TRAVELING TROLLS & GIANTS on the GO

No, not the ones on X - the ancient, primordial Jötnar, old as the gods themselves...

Variously Known As: Ogre, Jötunn, Eoten/ Ent, Þurs (Thurs), Risi,

(+ Overlapping with Goblins, Gremlins, Gnomes, Dwarfs, Orcs...)

"To Live is to War with Trolls."

- Henrik Ibsen, PEER GYNT †

Trolls & Giants are among the oldest cryptids of our collective imagination; appearing at the same time as the very first stratified ideas of gods emerge, so it's not surprising that they are often the first mythical beings a child is exposed to; even before the more complex stories of witches, princesses or dragons we tell toddlers tales of THE BILLY GOATS GRUFF * outsmarting a Bridge Troll.

Origins: Greek & Nordic Mythology

Tapping into Archetypal Themes of: Chaos, Aggression / Excess of Masculinity, Paganism, Destructive/ Consumptive Forces of Nature

Places They Troll: Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland

Discussed in this Article

"There are Giants in the sky! There are big tall terrible, awesome scary wonderful Giants in the sky!"

- Jack; INTO THE WOODS, 🎶 lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

GIANTS in the Sky . . .

"Giant" is a broad category today that encompass essentially any creature (including humans) of a significantly larger than normal size. They can vary greatly in terms of appearance, demeanor, intelligence and lore - the only thing they are guaranteed to be is supersized, and they are as old as story-telling itself.

Variations of giants stalk nearly every culture. They make cameos in to the BIBLE and PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, and stomp through children's tales like JACK, THE GIANT KILLER (Aka Jack & the Beanstalk) and classics of ancient literature, like the Laestrygonians of THE ODYSSEY, a man-eating tribe of giants quite similar to Jack's cannibal tale.

"There was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot...; and he also had been born to the giant."

- 2 Samuel 21:20

"...saying: 'Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum... Be he living, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to mix my bread.'"

- Two-headed giant, Thunderdell, The history of Jack and the Giants c.1711

" ...and snatching one of my men, [the giant] tore him up for dinner."

– Odyssey Book 10, Homer

Giants are generally depicted as dangerous foes of humans, (though there are exceptions such as Roald Dahl's BFG, the Brobdingnab of GULLIVER"S TRAVELS and Hagrid of HARRY POTTER, who are all friendly.)

The term "giant" traces it's roots to the Gigantes of Greek mythology; a race of savage, monstrous divine beings; children of the incestuous paring of mother earth goddess, Gaia and her son, the sky god, Uranus.

Gigantes, however, were just one of many races of beings in Greek mythology that could today be classified as 'giants' like the Laestrygonians (above) and also the one-eyed Cyclopes race, also mentioned by Homer.

Despite the later connotations of their name, many archaic and classical depictions of Gigantes and similar creatures show human-like and man-sized beings (or at least the same size as the humanoid gods.) They essentially looked like hoplites; ancient Greek foot soldiers, (though some later representations gave them snakes for legs.)

The Greek word gigantes, for the specific race of monsters, however, must have evolved to a less specified meaning by the 3rd century BC, as it was used in the Septuagint* to refer both to the mysterious Nephilim, as well as to men of great size and strength, like David's Goliath. It was the bibles use of the word "gigas" and the spread of Christianity that spread term "giant," for both men & creatures, internationally, all the way through to modern languages.

In later myths, giants are sometimes still just oversized humans with gigantism (like the biblical tribes, or my childhood fave, Andre the Giant) but the most memorable giants are, of course the monstrous/ deformed variety, like the original two -headed giant of Jack's adventures. These monsters tend to live in isolated places like caves, or up magic beanstalks in the clouds.

In the Nordic Eddas the hrímþurs (or frost-þurs)^ from which we get the modern idea of Ice or Frost-Giants are not children of personified gods, like the gigantes, but instead arose from the violent meeting of the natural forces of fire & ice. Some Nordic giants are described as beautiful, rather than monstrous and they lived in a separate realm beyond that of the gods & mortals. Today they appear in the MARVEL Universe and in such places as the furthest north, beyond the wall in GAME OF THRONES.

Nordic ice giants also have less well known cousins in the Eddas, fire or Lava-Giants, (like Surt who will bring about the end of the world at Ragnarok.)

All these early versions of giants shared essentially the same characteristics of the first trolls, and the terms were fairly interchangeable.

Where to Find the Giants on the Go:

• Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir) - County Antrim | Northern Ireland:^^

~40,000 interlocking hexagonal basalt columns from an ancient volcanic fissure, a Unesco World Heritage Site - said to have been built as a path by Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) to reach and fight Scottish giant, Benandonner, who then destroyed the path resulting in the current state of the causeway.

• Harlaa "City of Giants" in Ethiopia: enormous circle of buildings constructed of massive blocks said to have once been home giants.

• Ġgantija’s (the Place of Giant's) Megalithic, Prehistoric Temple Complex | Malta: said to have been built by Sansuna, a giantess on the island of Gozo, who ate only beans & honey - built either as a temple or a fortress depending on the legend

• Cyclopean Isles, off the coast of Sicily | Italy: Supposedly created by the Cyclopes throwing massive boulders at the fleeing ships of Odysseus

• Pergamon Altar; featuring the Gigantes @ Pergamon Museum, Berlin | Germany

* The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible

** Nephilim: beings mentioned in Genesis & Numbers; traditionally understood as giants or powerful figures, theorized to possibly be the offspring of fallen angels and human women

^ The rune 'þ' = the sound of English 'th'; Þurs is thus pronounced 'thurs', (See Þurs etymology below.)

^^ The Irish have their own Celtic mythology of giants, called the Fomorians, a malevolent race giants, led by figures like Balor of the Evil Eye, who could kill with a glance. Like there Norse & Greek cousins they too battled the Celtic gods, Tuatha Dé Danann.

. . . &  TROLLS in the Hills

The word troll originally denoted beings as varied as witches, demons / evil spirits, draugs (zombie like undead) ghosts, magical boars, heathen demi-gods, brunnmigi (well deities,) strong/ large or ugly people, warrior berserkers and later in Germanic folktales, werewolves, before it came to mean the large, brutish, not-quite-human monster, we mostly picture today; a creature firmly within the category of mythical giants.*

This version of the troll, might be the most well known manifestation of any ancient supersized creature, (outside of a generic human-like giant,) to survive to modern times...

... and trolls show up everywhere from folktales to DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Called trollfolk or tusser in Norway, and troldfolk,  in Denmark, these non-human giants are creatures associated most with Old Nordic folklore.

Like their ancient Greek cousins they are typically unfriendly to humans, sometimes possessing magical powers and frequently cannibalistic, but, unlike the rather clever Laestrygonians, the Nordic colossus' are more likely to be dim-witted. They too, tend to inhabit isolated, wild sites like mountains and caves, sometimes in small family units, but always away from civilization.

It's the early medieval, Scandinavian iteration of trolls that starts to take on characteristics ffor which they are most known today; they are slow, stupid, egotistical and nocturnal - as they turn to stone when exposed to sunlight.** (Lore used by J.R. Tolkien for THE HOBBIT)

Many Scandinavian rock formations are ascribed to trolls turned stone. These are the 'quintessential' trolls of Norwegian fairytale artist Theodor Kittelsen,^ Swedish artist Rolf Lidberg and even, the more humorous take of modern sculptor Thomas Dambo.

 "What is the difference between troll and man? ... Out there, where sky shines, humans say: 'To thyself be true.' In here, trolls say: 'To thyself be enough.'"

- Old Man of the Mountain (Troll King, Dovregubben), PEER GYNT, Henrik Ibsen †

Most trolls essentially look like large, ugly humans, though, unlike the more generic giant, trolls may take on the physical characteristics of the nature in which they dwell, with rock or bark for skin and moss hair e.g. (or be literal personifications of that nature, like Treebeard & the Ents (see below) from LORD OF THE RINGS.)

Norwegian Trolls come in three basic varieties:

A) Mountain Trolls (bergtrollet); the largest and angriest, which are generally isolated giants who cause avalanches & rocks slides, and sometimes descend into villages and attack churches eg. These are the classic trolls you will see in Neflix's TROLL (2022.)^^

B) Forrest Trolls (skogstrollet); closer to man-sized, that have magic powers and like to trick & torment humans, as well as kidnap and eat children. These include bridge trolls like the one that confronts the billy goats gruff. and...

C) Cave Trolls (huldretrollet); smaller beings, similar to what we might call dwarfs or goblins, that hide underground.

Where to Find the Trolls on your Travels:

• Norway has many natural formations connected to trolls like: Trolltunga (Troll’s Tongue) - a popular hike to the rock peak, jutting out high over the mountains like a tongue, said to belong to an unfortunate troll who was turned to stone by the sunlight. - There is also a Troll Museum in Tromsø, Troll Research Center in Rindal, Troll Dungeon maze in Valldal, the Villa Fridheim - a Swiss chalet fairytale museum, and Hunderfossen in Fåberg - a fairytale village park with a Troll Hall.

  
  

• Hvitserkur Sea Stack | Iceland is also said to be trolls frozen into rock by the sun.

• The cool large scales recycled Troll Sculptures of Thomas Dambo🔍 can be found all over the globe

* In later Swedish folklore "troll" still means a sort of generic, magical nature being, or all-purpose otherworldly being; sort of equivalent to fairies/ the faie of Anglo-Celtic traditions, and trolls are sometimes even swapped out for cats or little people in the folklore.

These "trolls" are of a minority variation of small, impish creatures, closer to what we might today describe as goblins, or gnomes living in burial mounds and mountains. The Garden Gnomes, neon haired Troll Dolls & their eponymous🔍 movies, the Fragile Rocks, Gremlins are all off this "tiny troll" variety - they are less overtly aggressive and more playful/ mischievous.

† The etymological evolution of a word meaning to step or tread on into multiple words in multiple languages related to witchcraft raises an interesting conceptual connection between bewitching and threading on a person ( perhaps connected to treading their will (?))

** An interesting theory as to why trolls are "allergic" to sunlight notes that the sun is a representation of order and law, and as such the troll, an embodiment of chaos, is frozen, defeated or stopped in its tracts by exposure to the order of the light.

^ Troll painter Theodor Kittelsen's works are at The National Museum | Oslo & his house in Lauvlia | Numedal is now a museum

^^ Essentially a Scandinavian Godzilla movie!

JÖTUNN Ancestors

In the Old(est) Norse mythology, there is significant overlap between the use of the word troll and the terms jötunn, þurs, and risi when describing powerful mythical beings. The creatures are never described with any real consistency within each 'category,' making distinctions, if any, between the intent of each term difficult to determine; though troll and þurs tend to have a more negative connotation, like the þursar described in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems, who cause strife to women, or the hrímþurs /frost-þurs (above.)

Like troll, jötunn / jötnar was used for a variety of supernatural beings. Descriptions of the appearance of jötnar are rare, sometimes they seem to have the form of a human, and some female jötnar (also called,  íviðja,  gýgr or tröllkona ) are described as being beautiful, while others, male & female are described as monstrous or having many heads.

Similarly riso & Þurs are never clearly defined or distinguished from each other in context.

Modern English frequently glosses jötunn, riso &  þurs all simply as giant / giantess,* as so much of the original intent of each distinct use is lost to us.

Fascinatingly, all of three are expansions on the base words for male-ness and closely connected to an excess of accompanying male traits of strength, largeness, consuming and/ or trampling on the weak. The essence, and fear of trolls/ giants essentially boils down to the monstrosity of too much of the masculine, and it's tendency to destroy that which is weaker than itself for no other reason than that it is able to.

Some theorized that each term was originally a distinct class of being that were then confused for each other [potentially; lords of nature (jötunn), mythical magicians (troll), hostile monsters (þurs), and heroic, courtly beings (risi)] but others see this interpretation as a sort of post-hoc attempt at forced clarification without basis in the literature itself.

It's seems more likely that the terms all started with a broader "supernatural beings to be feared/ avoided rather than worshipped" meaning, (probably entering the language from different linguistic sources,) which then later developed into more distinct identities through use over the centuries.**

*  To gloss is to offer a simplified translation/ explination of a complex, sometimes unclear term, e.g. a glossary - similar to the use of glossing over a problem or make something physically glossy & smooth. Some scholars find the giant glossing problematic, arguing jötnar were not necessarily notably large; they may be 'giant' compared to humans, but are assumed to be of similar size to the gods

** The more collective term troll (possibly used by pagan Norse settlers in Orkney & Shetland) may have also evolved into the creatures called trows in the Scottish Isles;  nocturnal malignant, mischievous faie/ spirits. Some trows are monstrous giants and others tiny fairy-like beings dressed in grey, living in 'trowie knowes' (earthen mound dwellings) and sneaking into households while people are sleep to play tricks. Trows love for music, and sometimes of kidnap musicians or luring them into their dens to play.

The ANTI - GODS

The term jötunn was frequently used to contrast a creature with the gods; jötnar are simply mythical NOT-GODS, though the nature of the distinction between gods and jötnar is rather blurred. (Some gods, such as Odin, Thor and Loki are descendants of jötnar, and jötnar often attempt to marry goddesses through trickery or force. The female jötunn, Skaði also has children with Odin, and was likely later worship as a goddess herself in Sweden, and Odin seduces multiple other jötnar...)

The jötnar also have god-like powers, and sometimes are personifications of nature, just like gods as well, e.g. Ægir who is the sea.

At other times they are personifications of beasts, such as Þjazi and Suttungr who are able to become eagles and Hræsvelgr who creates the wind by beating his wings. Járnviðr (One of the tröllkonur who dwell in the wood) is a mother of jötnar in the form of wolves (from whom all wolves are said to have descended) and is possibly the same as Loki's lover, Angrboða, who gave birth to the monstrous wolf Fenrir and venomous worm Jörmungandr (both enemies of the gods.)

Jötnar might be best conceived of as a kin or family group, separated from the gods by culture, and relation rather than by any physical appearance or power - they are a Nordic version of the distinction between the Greek gods and the Titans (below) - with both myths likely evolved from a more ancient Indo-European religious/ mythology ancestor.

In the Nordic cosmology, jötnar are said to descend from Ymir, (a primeval being born from dripping venom) who, fed by milk from the sacred cow, Auðumbla, sweat from his left armpit a male and a female, and from the mating of his legs begat a six headed son. These three children together became the ancestors of all other jötnar.

Ymir was later killed by the first gods,* and his death caused a flood of his blood, in which all jötnar drowned except Bergelmir and his family, who survived in a make shift boat.**

Ymir was then deconstructed and the gods build the world with his body, and confined the jötnar to their own separate realm for the protection of people of earth, (Midgard.)

Interestingly, though gods live in the same 'world' or 'realm' as men, the jötnar & þurs always exist in this separate world created for them, described at times as being in the North🔍 or East and in Þrymskviða, only reached by air, and at other times found South and across a water boundary (like rivers or the surface of a lake.)

This supernatural world, sometimes called Jötunheimr, wherever it is, can only be reached through special passageways under abnormal conditions, (such as deep in the mountain's darkness under a "flickering flame.")

In these myths and origin story, Ymir and Jötnar, as well as the þurs, are symbols of chaos, the wild, and the unknown, out of which order is created, (by Gods literally forming the earth from Ymir's body and later heroes actively confronting the chaos.)

In the later Icelandic PROSE EDDA, as well as Norwegian and Old German tales the term troll starts to be applied to jötnar in contrast to dwarfs and elves (rather than in contrast to the gods.) Though these later jötnar lost their semi-divine connection in the newer tales, the have the same themes of excess masculinity/ aggression, and a familiar picture emerges of jötnar ( & the þurs) as clear ancestor for the modern mythology surrounding both Nordic Trolls & their nearly interchangeable German & English folklore cousins called simply Giants.^

Where to Find Jötnar on your Journey:

• Jotunheimen National Park | Norway, the earthly equivalent of "Jötunheimr" of Norse lore; an untamed wilderness UNESCO site of towering peaks and glaciers. The visitor center is in Lom with exhibits on Norse myths and Sami culture. And there is lots of hiking in over 250 mountains including Galdhøpiggen Norway's highest peak (@ 2,469 m), Besseggen Ridge and Glacier walks on Svartisen or Jostedalsbreen.

• Læsø Island | Denmark, home to Ægir (or Hler), a sea Jötunn who hosts godly feasts in the Prose Edda with ale the Jötnar brew from waves. The Island is also known for it's with Viking history, saltworks ruins and the Østerby Havn lighthouse. as well as beachcombing for ancient shells (used in traditional seaweed roofs).

• Ring of Brodgar 📸 standing stones in Orkney | Scotland (with it's heavy Norse history) are

supposedly dancing giants turned to stone by the sun and the standing stones Yetnasteen, (from Old Norse: Jǫtna-steinn (Jötunn's stone) are also said to be petrified giants that awaken every New Year at midnight to visits the Loch of Scockness to drink.

• Rök Stone, Östergötland ( Runestones ) inscribed with Jötnar tales @ the Birka Viking Village & Gamla Uppsala’s burial mounds and runestones reference Jötnar, both in Sweden

• Reykjanes Peninsula : Bridge Between Continents (the fissure is said to symbolize Midgard (Middle Earth/ Human land)-Jötunheimr divide) and Gunnuhver Hot Springs, named after a vengeful Jötunn with ties to fire & frost Jötnar like Surtr - both in Iceland

*  Unlike the jötnar, the first gods where descended from Búri, a different primeval creature, frozen in the ground of the void then licked free by the same sacred cow Auðumbla.

** A parallel to ancient, universal Noah/ Gilgamesh flood stories, hinting at a shared Germanic and wider Indo-European flood mythology, possibly evolving from the major flood event of the barring straight post Ice-Age that created the Mediterranean sea.

Interestingly in the Genesis account the Nephilim (giants) are also said to be destroyed in the flood - though some are later reported amongst the people groups opposing the Israelites. It isn't clear if the term is used merely as a descriptor of the people as giant or meant to literally genetically link them to the earlier mentioned Nephilim.

^ Some also hypothesized that the troll/ jötunn myths might have an origin in real-life interactions between our ancestors (anatomically modern humans) and Neanderthals or other possibly more aggressive instinct human species

From Jötnar to Jack & Germanic Giants...

There are numerous echoes of the jötnar in modern giant & troll fairytales. Many jötnar, for instance, live "in" mountains, as is evident in the Old Norse terms: bergrisar (mountain risar) and bergbúi (mountain dweller) just like modern Danish bjergtrolde (mountain-trolls), or bjergfolk (mountain-folk).

Today's trolls & giants, just like jötnar, can also dwell in forests, underground, and at the shore, but always away from society in nature, just like their ancestors in the magic realm that could only be reached through special nature portals.

A common motif of the old myths was a journeying to obtain secret knowledge from jötnar in this other-worldy realm, e.g.  the Eddic poem Hyndluljóð, where Freyja travels to the gýgr Hyndla to obtain understanding and the "Ale of Remembrance" or in the poem Vafþrúðnismál, where Óðinn travels to the jötnar to obtain from Suttungr the "Mead of Poetry," which imparts skill in poetry to any who drink it. - Similarly, in the modern tales, Jack must climb a beanstalk to reach the giants of the other-worldly sky realm and obtain from them magical objects/ creatures, and various trolls also guard secrets or treasure locked in dungeon rooms.

In both cases the hero must willingly leave order to confront chaos and face monsters out of his control, in order to gain wisdom and/ or wealth. (It's a variation of the journey through the underworld theme; only the underworld, katabasis stories emphasize confronting a spiritual/ psychological demon(s) symbolically overcoming fear and death and in these other world journeys the hero confronts a more physical/ intellectual chaotic threat - symbolically taming masculine aggression)

The jötnar are confined to this other realm in the sagas, of course, because they are a constant threat to gods and humans, and the old tales tell of memorable confrontations with Thor in particular. Echos of this rivalry show up in later Scandinavian folklore as lightning frightening away trolls.* Paradoxically though, Thor also has a positive relationship with many female jötunn, who help him to overcome other (male) jötnar, a motif that also appears in Jack the Giant Killer when the giant's wife assists Jack.

It's an interesting recurring theme that the help of the jötunn's / troll's wife, embodying the female/ feminine as both a mother & wife figure, is often necessary to overcome the juxtaposing excess aggression/ masculinity of the jötnar / trolls. Like many other ancient philosophies the femine is nesseccary in the taming/ civilizing of the masculine, in other words, in the absence of the feminine the masculine = monstrous.

At this point in their evolution though trolls & giants diverge from their old jötnar forefathers by becoming pointedly anti-Christian (a consequence of the conversion of the North); Nordic trolls in particular become a symbol of ancient pagan ways. Trolls develop a habit of bergtagning (kidnapping; literally mountain-taking,) and overrunning farms & homesteads, especially of Christians. In the Norwegian folktale, The Ogre’s Barn, a farmer’s son must challenge a bunch of ogres (a.k.a. trolls, see below) who have kidnapped his father and taken their animals.

In stories composed during the Christian period, as the creatures loose the divine connection of the jötnar and the 'new' trolls & giants also become more deformed/ monstrous in appearance. They are portrayed as uncivilized and specifically pagan; in the Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss and Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra  they eat human and horse meat, which was associated with heathen practices.

The tales tell of trolls and giants that can smell Christian blood and prefer it for dinner...

"Fy, Fa and fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman..."

- Quoted as an already common phrase of unknown origin in the pamphlet HAUE with YOU to SAFFRON-WALDEN by Thomas Nashe, c.1596

...and both Scandinavian trolls and Germanic giants hate / are harmed by church bells* - the ringing of which will make them leave for other lands, if they can't manage to destroy the church by hurling boulders at it.

Boulders are in fact the creatures signature weapon, just like with their ancient giant ancestors of the Odyssey:

Both trolls and giants are closely associated with stone: as part of their nature and as a building material, in addition to being a tool of destruction. The German tales tell of wagers made by giants concerning the building of churches, (similar to the Old Norse jötunn who built the wall of Ásgarðr,) and many stone ruins, as well as large individual local stones, throughout the North are still described as the product of either a giant's construction or an angry troll's toss.

There is often an emphasis on, not necessarily killing a troll, but ridding a space of the pagan uncleanliness of it's presence, driving it back to it's mountain haunt or like the reclaiming/ cleansing of a medieval mead hall after it is invaded by giant. The driving out of the monster from a village or important building being nearly as much a victory as his death. The troll became an unholy creature that defiled a space.

Funnily enough, this created a sort of 'bad boy' reputation around trolls and in some Norwegian stories they're objects of adoration for rebellious/ loose women, (presumably with daddy issues,) who actually wish to be 'courted' by trolls.

The Christianization of the region also brought about a weakening and demonizing of the creatures in the folklore.  Where old trolls possessed great powers and intelligence, the modern troll's only power is their super size/strength and they are more easily tricked by humans. One repeated motif is the power of a Christian to destroy a troll by simply saying it's name out loud (resulting in the desire to keep ones name secret if one is a troll.)** All of which was a reflection of their loss of status from "god cousins" to being now subservient to the Christian God, and associated with demons/ fallen angels.

* The effect of Christianization of Scandinavia on it's mythology can also be clearly seen in the evolution of the folklore explanation for the lack of trolls in modern Scandinavia where it was sometimes formally credited to the "accuracy and efficiency of the lightning strokes" with Thor, presented as the regions protector, and later described as being a "consequence of the constant din of the church-bells" with the Christian Faith protecting the region from the monsters.

** The most famous example of this theme is played out in RUMPELSTILTSKIN, a German story about a smaller trickster variety of troll, (a species more intelligent than it's large Nordic cousins that also maintains it's magic powers .)

Regional Varieties of Giants & Trolls:

Ancient Greek Cousins; TITANS -  the Nordic Jötnar are essentially first cousins to the Titans; pre-Olympian 'gods' of Greek Mythology, children of primordial parents Uranus (the sky god ) and Gaia (the earth goddess) and the rivals of the traditional Greek gods, in the same way that the jötnar were rivals/ anti-gods of the Norse dieties.

[Mixed descendants of Titans, such as Prometheus or Atlas are sometimes also considered Titans.]

In the mythology, the youngest Titan, Cronus (the Greek version of the Roman Saturn, god & planet) revolts, and overthrows his father, Uranus. His grieving mother then prophesies that he too will be destroyed by his own son.

To avoid this fate, when Cronus and his older sister Rhea give birth to the first generation of Olympian gods. (Hades, Poseidon, Hera etc.) Cronus devours each off his children as soon as they are born so they can't kill him.

However, Rhea hides their 6th child, Zeus, to save him, giving Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling to eat to trick him. And sure enough, Zeus, just like his Nordic god cousins and the jötnar, leads a revolt overthrowing Cronus and the Titans and banishing those that survive to another realm, (in the case of the Titans, an underworld.)

The Greek myths are so similar to the Nordic myths that it is generally assumed that both are a version of an earlier Indo-European cosmology lost to us now, (though a significant portion of it has been 'reconstructed' based on the overlaps between various Indo-European cultures.)

Titans actually have the exact same parentage as the Gigantes, from which the term 'giant' comes. The two classes of beings are often confused, and may be variations of the same original myth, ["Earth-born" may even be the literal meaning of Gigantes] but they are now considered separate in the mythology, with the Titans being an earlier generation of children than the Gigantes.

Once thought to be the gods of an indigenous group in Greece displaced by the new gods of Greek invaders, it's now believed the Titans may actually have been borrowed from the Near East, with similar features found in the stories of the Hurrians, Hittites, and Babylonians, among others.

Titan Tourism:

• There are two Caves in Crete, Ideon & Dikteon, which both claim to be the place where Rhea gave birth to Zeus and hid him from his father, Cronus, to save his life. The Dikteon caves have impressive stalagmites and stalactites and contain the remains of religious offerings at an historical altar.

• Mount Othrys | Greece: the mythological home of the Titans during the Titanomachy. A great hiking destination with ruins like Mycenaean fortifications.

• Oceanus Fountain – Trevi Fountain, Rome | Italy; featuring of the eldest Titan, Oceanus

• Additional sculptures of Titans around the world, including: Kronus @ Kronion Hill, Olympia | Greece, and several of Atlas like the most famous @ Rockefeller Center, NYC | New York,

(there is also a Prometheus statue @ Rockefeller Center,) Temple of Zeus, Agrigento | Sicily and the Palace of Queluz, Sintra | Portugal.

Indio-Asian Titans; ASURAS - just like the proto-giants of an earlier lost Indo-European culture developed into jöntar & titans in Europe they seem to have simultaneously evolved into the Asuras on the Indo branch of the mythology tree.

The Asuras are described as proud, envious and vain, not performing sacrifices or cleansing themselves from sin and torturing living creatures.  In India’s Hindu mythology, the Bakasura, an ogre-like being (see below) terrorized the universe until Lord Vishnu’s avatar vanquished him. Though, unlike the titans and jötnar, the Asuras do not seem to be specifically connected to a tradition of man-eating.

Also different than Titans or Jötnar, the Hindu & Buddhist Asuras seem to be of the exactly the same nature as the gods, rather than a different generation/ iteration of divine being. They share the same father, and live together on Mount Sumeru, the only distinctions between the two are from behavior choices not any sort of 'genealogical' source.

In the oldest verses of the Samhita Vedic texts, Asuras include both the good (Adityas) & bad, (Danavas) - a reflection of the philosophy which claims all beings have both divine and demonic qualities. It's only later texts that restrict the term Asuras to the power-seeking demi-gods, who choses to follow the demonic, said to live in fear of the benevolent Devas / Suras, (gods.)

In both Hindu & Buddhist cosmology the Asuras, once equal to the gods, were banished from the mountain of the gods. Their relationship to the gods then, is analogous to the distinction between Christian angels and demons: the same creatures made distinct only to the laters status as fallen angels. Some texts say Asura were banished as punishment for being in state of extreme drunkenness, (which also made them easily defeated by the Suras/ gods that threw them off the mountain.)

Unlike angels, though, the Asura myths seems to imply that the 'good' Suras/ Devas were morally raised to a superior state, with the 'bad' Asuras staying stagnate, refusing to morally elevate; not falling from a high state into evil, rather remaining in a state enslaved to their baser passions.

Like Titans in the Greek myths Asura lived in separate realm, and in Buddhist texts Asura live in lower levels of Mt Sumeru, obsessed with their passions and the sensuous and endlessly engage in wars against the Devas. The feminine Asuri evolved to be a powerful female with special knowledge of medicinal herbs, etc. who, in some stories, uses her knowledge to seduce Deva. (Interestedly in reincarnation stories humans can be reborn into the Asura realm.)

In other origin myths the Hindu Daityas** are named as Asuras, due to their rejection of Varuni, the Goddess of Wine, after she emerged from the Ocean of Milk, seemingly the opposite of the story of banishment due to drunkenness. (Though it may align with the etymology that links having sura = wine/ liquor  with the gods/ Suras being those beings who did accept the wine goddess,) The Varuni origin story makes for an interesting analogy of the source of life/ divinity & a raising of morality = wine, similar to Grecian Bacchus cults.

Over time the Asuras absorbed the concepts of ghosts and spirits and came to essential mean demon more than it's original implication of an anti-god. It evolved to mean any evil spirit, demon, or enemy of the Devas/ gods and specifically creators of chaos in the Indo-Iranian mythology of the battle between good & evil. They become a more spiritual enemy/ threat rather than the physical evolution of Titans into giants & trolls in European mythology.

Sacred Asuras Sites:

• There are seven Ancient Temples said to be built by Asuras, the most unusual of which is

Kailasa Temple & Caves in Ellora | Maharashtra, a Unesco site credited to Lord Shiva, hewn from a mountain from the top down; representing Mount Kailash, Shiva’s heavenly abode. It features Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh: a massive idol for the rare worship of Kamsa (an Asura tyrant slain by Krishna.)

• Sooran Poru Festivals @ Subramanya Temples in Tamil Nadu/Kerala: An annual reenactment of Muruga slaying Asuras like Surapadman.

* Possibly related to the pre-Zoroastrianism Ahura, only in pre-Zoroastrianism Ahura evolve to represent the good gods

** A demonic race descended from Kashyapa, one of the 7 sacred sages, and his wife, Diti, daughter of the god Prajapati (later identified with Brahma) Daksha. The couple also are parents to a brother race of the divine Marutas.

Anglo  EOTENAS  - as ancient European giants evolved into trolls in the north, in the central Germanic tribes that migrated to the British Isles the same creatures became Eotenas, (singular Eeoten, Old English cognate for jötnar,) and it's shorter equivalent ENTS

Eotenas are described as "creature(s) of darkness", and man eaters with "heathen soul(s)" but what they look like is a bit of a mystery. Grendel, of the Old English epic BEOWULF, and his monstrous mother are both called Eoten.*  [Usually depicted as a troll-like giant, Grendel's is never clearly described in the poem and his form/ appearance is debated.]

Grendel is also called a descendant of the Biblical Cain, murderer of his brother Abel, and thus father of all chaos/ sin - which is perhaps a Christianization of the jötunn being descendant from similar first 'brothers' Ymir & Búri.**

The Eotenas are also linked to a flood legend, like the jötnar, (a runic inscription on a sword hilt in BEOWULF mentions the Eotenas were killed in an ancient flood.) And there are even echoes of the jötnar-like, separate, other-worldly realm in the poem with Grendel's Mother, also called a 'water witch' only being reachable by crossing through a body of water. (Though here the female is not a 'helper' of the hero, like Thor or Jack's giantess' but a deadly excess of the feminine protective Mother instinct, in parallel, rather than complimentary, relation to Grendel's excess of the masculine.)

The eponymous, eoten-esque Green Knight of Sir Gawain's Anglo-Saxon tale also lives in a other-worldly realm in his Green Chapel, and the legendary Arthurian Avalon, as well as well as the Grail Castle of Sir Galahad's quest in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, both harken back to those earlier hero journeys to the foreign jötnar worlds, battling giant mythical creatures to acquire objects of wisdom.

With the spread of Christian literacy throughout Great Britain the Old English words faded out of common use and were simply replaced by the term 'giant' in Modern English (with Ents, of course, being later resurrected by J.R.R. Tolkien as the name for a race of very troll-like Tree-Giants in LORD OF THE RINGS.)

Haunts of Eotenas:

• The sole copy of Beowulf is in the British Museum, of London, but the Geats of the epic poem

(pronounced more like yacht with a 'gy' rather than ryming feet) were likely originally from Western Sweden’s Göteborg and Götaland, which explains the similarity of their Eotenas with the Nordic jötnar, and they may be the same people group or related to the similarly named Jutes, Gutes, and / or Goths.

• While the poem is English the eponymous hero is a Dane thought to be from what is now the town of Lejre | Denmark - which has an archaeological dig site of what they claim is Beowulf’s hall; the foundations of a few large long halls dating to the late Iron Age.

• Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk: a 7th-century UNESCO Anglo-Saxon ship burial site & Lindisfarne (Holy Island)in Northumberland: eerie marshland island monastery both in England, have ties to the time and culture of Beowulf.

* The monster Grendel and his Mother are referred to as Eotenas, þyrs & orcnēas (see below)

** In a direct analogy the Eotenas/ Jötnar ancestor, Ymir, should theoretically be Abel, killed by his 'brother' Búri/ Cain. But the literary point is to make Grendal a descendant of the Father of sin/choas.

French OGRES (& Italian ORCOS) - large, hideous, exceptionally strong man-like beings with voracious appetites that eat people, particularly infants and children. Frequently depicted with disproportionately large heads, abundant hair and unusually colored skin.

While quite similar in appearance and behavior to giants & trolls, Ogres & Orcos don't have Nordic roots, nor a connection to the Greek Titans - but they do have a divine origin:

Worshipped in rural areas, and thus outside of the rapidly changing, foreign influenced major cities, Orcus managed survive much longer than his more famous Roman God brothers. His cult's lasting all the way through to the middle ages, when he morphed into the Ogre of folklore in France.

Though named after a god, the modern Ogre is not even semi divine, like the old giants/ Titans or Asuras where, but they do maintain the malicious and tormenting nature of their namesake. An Ogre's tendency to devour humans is not just one of several possible traits (like the occasional man-eating nature of a troll) it is the defining characteristic of the original demonic Ogre.

The earliest use of the term Ogre was in Chrétien de Troyes' late 12th century poem Perceval, li contes del graal (Perceval & the Story of the [Holy] Grail):

[A possible reference to Ogres said to be inhabitants of Britain before humans in  Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historical  History of the Kings of Britain.] 

Despite their unconnected histories, modern Ogres and their stories have absorbed many of the same traits of the jötnar descended creatures, and the term is now used fairly interchangeably with troll or giant in translations, to describe such creatures as the beast in the original BEAUTY & THE BEAST, the cyclops in the ODYSSEY, and the man-eating giant of SINBAD THE SAILOR.

Further south, the Italian man-eating equivalent, the Orco or Orchi fairytale monster, also evolved out of the same Orcus traditions in 13th century. Orchi, specifically, were associated with water spirits and lived in caves. (Some aspects of Orcus worship may also have transmuted into medieval wild-man festivals in southern Europe which have continued in a fashion to the modern day.)

RELATED -  Urko [ Uruk-hai] / Orch/ ORCS  of LORD OF THE RINGS:

Whatever the derivation of the original Ango-Saxon, Orc, Tolkien's adoption of the term has made Orcs common throughout modern fantasy literature and role playing games.

Orcos (& orcs) have mostly remained in their respective Italic literary (& fantasy) worlds, but the term Ogre has widely spread not just through Europe, but also into Asia and Africa. In China, the legendary Monkey King, Sun Wukong, with his supernatural powers (a sort of reverse troll in practice, having been born from stone) battles an Ogre King, to win the magic staff he guards. There's even a West African folktale, The story the Ogre’s Wife, where a young woman is forced to marry an Ogre, (a variation of a Beauty and the Beast or East of the Sun West of the Moon tale.)

Ogres even make cameo's in modern pop culture in THE SMURFS and of course, take centerstage as the eponymous hero of Disney's SHREK.

Ogres Out & About:

• Ogre Fountain 📸 (lit. "Child Eater Fountain") @ Corn House Sq, Bern | Switzerland

• There is a large sculpture of Ogre from Hop-o'-My-Thumb at the fantasy amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands.

• A depiction of the Monkey King's rival Ogre King can be found on Mandalay Hill | Myanmar

• Sacro Bosco (Sacred Grove) of Garden of Bomarzo ( Monsters) | Lazio, Italy - a 16th century

stone garden of greif includes an enormous screaming face meant to represent Orcus as the mouth to Hell, that you can actually enter and eat a meal on the stone picnic table sitting on Orcus' tongue . (There is also a carved giant tearing another giant in half)

• The so-called "Tombs of Orcus I + II", a muraled 4th & 5th century Etruscan tomb site at Tarquinia | Italy, is actually misnomer, the first discoverers mistook a mural of a hairy, bearded giant for Orcus but it actually depicts a Cyclops.

• Glencoe Valley of the Highlands 📸 | Scotland is steeped in Scottish "bodachs” folklore (Gaelic for monstrous beings), the Scottish ogre-like giants that live in caves like An Steall Ban (White Spout.)

• Château d’Ussé | France: 15th-century castle that inspired Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots, where an ogre shape-shifts and lives in a grand castle. Local Loire Valley folklore includes ogre-like giants haunting chateaux, devouring travelers.

  The 13th-century, octoganal hill-top, UNESCO "Ogre’s Castle" - Castel del Monte, in Apulia | Italy is also linked to Italian folklore about ogres guarding treasures in fortified lairs.

• Grotta Gigante, Trieste | Italy: a massive karst cave tied to Friulian folklore of Orchi who terrorize villagers. One of the world’s largest accessible caves, with 100-meter-high chambers. (Tours with local lore available)

Japanese ONI - evil, hulking, beast-like variety of the yōkai, (supernatural spirit,) demon, ogre, or troll from in hell, sometimes dwelling deep in the mountains or caves, with superhuman strength. Oni are associated with thunder & lightning and known for violence & cannibalism, frequently swallowing a person in one bite.

Typically portrayed with red, blue, black, or yellow colored skin, massive teeth, one or more horns* and sometimes a third eye on the forehead, they usually wear a loincloth of tiger pelt and carry an iron club. Oni often have an unusual number of fingers / toes, (any where from 3 - 6 on each hand/foot) with claws for nails, but can change their hideous looks to gain their victims trust** (when in disguise, can appear as a man or woman, regardless of their actual gender.)

Oni were created/ birthed by Izanami, one of the two lesser kami (gods) She had many children with the other lesser kami, her younger brother, Izanagi ^ but died giving birth to the kami of fire, and it was in the underworld, after her death, that she gave life to the first Oni. (Though it's not clear if the Oni myths evolved out of the wider Buddhist tradition or if Oni existed independently and were later incorporated into the cosmology.)

Wrathful deities featured in Japanese Buddhism called kishin or kijin, meaning Oni-gods are especially powerful Oni, ['ki' being an alternate reading of 'Oni' + shin or jin = god.] And in  Hindu-Buddhism Oni were combined with man-devouring yaksha and rakshasa, (races of evil spirits) creating a specific type of Oni that torments sinners in the underworld (similar to the Indian Asuras or the ogre's forefather, Orcus.)

Ggaki or Pritta - the hungry ghosts, of Hindu-Buddhism, are also sometimes considered Oni (these devouring spirits suffer from an extreme lack of some needed thing, emotional or physical that they constantly seek out from their victims.)

Essentially, Oni are semi-spiritualized trolls, bringing war, plague/illness, earthquakes, and eclipses. When people lose their lives or go missing it's said to be a result of Oni from the other world appearing and snatching them up. Oni can be killed though, and can also be warded off with charms made of holly leaves and dried sardine heads or ritualized bean throwing, (preferably by a strong wrestler.)^^

The Japanese Oni are classic stock villains in both theater & literature, and can be found throughout pop culture; (the Japanese version of tag is called oni gokko, where the child who is 'it' is said instead to be the 'Oni') and they appear in many local sayings.

"Oya ni ninu ko wa oni no ko"

("A child that does not resemble its parents is the child of an oni")

Paradoxically, while monstrous and associated with calamities,  the Oni, are also said to bring good fortune and wealth. Men in Oni costume often lead parades to dispel any bad luck, for example. and Japanese buildings sometimes include oni-faced roof tiles called onigawara (鬼瓦), which are thought to ward off bad luck, much like gargoyles in Western architectural tradition.

Oni on your Excursions:

• Oeyama Onigawara Park, Kyoto | Japan is devoted to onigawara, and there's a prominent example on the peak of the National University of Fine Arts and Music of Tokyo | Japan.)

Oni are also featured in monuments and at semi-sacred sites like onsen hot springs. (The hot spring resort of Beppu, Oita on the island of Kyushu | Japan has sculpture of an Oni trampling an enemy by it's onsen.)

• Oni Cultural Museum in the Oeyama Mnts | Japan and the Onitake Inari Shrine

• Futasegawa Gorge | features beautiful hikes that include Oni foot prints and sites associated with Oni legends like a giant rock on which the Raiko, that defeated Shutendoji, is said to have sat and rested.

• The traditional bean-throwing custom to drive out Oni is practiced every February with the Setsubun Festival where people cast roasted soybeans indoors & out shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Oni outside! Blessings inside!"),

* Oni's horns and tiger-skin loincloth may have developed from their associated with the direction of the demon gate, (from which Oni from hell, would enter the earthly realm); the demon gate is said to be northeast, in line with the zodiac ox/tiger compass point. Many temples even include north easterly L shaped carvings to ward off Oni that might try to enter from hell.

** With the etymology of troll including connections to 'bewitchment' & 'enchantment,' as well as the idea that one can be 'turned into' a troll, there may be a an earlier iteration the European troll that also possessed a similar transformative/bewitching ability, (as evidenced in other European folk tales of bears and beast disguised as humans and vice versa.)

† While they share the same kanji character, 鬼, the Chinese iteration, the guǐ is not troll-like - it refers to disembodied spirits of the dead, closer to the literal meaning of the word, and they are not necessarily evil. (Though some with a grudge will haunt the world to haunt)

Japanese Oni started out similar to the ghostly Chinese version but evolved into tangible monsters sometime around the early 8th century, (when they show up as such in literature.)

^ Izanami (= she or the female-who-invites) + Izanagi ( = he or the male-who-invites,) the 2 lesser kami (gods), are said to have established the earth. ( As opposed to the higher kami (gods) that established the heavens)

^^ Bean throwing to ward off Oni is an Edo custom performed first at shrines and temples that then spread to peoples homes as well, based on a 10th century legend of a monk on Mt Kurama who threw roasted beans into the eyes of Oni to make them flinch and flee.

(It may be related to the fact that the word for bean (mame) in Japanese, まめ, マメ can also be written as 魔目 meaning the devil's eye, or 魔滅 (mametsu), meaning to destroy the devil.)

From ancient Gigantes & Jötnar to modern Giants and Trolls - What's your favorite version of these man-eating Titans? Does your culture have a version of an Ogre I haven't covered? Tell us all about it in the comments!

† The play PEER GYNT is loosely based on the Norwegian fairy-tale Per Gynt, it follows an immature, and self centered rouge, Peer who on his journey of seduction gets a troll princess pregnant merely with his lustful thoughts.

* The Billy Goats "Gruff" are an old Norwegian folktale, and actually a mistranslation of Norwegian Bruse = clump/ tuft as in the tuft of hair on the forehead of a horse or goat