblical view adopted in the Mid. Ages traced the giants to Cain, or at least to mixture with his family: 'gigantes, quales propter iracundiam Dei per filios Seth de filiabus Cain narrat scriptura procreatos,' Pertz 2, 755. For in Genesis 6, 4 it is said: 'gigantes autem erant super terram in diebus illis; postquam enim ingressi sunt filii Dei ad filias hominum, illæque genuerunt, isti sunt potentes a seculo viri famosi.' The same view appears in Cædm. 76. 77; in Beow. 213 Grendel's descent is derived from Caines cynne, on whom God avenged the murder of Abel: thence sprang all the untydras (neg. of tudor proles, therefore misbirths, evil brood), eotenas, ylfe, orcneas and gigantas that war against God. This partly fits in with some heathen notion of cosmogony. Back

21. Mone in Anz. 8, 133, takes wrise for frise, and makes Frisians and Persians out of it. [What of 'writhe, wris-t, wrest, wrestle,' (as wit, wis-t becomes wise)? Or Slav. vred-íti, to hurt, AS. wreðe? A Russ. word for giant is verzilo, supposed to be from verg-áti, to throw.] Back

22. Neue mitth. des thür. sächs. vereins 3, 130-6. 5, 2. 110-132. 6, 37-8. The picture, however, contains nothing giant-like, but rather a goddess standing on a wolf. Yet I remark, that a giant's tomb on Mt. Blanc is called 'la tombe du bon homme, de la bonne femme,' an expression associated with the idea of a sacred venerated man (supra, p. 89). Conf. also godgubbe used of Thôrr, p. 167, and godmor, p. 430. Back

23. Psalter of queen Margareta, Vienna 1834, p. 17b: obrzim, the -im as in oyczim, pie'grzym. Back

24. Schafarik explains obor by the Celtic ambro above (p. 520n.); but in that case the Polish would have been �br. Back

25. Briareus or Ægæon has a hundred arms (ekatogceiroj, Il. 1, 402) and fifty heads, Geryon three heads and six hands; in Hesoid's Theog. 150, Kottus, Gyges and Briareus have one hundred arms and fifty heads. The giant in the Hebrew story has only an additional finger or toe given to each hand and foot: vir fuit excelsus, qui senos in manibus pedibusque habebat digitos, i.e. viginti quatuor (instead of the human twenty), 2 Sam. 21, 20. Bertheau's Israel, p. 143. O. Fr. poems give the Saracen giant four arms, two noses, two chins, Ogier 9817. Back

26. Popular rhymes, fireside stories, and amusements of scotland, Edinb. 1842. Back

27. The familiar fable of the devil being taken in by a peasant in halving the crop between them, is in the Danish myth related of a trold (Thiele 4, 122), see Chap. XXXIII. Back

28. ON. hûm [[twilight, dusk]] is crepusculum, hûma [[to grow dusk]] vesperascere, hýma dormiturire; is Hýmir the sluggish, sleepy? OHG. Hiumi? How if the MHG. hiune came from an OHG. hiumi? An m is often attenuated into n, as OHG. sliumi, sniumi (celer), MHG. sliune, sliunic, our schleunig. That would explain why there is no trace of the word hiunne in ON.; it would also be fatal to any real connextion with the national name Hûn [[Sing. of The Huns, i. e. Hun]]. Back

29. Hund (centum) intensifies the meaning: hundmargr (permultus), hunmdgamall (old as the hills). Back

30. We find the same faithfulness in the giant of Christian legend, St. Christopher, and in that of Carolingian legend, Ferabras. Back

31. Unformed, inconcinnus; MHG. ungevüege, applied to giants, Nib. 456, 1. Iw. 444. 5051. 6717. der ungevüege knabe, Er. 5552; 'knabe,' as in 'der michel kuabe,' p. 518n. Back

32. The skeleton of a giantess struck by lightning, hung up in a sacristy, see Widegren's Ostergötland 4, 527. Back

33. Swed. 'vore ej thordön (Thor-din, thunder) till, lade troll verlden öde.' Back

34. In British legend too (seldomer in Carolingian) the heroes are indefatigable giant-quellers. If the nursery-tale of Jack the giantkiller did not appear to be of Welsh origin, that hero's deeds might remind us of Thôr's; he is equipped with a cap of darkness, shoes of swiftness, and a sword that cuts through anything, as the god is with the resistless hammer. Back