# Giants in Folklore and Mythology: A New Approach - [n] Used for [[2021.12.20 Giants]] ## Highlights ### p71 germanic giants were mountain-sized > A new approach was taken by C. von Sydow, who believed that any true understanding of the Eddic giants must also consider their counterparts in folk tradition. He noted that in this tradition by far the largest number of tales credit giants with the construction of man-made or natural features of the world. Thus, islands originated because earth transported by a giant in his apron had been lost; or a mountain had arisen because a giant had hurled a boulder or tossed a pebble from his shoe; or a barn, a bridge, or a church had been built by a giant for a price, or for a wager. Since almost always in the tales aspects of the landscape, as well as certain timbered structures, are due to the action of giants (or of the devil, who sometimes takes their place), von Sydow concluded that men, in their desire to explain the presence of these phenomena, had invented a race of beings big and powerful enough to create the mountains and rivers of the world. In time they acquired further qualities, such as wisdom or hostility to the ruling order; the same creatures then entered (according to this view) into the world of the Norse gods, where they proved themselves, because of their size and strength, worthy opponents of the Eddic divinities-and also, if they were female, worthy partners of their beds #### p73 > folklore giants are of enormous size; this is clearly apparent in tales where ugh sand and stones to form a mountain or an island are carried in a giant's on.27 In the Edda, Thor, searching for a lodging, mistakes a giant's glove for a stately building in which he then proceeds to spend the night (Har 26, Gylf45).