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546
GIANTS.
on hard rock, that I can only select one here and there as samples
of the style and spirit
of the rest. Bains of a castle near Hom-
berg in Lower Hesse mark the abode of a giantess
lies a stone which
; five miles
to one side of it, by the village of Gombet,
she hurled all the way from Homberg at one throw, and you see
the fingers of her hand imprinted on it. The Scharfenstein by
Gudensberg was thrown there by a giant in his rage.
On the
Tyrifjordensstrand near Bum in Norway is a large stone, which
one jutul fighting with another is said to have flung obliquely
across the bay, and plain marks of his fingers remain on the stone
(Faye, p. 15). Two or three miles from Dieren in the Meissen
country there lie a block of quartz and one of granite ;
the former
was thrown by the giant of Wantewitz at the giant of Zadel, the
but they both missed,
latter by the Zadeler at the Wantewitzer ;
the stones having fallen wide of the mark. 1 So two combatants
at Refnas and Asnas threw enormous stones at each other, one
called sortensteen, the other blak, and the latter still shews the
fingers of the thrower (Thiele 1, 47). A kind of slaty stone in
Norway, says Hallager
53 a
, is called jyvrikling, because the jyvri
(giantess) is said to have smeared it over with butter, and you
may see the dint of her fingers on it. Two giants at Nestved
tried their hands at hurling stones ; the one aimed his at Riislov
church, but did not reach it, the other threw with such force that
the stone flew right over the Steinwald, and may still be seen
on the high road from Nestved to Ringsted (Thiele 1, 80 ; conf.
176). In the wood near Palsgaard lies a huge stone, which a
jette flung there because the lady of the manor at Palsgaard,
whom he was courting, declined his proposals ; others maintain
that a jette maiden slung it over from Fiinen with her garter
(Thiele 3, 65-6; conf. 42).
When giants fight, and one pursues another, they will in their
haste leap over a village, and slit their great toe against the
church-spire, so that the blood spirts out in jets
and forms a
pool (Deut. sag. no. 325) ; which strikingly resembles Waina-
moinen, rune 3. In leaping off a, steep cliff, their foot or their
horse s hoof leaves tracks in the stone (ibid. nos. 318-9). Also,
when a giant sits down to rest on a stone, or leans against a rock,
1 Preusker in Kruse s Deutsch. alterth. iii. 3, 37.