Course Seven: Lore 319
She had a long, beautiful tail—not a monkey-type tail,
but more like a horse’s tail, with silky blond hair reach-
ing down below her knees. I’ve often wondered what-
ever became of her, and wished I could find her again....Lesson 3: Giants, Ogres, and Trolls
There were giants in the Earth in those days...
—Genesis 6:3In all countries of the world, stories are told of giants
in more-or-less humanoid form. They are enormous in
size and strength and are often said to have created or
rearranged the very landscapes. Islands are boulders
they have dropped. Lakes are their footprints. Huge
structures, such as Stonehenge (called the “Giants’
Dance”), massive walls of ancient ruins, and unusual
geologic rock formations (like the Giant’s Causeway
in Ireland) are said to be their doing. Myths tell of how
all the old giants were killed off by gods and heroes.
The Bible refers to the giant races of Nephilim and
Rephaim who once inhabited Palestine. Deuteronomy
3:11 states that the bed of Og, King of Bashan, was 14’
long by 6’ wide. Most famous of the Biblical giants was
Goliath, champion of the Philistines, who was slain by
David. During road construction in the Euphrates Val-ley of Turkey in the
late 1950s, many
tombs were uncov-
ered containing giant
human bones.
Ogres are not
only huge, they are
also hideous in ap-
pearance, with horns,
tusks, fangs, and bi-
zarre clothes made
out of skins, furs,
twigs, leaves, and
other natural materi-
als. They usually carry an array of weapons—clubs,
spears, forks, nets, and baskets in which to catch and
carry off animals and people for dinner.
Trolls are often thought to be barely sentient.
They are made of living stone, and if they are exposed
to direct sunlight, they become frozen into rocky for-
mations. Terry Pratchett, in his Discworld books, has
ingeniously worked out an entire “natural history” for
such silicon lifeforms, including the premise that their
minds operate like the silicon chips in a computer, be-
coming more efficient at lower temperatures, and less
so in the heat of day. This would explain why they
normally live in the high frozen mountains, where their
brains become super-conductors! It’s only when they
come to the warm lowlands that they dumb down.
The golem was a giant Troll-like figure made of
clay, and magically animated by the Hebrew word
emeth (“truth”) on its forehead. Legend says it was
created in 1550 by Rabbi Judah Loew (1520–1609) in
Prague, Czechoslovakia, according to a formula given
in the Qabalah. Soulless and mute, the golem was in-
tended to serve and protect the Jews in the Prague
ghetto, but it was too powerful and destructive, ran
amuck, and had to be unmade. This was done by rub-
bing out the first letter to form meth (“he is dead”).
All legendary giants are considered to be really
stupid and easily outwitted by clever heroes. Some-
times they may be kindly and helpful, but mostly they
are thought of as malevolent and dangerous—even
preying upon humans to eat. Some people have con-
sidered that tales of these giants, ogres, and trolls may
be based on late encounters with the last Neander-
thals, who once inhabited the same countries from
which these legends come down. Larger and more
massive than our own Cro-Magnon ancestors, Nean-
derthals have bequeathed to us the red-haired gene.
Perhaps they have left us with a genetic memory as
well, preserved forever in myth and The Dreaming,
where their lost race has grown into something huge
and terrifying. Other bases for legends of ancient gi-
ants are the remains of prehistoric animals—especially
mammoths, whose bones look very similar to human
ones. Their skulls in particular look like gigantic hu-The Lucerne GiantA Cyclopean Ogre from the adventures of Sinbad in a
19th-century edition of The Arabian Nights- Lore.p65 319 1/15/2004, 9:37 AM