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GIANTS. 549
stone by St. Lawrence (Finn Magnusen s Lex. myth. 351-2 ; and
see Suppl.).
It is on another side that the following tale from Courland
touches the story in the Edda. In Kintegesinde of the Dzervens
are some old wall-stones extending a considerable length and
breadth, and the people say : Before the plague (i.e. time out of
mind) there lived in the district of Hasenpot a strong man (giant)
of the name of Kinte. He could hew out and polish huge masses
of stone, and carted even the largest blocks together with his
one white mare. His dwelling-house he built on rocks, his fields
he fenced with stone ramparts. Once he had a quarrel with a
merchant of Libau; to punish him, he put his w/iite mare to
draw a stone equal
intending
to twelve cartloads all the way to Libau,
to drop it at the merchant s door. When he reached
the town, they would not let him cross the bridge, fearing it
would break under the load, and insisted on his removing the
stone outside the liberties. The strong man, deeply mortified,
did so, and dropt the stone on the road that goes to Grobin by
Battenhof. There it lies to this day, and the Lettons, as they
pass, point to it in astonishment. 1 Kinte s white mare may stand
for the Scandinavian smith s Svaftilfari; the defeat of the giant s
building designs is effected in a different way.
King Olaf brooked many other adventures with giants and
giantesses. As he sailed past the high hills on the Horns-herred
coast, in which a giantess lived, she called out to him :
S. Olaf med dit rode skiiig,
du seilar for nar ved inin kjeldervag !
(St. Olaf with thy red beard, thou sailest too near my cellar wall).
Olaf was angry, and instead of steering his vessel between the
cliffs, he turned her head on to the hill, and answered :
hor du kjerling med rok og med teen,
her skal du sidde og blive en steen !
(hear, thou carlin with distaff and spool, here shalt thou sit and
become a stone). He had scarce finished speaking, when the hill
split open, the giantess was changed into a stone, and you still
see her sitting with spindle and distaff on the eastern cliff; a
1 Communic. by Watson iu Jahresverliandl. der kurl. gesellsch. 2, 311-2.