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Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
Sprache: Englisch

Beschreibung

Mankind has ever been fascinated by extraordinary aspects of humanity, but none so much as giants. Many ancient gods, and indeed kings and emperors, were said to be vast in size: witness, for instance, the colossal statues of Egypt, China or the South Seas. But the palm for bigness must go to those giant beings whom we find amid the chaos in the East: like that Tiamat from whom the Babylonian god Bel formed heavens and earth; and Purushu of the Hindu Vedas, whose severed head was sufficient for making the sky, his feet for the earth, his eye for the sun, and his mind for the moon. Herein are 25 stories of giants from the annuls of fact and fiction around the world compiled and retold by Henry Wysham Lanier. Lanier has categorised the stories into four parts being: Giants Of The Morning Of The World From The Days Of Romance Nursery Tales of Giants from Many Lands Real Giants The stories in these four sections are: I. How Zeus Fought With Titans And Giants II. The Giant Who Shines In The Sky III. The Outwitting Of Polyphemus IV. When Thor Went To Jotunheim V. The Giant Pyramid-Builder VI. The Fatal Pride Of Vukub VII. Og, King Of Bashan VIII. A Son Of Anak IX. Ferragus, Who Owned The Brazen Head X. The Giant Of St. Michael's Mount XI. Sir Launcelot And Tarquin XII. The Adventures Of Yvain XIII. The Turke And Gawain XIV. Amadis Among The Giants XV. Gogmagog XVI. The Giant Behind The Waterfall XVII. The One Good Giant: St. Christopher XVIII. The Giant Hand (Irish) XIX. The Giant Who Had No Heart In His Body (Norse) XX. The Biter Bit (Serbian) XXI. The Peach's Son (Japanese) XXII. The Man Who Lost His Legs (Korean) XXIII. The Stone Giantess (North American Indian) XXIV. Some Real Giants XXV. What Science Has Learned About Giants 10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. YESTERDAYS BOOKS raising funds for TODAYS CHARITIES ============== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Folklore, fairy tales, myths, legends, folk tales, children’s stories, bedtime, fables, culture, cultural, virtues, action, adventure, lessons, morals, teach, learn, Zeus, Fought, fight, Titans, Giants, Shine, In The Sky, Outwitting, Polyphemus, Thor, Jotunheim, Giant Pyramid-Builder, Fatal Pride, Vukub, Og, King Of Bashan, Son Of Anak, Ferragus, Brazen Head, St. Michael's Mount, Sir Launcelot, Tarquin, Yvain, Turke, Gawain, Amadis, Gogmagog, Gog, Magog, Behind The Waterfall, One Good Giant, St. Christopher, Giant Hand, Ireland, Irish, No Heart In His Body, Norse, Biter Bit, Serbia, Peach's Son, Japanese, Japan, Man Who Lost His Legs, Korea, Stone Giantess, North American Indian, Real Giants, What Science Has Learned About Giants

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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

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Leseprobe

A Book of Giants

Tales Of Very Tall Men Of Myth,Legend, History, and Science

Compiled and Retold By

Henry Wysham Lanier

"And there we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."—Numbers: XIII, 33.

Originally Published By

E. P. Dutton & Company, New York[1922]

Resurrected by

Abela Publishing, London

[2018]

A Book of Giants

Typographical arrangement of this edition

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system)

except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Abela Publishing

London

United Kingdom

[2018]

ISBN-: 978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

Email:

[email protected]

Website:

AbelaPublishing

David and Goliath, a colour lithograph by Osmar Schindler, 1888.

Acknowledgment

Thanks are due to the Frederick A. Stokes Company for permission to use, in Part III, three tales from volumes published by them: Chapter XX, The Biter Bit, from "Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians," by Vojislav M. Petrovic; Chapter XXI, The Peach's Son, from "Myths and Legends of Japan," by F. Hadland Davis; and Chapter XXIII, The Stone Giantess, from "The Myths of the North American Indians," by Lewis Spence.

In a number of cases the text of the original romance or "history" has been followed as closely as possible, to retain the flavor of the old tales.

Part I. Giants Of The Morning Of The World

I.How Zeus Fought With Titans And GiantsII.The Giant Who Shines In The SkyIII.The Outwitting Of PolyphemusIV.When Thor Went To JotunheimV.The Giant Pyramid-BuilderVI.The Fatal Pride Of VukubVII.Og, King Of BashanVIII.A Son Of Anak

Part II. In The Days Of Romance

IX.Ferragus, Who Owned The Brazen Head

X.The Giant Of St. Michael's Mount

XI.Sir Launcelot And Tarquin

XII.The Adventures Of Yvain

XIII.The Turke And Gawain

XIV.Amadis Among The Giants

XV.Gogmagog

XVI.The Giant Behind The Waterfall

XVII.The One Good Giant: St. Christopher

Part III. Nursery Tales Of Many Lands

XVIII.The Giant Hand (Irish)

XIX.The Giant Who Had No Heart In His Body (Norse)

XX.The Biter Bit (Serbian)

XXI.The Peach's Son (Japanese)

XXII.The Man Who Lost His Legs (Korean)

XXIII.The Stone Giantess (North American Indian)

Part IV. Some Real Giants

XXIV.Some Real Giants

XXV.What Science Has Learned About Giants

Introduction

Man in his youth was so fond of giants that, not finding them large or plentiful enough, he created a bounteous supply. He gave them precedence of himself. In the frozen North they came even before the gods: in the East, after the celestials but before the creation of the world; in Greece they sprang into being just after the Olympians and fiercely disputed the sovereignty of Zeus.

Many ancient gods were vast in size: witness, for instance, the colossal statues of Egypt, China or the South Seas. But the palm for bigness must go to those giant beings whom we find amid Chaos in the East: like that Tiamat from whom the Babylonian god Bel formed heavens and earth; and Purushu of the Hindu Vedas, whose severed head was sufficient for making the sky, his feet for the earth, his eye for the sun, and his mind for the moon.

Somehow, these are too large; nowadays one can hardly digest a giant like that. Even those huge and terrible beings with bodies of stone who once descended upon the Iroquois Indians seem more like Djinn or Rakshasas: they do not fascinate as does that monstrous black warder of the bridge at Mantrible, who was fifteen feet tall with "tuskes like a bore" and head "like a liberde."

The scholars quarrel over the question whether or not the very word originally meant "earth-born"; but be that as it may, the giants exhibited in these pages (collected after wider search than even Mr. Barnum ever prosecuted for such prodigies) are all creatures of earth, at least in part. Their feet are on the earth, even if like Og, King of Bashan, their heads tower high enough to drink straight from the clouds.

They all have a semblance of human beings, as they should. If this seems doubtful remember Ea-Bani. His story is certainly the first to be put on record, for it was baked in clay at least 2500 years ago, the twelve tablets being found among King Assur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh. Ea-bani was a huge giant, who lived with the wild animals, and who defied every attempt to capture him—until King Gilgamesh abandoned force and sent a very beautiful woman to stand quietly near one of the hairy creature's lurking places. At first sight of her the colossal wild man falls in love; accompanies her meekly back to civilization: and, giving up his beloved forest, takes a humble second part in the subsequent stirring adventures of the King. No doubt about the human nature of that!

Considering that he made them, it does seem as if man had been somewhat unfair to the giants. In the beginning, they won enduring glory: Typhon conquered Zeus in hand-to-hand fight and drove the other gods to wander over Egypt disguised as animals; even Atlas had at least the dignity of holding up the heavens upon his head and hands forever. The Frost-giants more than once outwitted Thor and the other dwellers in Valhalla; and but the other day, historically speaking, Gargantua could swallow five pilgrims as a salad.

But what a humiliating portion has been allotted to the successors of these awe-inspiring monsters. First they made gods tremble; then they were slain by demigods and heroes; next they became a measure of the prowess of every knight of chivalry; presently they were the sport of the childish Jack the Giant-killer;—and now for a hundred years we have relegated them to our circuses and museums. Worst of all, the wise men insist that "giantism" is merely a disease.

It really isn't quite fair. Besides the inconvenience of being a giant—just think of the difficulty of getting enough to eat and clothes to wear—what a disgrace to have one's head inevitably cut off by some little whipper-snapper up to one's waist or knees. And then to be such a by-word for stupidity. Amycus, who used to kill each newcomer with a single blow, was at once dispatched by Polydeuces, the skilful boxer: that sort of an awkward ineffectiveness was bad enough; but what of Polyphemus, who had not sense enough to explain to his Cyclop brethren the transparent trick of Ulysses in calling himself "Noman"? One can't help feeling sorry for such helpless hulks.

And perhaps the unkindest cut of all is the true tale related by Patin, the famous French surgeon. "In the Seventeenth Century, in order to gratify a whim of the Empress of Austria, all the giants and dwarfs in the Germanic empire were assembled at Vienna. As circumstances required that all should be housed in one building, it was feared that the imposing proportions of the giants should terrify the dwarfs; and means were taken to assure the latter that they were perfectly safe. But the result was most unexpected. The dwarfs teased, insulted and even robbed the giants to such an extent that the latter complained in tears to the officials; and sentinels had to be stationed to protect them from their tiny comrades."

However, the fascination of these Very Tall Men still continues. And these tales relate to the adventures of some of the famous of all ages and all lands.

Those lovers of the colorful old days, who mourn the departure of the giants before the sceptical eye of science and the camera, may be comforted to learn that in the rugged country of Northern Scotland the folk are better informed than we. There where Sutherland rocks meet the sea, east from Cape Wrath, the wise ancients will tell you that the giants are not really all dead, but only sleeping in the great Hall of Albyn. In proof whereof, know that a man of these parts once ventured into a great cave by the sea-shore. It opened to a vast and lofty apartment, where there were many huge men lying fast asleep on the stone floor. In the center of the room was a table, on which lay an ancient horn. The man put the horn to his lips and blew one blast. The enormous figures stirred. He blew a second time. One of the giants rubbed his eyes and said in a voice that rumbled through the cave:

"If you blow once more, we shall wake."

The man fled in terror. Though by singular bad luck he could never again find the mouth of that cave, it is something to know that our tall friends are there, only waiting for three bold blasts to return to us.

Part IGiants of the Morningof the World

Chapter IHow Zeus Fought With Titans and Giants

We think of Zeus as the mightiest god of Greece, accompanied by his servants Force, Might and Victory,—the Cloud-gatherer, the Rain-giver, the Thunderer, the Lightning-hurler, the Sender of Prodigies, the Guider of Stars, the Ruler of other gods and men, whom even Poseidon the Earth-shaker must obey. The very name reverberates with majesty, power, dominion.

But the beginnings of this vast deity were in darkness and danger.

True, the reign of his father Kronos was that Golden Age when, in the fresh morning of the world, "Heat and Cold were not yet at strife, the Seasons had not begun their mystic dance, and one mild and equable climate stretched from pole to pole; when the trees bore fruit and the vine her purple clusters all the year, and honey-dew dripped from the laurel and juniper which are now so bitter; when flowers of every hue filled the air with perpetual fragrance, the lion gambolled with the kid, and the unfanged serpent was as harmless as the dove"; when over-curious Pandora not yet having released her boxful of ills, men had neither care nor sickness nor old age, but, after centuries of blissful calm, faded like flowers and became kindly spirit-guardians of their successors.

Yet amid this charming serenity Kronos could never forget the curse of his father Uranus whom he had overthrown, and the prophecy that he himself should in his turn be cast down by his own children.

"Wherefore being resolved to defeat that prophecy, he swallowed each child his wife Rhea brought forth, as soon as it was born. When Rhea had thus lost five babes,—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon—and knew herself about to bear yet another, she made her prayer to Uranus her ancient sire, imploring counsel and aid.

"But only a faint, vast murmur thrilled through the sky:

"'My voice is but the voice of winds and tides, no more than winds and tides can I avail. Pray thou to thy puissant Mother: in me, dispossessed of godhead, is no succor more.

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