Recently I have been reading through the Grimms tales that dealt with giants. When I read these sorts of tales I am looking for various things. For instance, sometimes I trace the development of a story from version to version, as well as down different family lines as it were. But my primary focus is on those stories that seem to contain apparently identical scenes as seen from different perspectives.
Let's look at the following beginning section from a tale: #193. The Drummer:
A young drummer went out quite alone one evening into the country, and came to a lake on the shore of which he perceived three pieces of white linen lying. "What fine linen," said he, and put one piece in his pocket. He returned home, thought no more of what he had found, and went to bed. Just as he was going to sleep, it seemed to him as if some one was saying his name.
He listened, and was aware of a soft voice which cried to him, "Drummer, drummer, wake up!" As it was a dark night he could see no one, but it appeared to him that a figure was hovering about his bed.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Give me back my dress," answered the voice, "that you took away from me last evening by the lake."
"You shall have it back again," said the drummer, "if you will tell me who you are."
"Ah," replied the voice, "I am the daughter of a mighty King; but I have fallen into the power of a witch, and am shut up on the glass-mountain. I have to bathe in the lake every day with my two sisters, but I cannot fly back again without my dress. My sisters have gone away, but I have been forced to stay behind. I entreat you to give me my dress back."
"Be easy, poor child," said the drummer. "I will willingly give it back to you." He took it out of his pocket, and reached it to her in the dark. She snatched it in haste, and wanted to go away with it. "Stop a moment, perhaps I can help you."
"You can only help me by ascending the glass-mountain, and freeing me from the power of the witch. But you cannot come to the glass-mountain, and indeed if you were quite close to it you could not ascend it."
"When I want to do a thing I always can do it," said the drummer; "I am sorry for you, and have no fear of anything. But I do not know the way which leads to the glass-mountain."
"The road goes through the great forest, in which the man-eaters live," she answered, "and more than that, I dare not tell you." And then he heard her wings quiver, as she flew away.
By daybreak the drummer arose, buckled on his drum, and went without fear straight into the forest. After he had walked for a while without seeing any giants, he thought to himself, "I must waken up the sluggards," and he hung his drum before him, and beat such a reveille that the birds flew out of the trees with loud cries. It was not long before a giant who had been lying sleeping among the grass, rose up, and was as tall as a fir-tree.
"Wretch!" cried he; "what art thou drumming here for, and wakening me out of my best sleep?"
"I am drumming," he replied, "because I want to show the way to many thousands who are following me."
"What do they want in my forest?" demanded the giant.
"They want to put an end to thee, and cleanse the forest of such a monster as thou art!"
"Oho!" said the giant, "I will trample you all to death like so many ants."
"Dost thou think thou canst do anything against us?" said the drummer; "if thou stoopest to take hold of one, he will jump away and hide himself ; but when thou art lying down and sleeping, they will come forth from every thicket, and creep up to thee . Every one of them has a hammer of steel in his belt, and with that they will beat in thy skull."
The giant grew angry and thought, "If I meddle with the crafty folk, it might turn out badly for me. I can strangle wolves and bears, but I cannot protect myself from these earth-worms ." "Listen, little fellow," said he; "go back again, and I will promise you that for the future I will leave you and your comrades in peace, and if there is anything else you wish for, tell me, for I am quite willing to do something to please you."
"Thou hast long legs," said the drummer, "and canst run quicker than I; carry me to the glass-mountain, and I will give my followers a signal to go back, and they shall leave thee in peace this time."
"Come here, worm," said the giant; "seat thyself on my shoulder, I will carry thee where thou wishest to be." The giant lifted him up, and the drummer began to beat his drum up aloft to his heart's delight. The giant thought, "That is the signal for the other people to turn back."
After a while, a second giant was standing in the road, who took the drummer from the first, and stuck him in his button-hole. The drummer laid hold of the button, which was as large as a dish, held on by it, and looked merrily around. Then they came to a third giant, who took him out of the button-hole, and set him on the rim of his hat. Then the drummer walked backwards and forwards up above, and looked over the trees, and when he perceived a mountain in the blue distance, he thought, "That must be the glass-mountain," and so it was. The giant only made two steps more, and they reached the foot of the mountain, where the giant put him down. The drummer demanded to be put on the summit of the glass-mountain, but the giant shook his head, growled something in his beard, and went back into the forest. ...
In the tale above, we saw giants being exploited for their ability to travel quickly from place to place. What I want to draw your attention to is the final sentence, where the drummer demanded to be taken to the top of the glass-mountain but the giant just shook his head and grumbled something before putting the drummer down. It seems that the reader is meant to wonder about what it was the giant said. Compare that with what happens in the tale below, #93. The Raven:
After he had walked about the world for a long time, he entered into a dark forest, and walked for fourteen days, and still could not find his way out. Then it was once more evening, and he was so tired that he lay down in a thicket and fell asleep. Next day he went onwards, and in the evening, as he was again about to lie down beneath some bushes, he heard such a howling and crying that he could not go to sleep. And at the time when people light the candles, he saw one glimmering, and arose and went towards it. Then he came to a house which seemed very small, for in front of it a great giant was standing. He thought to himself, "If I go in, and the giant sees me, it will very likely cost me my life."
At length he ventured it and went in. When the giant saw him, he said, "It is well that thou comest, for it is long since I have eaten; I will at once eat thee for my supper."
"I'd rather you would leave that alone," said the man, "I do not like to be eaten; but if thou hast any desire to eat, I have quite enough here to satisfy thee."
"If that be true," said the giant, "thou mayst be easy, I was only going to devour thee because I had nothing else." Then they went, and sat down to the table, and the man took out the bread, wine, and meat which would never come to an end. "This pleases me well," said the giant, and ate to his heart's content.
Then the man said to him, "Canst thou tell me where the golden castle of Stromberg is?"
The giant said, "I will look at my map; all the towns, and villages, and houses are to be found on it." He brought out the map which he had in the room and looked for the castle, but it was not to be found on it. "It's no matter!" said he, "I have some still larger maps in my cupboard upstairs, and we will look in them." But there, too, it was in vain. The man now wanted to go onwards, but the giant begged him to wait a few days longer until his brother, who had gone out to bring some provisions, came home. When the brother came home they inquired about the golden castle of Stromberg.
He replied, "When I have eaten and have had enough, I will look in the map." Then he went with them up to his chamber, and they searched in his map, but could not find it. Then he brought out still older maps, and they never rested until they found the golden castle of Stromberg, but it was many thousand miles away.
"How am I to get there?" asked the man. The giant said, "I have two hours' time, during which I will carry you into the neighbourhood, but after that I must be at home to suckle the child that we have." So the giant carried the man to about a hundred leagues from the castle, and said, "Thou canst very well walk the rest of the way alone." And he turned back, but the man went onwards day and night, until at length he came to the golden castle of Stromberg.
Here again, we have a man exploiting giants for their ability to travel quickly, but we also learn that giants keep loads of maps. More importantly, we have our hero asking to be taken to a golden castle just as the drummer in the first tale asked to be taken to the top of the glass mountain, and again the giant refuses. Here, however, we can see what the giant says, unlike in the previous version. The giant tells the man that he can walk the rest of the way. That isn't really the interesting part. The interesting part is why the giant refuses to go further. He has a child at home which he must suckle.
Think about that for a second, this big giant, who has been described as being male, just like every giant in every Grimms' story containing a giant, must hurry home to breastfeed a child that he apparently shares with his brother.
And then there is this: #90. The Young Giant
Once on a time a countryman had a son who was as big as a thumb, and did not become any bigger, and during several years did not grow one hair's breadth. Once when the father was going out to plough, the little one said, "Father, I will go out with you."
"Thou wouldst go out with me?" said the father. "Stay here, thou wilt be of no use out there, besides thou mightest get lost!" Then Thumbling began to cry, and for the sake of peace his father put him in his pocket, and took him with him. When he was outside in the field, he took him out again, and set him in a freshly-cut furrow. Whilst he was there, a great giant came over the hill. "Do thou see that great bogie ?" said the father, for he wanted to frighten the little fellow to make him good; "he is coming to fetch thee."
The giant, however, had scarcely taken two steps with his long legs before he was in the furrow. He took up little Thumbling carefully with two fingers, examined him, and without saying one word went away with him. His father stood by, but could not utter a sound for terror, and he thought nothing else but that his child was lost, and that as long as he lived he should never set eyes on him again.
The giant, however, carried him home, suckled him, and Thumbling grew and became tall and strong after the manner of giants. When two years had passed, the old giant took him into the forest, wanted to try him, and said, "Pull up a stick for thyself." Then the boy was already so strong that he tore up a young tree out of the earth by the roots. But the giant thought, "We must do better than that," took him back again, and suckled him two years longer. When he tried him, his strength had increased so much that he could tear an old tree out of the ground. That was still not enough for the giant; he again suckled him for two years, and when he then went with him into the forest and said, "Now just tear up a proper stick for me," the boy tore up the strongest oak-tree from the earth, so that it split, and that was a mere trifle to him. "Now that will do," said the giant, "thou art perfect," and took him back to the field from whence he had brought him. ...
Here we have the tale of a boy who was the size of a thumb but who was taken by a giant and suckled for six years, after which the giant returned the now giant boy to his family. I like to think that the giant who carried the man towards Stromberg Castle was the same giant who, together with his brother, was busy suckling Thumbling to gianthood.
These tales make it clear that giants do not breed, but rather kidnap boys to maintain their number. In Genesis, in the King James Bible, there is also a section on the breeding of giants:
1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
4There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:1-4
In the Bible, the giants were the progeny of the sons of God and human women. In the Grimms' tales, women have been completely removed from the process. Still, it is rather obvious that Thumbling does become a mighty man, a man of renown.
As it reads now, there is a somewhat bizarre parallel between the giants' method of reproduction and the modern conservative hysteria around "homosexual recruitment," which is the allegation that LGBT people engage in a concerted effort to indoctrinate children into being LGBT.
And then there is the strangely unsettling image of a giant suckling a small child. With that in mind, I'll leave you with a saying from the Gospel of Thomas, one which I interpreted in the second volume of The Gnostic Notebook: On the Secrets of Thomas and James:
Jesus saw some little ones being breast-fed . He said to his disciples, these little ones being breast-fed are like those who will enter the kingdom.
They said to him, Then we will enter the kingdom as little ones?
Jesus said this to them, When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male not be male nor the female female , when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then will you enter [the kingdom]. (GoT 22)
