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528 GIANTS.
fell margr (many a) tviJiofffaffr iotunn. Trolds with 12 heads,
then with 5, 10, 15 occur in Norsk e event, nos. 3 and 24. In
Scotland too the story of the reyde eyttyn with the Hire lieydis
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, 1
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. Hrungnir,
a giant in the Edda, has a head of stone (Seem. 76 b
, Sn. 109),
another in the Fornald. sog. 3, 573 is called larnliaus, iron skull.
But giants as a rule appear well-shaped and symmetrical ; their
daughters are capable of the highest beauty, e.g. GeroY, whose
gleaming arms, as she shuts the house-door, make air and water
shine again, Sasm. 82 a
, Sn. 39 (see Suppl.).
In the giants as a whole, an untamed natural force has full
swing, entailing their excessive bodily size, their overbearing in
solence, that is to say, abuse of corporal and mental power, and
finally sinking under its own weight. Hence the iotunn in the
Edda is called skrautgiarn (fastosus), Saem. 11 7 b ; sa inn dmdttki
(praspotens) 41 b 82 h
; storu&gi (magnanimu?)
b
76 ; firungmo&gi
a
77 ; hardrdffr (saevus) 54 a
; our derivation of the
(superbus)
words iotunn and ]?urs finds itself confirmed in
poetic epithet and
graphic touch : kostmo&r iotunn (cibo
b
gravatus), Saem. 56 ;
(ebrius) ertu GeirroSr, hefir ]?u ofdruccit Suppl.).
(overdrunk)
a
47 (see
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 alia sem pussa (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. pumbi (hebes, inconcinnus)
seems nearly related. A remarkable spell of the llth cent, runs
thus :
<
tumbo saz in berke mit tumbemo kinde in arme, tamb 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
1
Popular rhymes, fireside stories, and amusements of Scotland, Edinb. 1842.
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