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CHAPTER XVIII.
GIANTS.
The relation in which giants stand
been touched upon
to dwarfs and men has
in p. 449. By so much of bodily size and
strength as man surpasses the elf or dwarf, he falls short of the
giant ; on the other hand, the race of elves and dwarfs has a
livelier intellect and subtler sense than that of men, and in these
points again the fall giants far below mankind. The rude coarse
grained giant nature is defiant in its sense of material power and
might, the sly shy dwarf is conscious of his mental superiority.
To man has been allotted a happy mean, which raises him above
the giant s intractableness and the dwarf s cunning, and betwixt
the two he stands victorious. The giant both does and suffers
wrong, because in his stupidity he undervalues everybody, and
J
even falls foul of the gods ; the outcast dwarf, who does discern
good and evil, lacks the right courage for free and independent
action. In order of creation, the giant as the sensuous element
came first, next followed the spiritual element of elvish nature,
and lastly the human race restored the equilibrium. The abrupt
ness of these gradations is a good deal softened down by the
giants or dwarfs forming frequent alliances with men, affording
clear evidence that ancient fiction does not favour steep contrasts :
the very earliest giants have sense and judgment ascribed to
them (see Suppl.).
On one side we see giants forming a close tie of brotherhood
or servile dependence with human heroes, on the other side
shading off into the type of schrats and woodsprites.
There is a number of ancient terms corresponding in sense to
our 2
present word riese . (giant)
1 Not a trace of the finer features of gods is to be seen in the Titans. Mullet s
Proleg. 373.
2 Some are mere circumlocutions (a counterpart to those quoted on p 450) der
groze man, Er. 5330. der michel man, Er. 5475. der michel knabe, Iw. 5056.
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