In folklore , giants (from Ancient Greek : gigas , cognate giga- ) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word giant is first attested in 1297 from Robert of Gloucester 's chronicle. It is derived from the Gigantes ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Γίγαντες ) of Greek mythology .
145-470: Fairy tales such as Jack the Giant Killer have formed the modern perception of giants as dimwitted and violent ogres , sometimes said to eat humans, while other giants tend to eat livestock. In more recent portrayals, like those of Jonathan Swift and Roald Dahl , some giants are both intelligent and friendly. Giants appear many times in folklore and myths. Representing the human body enlarged to
290-465: A Chinese Studio (published posthumously, 1766), which has been described by Yuken Fujita of Keio University as having "a reputation as the most outstanding short story collection." The fairy tale itself became popular among the précieuses of upper-class France (1690–1710), and among the tales told in that time were the ones of La Fontaine and the Contes of Charles Perrault (1697), who fixed
435-443: A channel, until they reached the village of Akkrum , where they had an argument and each went his own way, thus splitting the channel into two separate waterways. Others threw up hills, or became hills themselves when they died on the spot. In several legends, giants were evil beings that threatened, robbed and killed travellers or locals; such as Ellert and Brammert , in the province of Drenthe . Medieval chivalry romances such as
580-667: A conflict with the Olympian gods called the Gigantomachy (Γιγαντομαχία) when Gaia had them attack Mount Olympus . This battle was eventually settled when the hero Heracles decided to help the Olympians. The Greeks believed some of them, like Enceladus , to lie buried from that time under the earth and that their tormented quivers resulted in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions . Herodotus in Book 1, Chapter 68, describes how
725-403: A danger of making the giants trip and die, so they offered sacrifices to that plant. There are tales of giants in the northern Chilean port town of Caldera telling of giants who play with ships moving them from one port to another. Tales of the same area also tells of giants who are able to crush humans with their feet and when laying down to sleep being so long as to reach from the mountains to
870-499: A fixed form, and regardless of literary influence, the tellers constantly altered them for their own purposes. The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism , that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were
1015-418: A folklore, Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index 300–749,—in a cataloguing system that made such a distinction—to gain a clear set of tales. His own analysis identified fairy tales by their plot elements, but that in itself has been criticized, as the analysis does not lend itself easily to tales that do not involve a quest , and furthermore, the same plot elements are found in non-fairy tale works. Were I asked, what
1160-862: A literary variant of fairy tales such as Water and Salt and Cap O' Rushes . The tale itself resurfaced in Western literature in the 16th and 17th centuries, with The Facetious Nights of Straparola by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (Italy, 1550 and 1553), which contains many fairy tales in its inset tales, and the Neapolitan tales of Giambattista Basile (Naples, 1634–36), which are all fairy tales. Carlo Gozzi made use of many fairy tale motifs among his Commedia dell'Arte scenarios, including among them one based on The Love For Three Oranges (1761). Simultaneously, Pu Songling , in China, included many fairy tales in his collection, Strange Stories from
1305-559: A local myth has a local hill resembling a giant named as The Sleeping Giant . Folklore says the giant will awaken only if a specific musical instrument is played near the hill. Giants are also prominent in Welsh folklore . Many giants in English folklore were noted for their stupidity. A giant who had quarrelled with the Mayor of Shrewsbury went to bury the city with dirt; however, he met
1450-429: A man and a woman, were traversing the fjord near Drangey Island with their cow when they were surprised by the bright rays of daybreak. As a result of exposure to daylight, all three were turned into stone. Drangey represents the cow and Kerling (supposedly the female giant, the name means "old hag") is to the south of it. Karl (the male giant) was to the north of the island, but he disappeared long ago. A bergrisi –
1595-427: A man-eating tiger with her own hand." In contemporary literature , many authors have used the form of fairy tales for various reasons, such as examining the human condition from the simple framework a fairytale provides. Some authors seek to recreate a sense of the fantastic in a contemporary discourse. Some writers use fairy tale forms for modern issues; this can include using the psychological dramas implicit in
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#17327655768431740-720: A mask on a human face, as in fables . In his essay " On Fairy-Stories ", J. R. R. Tolkien agreed with the exclusion of "fairies" from the definition, defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faërie , the land of fairies, fairytale princes and princesses, dwarves , elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. However, the same essay excludes tales that are often considered fairy tales, citing as an example The Monkey's Heart , which Andrew Lang included in The Lilac Fairy Book . Steven Swann Jones identified
1885-494: A monumental work called Le Cabinet des Fées , an enormous collection of stories from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first collectors to attempt to preserve not only the plot and characters of the tale, but also the style in which they were told, was the Brothers Grimm , collecting German fairy tales; ironically, this meant although their first edition (1812 & 1815) remains a treasure for folklorists, they rewrote
2030-638: A passage of his Genealogies of the Pagan Gods to purported archeological discoveries in Sicily that he thought might be evidence of the historicity of The Odyssey 's Polyphemus . Rabelais created a wholly "fabricated giantology" for his 16th-century Gargantua and Pantagruel . Massive bones found in 1613 in France were initially assigned to Teutobochus but the examinations of them by various physicians and their publication of diverging conclusions about
2175-451: A picture book aimed at children in which a princess rescues a prince, Angela Carter 's The Bloody Chamber , which retells a number of fairy tales from a female point of view and Simon Hood's contemporary interpretation of various popular classics. There are also many contemporary erotic retellings of fairy tales, which explicitly draw upon the original spirit of the tales, and are specifically for adults. Modern retellings focus on exploring
2320-605: A series of covenants (meaning treaties, legally binding agreements) stretching from Genesis to Deuteronomy and beyond. The first is the covenant between God and Noah immediately after the Deluge in which God agrees never again to destroy the Earth with water. The next is between God and Abraham, and the third between God and all Israel at Mount Sinai. In this third covenant, unlike the first two, God hands down an elaborate set of laws (scattered through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers), which
2465-573: A shoemaker, carrying shoes to repair, and the shoemaker convinced the giant that he had worn out all the shoes coming from Shrewsbury , and so it was too far to travel. Other English stories told of how giants threw stones at each other, which was used to explain many great stones on the landscape. Giants figure in folklore and fairy tales, such as Jack the Giant Killer , The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body , Nix Nought Nothing , Robin Hood and
2610-597: A spear through them. God rewards him by giving his descendants an everlasting priesthood. God also tells the Israelites to consider the Midianites their enemies. A new census gives the total number of men from twenty years and upward as 601,730, and the number of the Levites from the age of one month and upward as 23,000. The land shall be divided by lot. The daughters of Zelophehad , who had no sons, are to share in
2755-404: A special relationship with him, and that they shall take possession of the land of Canaan . Numbers also demonstrates the importance of holiness, faithfulness, and trust: despite God's presence and his priests , Israel lacks in faith and the possession of the land is left to a new generation. Most commentators divide Numbers into three sections based on locale ( Mount Sinai , Kadesh-Barnea and
2900-444: A statue of Jupiter, typically on horseback, defeating or trampling down a giant, often depicted as a snake. They are restricted to the area of south-western Germany, western Switzerland, French Jura, and Alsace. In folklore from all over Europe, giants were believed to have built the remains of previous civilizations. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus thought giants had a hand in the creation of megalithic monuments. Similarly,
3045-645: A succession of motifs or episodes. It moves in an unreal world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvellous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms and marry princesses." The characters and motifs of fairy tales are simple and archetypal: princesses and goose-girls ; youngest sons and gallant princes ; ogres , giants , dragons , and trolls ; wicked stepmothers and false heroes ; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers , often talking horses, or foxes, or birds ; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions. Although
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#17327655768433190-571: A technique developed by evolutionary biologists to trace the relatedness of living and fossil species . Among the tales analysed were Jack and the Beanstalk , traced to the time of splitting of Eastern and Western Indo-European, over 5000 years ago. Both Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin appear to have been created some 4000 years ago. The story of The Smith and the Devil ( Deal with
3335-407: A theological book and not a historical one. On the other hand, some Biblical scholars speculate that the literature is not referring to the actual number, and that the word for "thousand" is actually referring to a noun signifying a group or clan. However, this interpretation poses a problem, as it undermines the validity of the text, "assumes a misunderstanding and mistrasmission of the text in all
3480-461: A time " rather than in actual times. Fairy tales occur both in oral and in literary form ( literary fairy tale ); the name "fairy tale" (" conte de fées " in French) was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of today's fairy tales have evolved from centuries-old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world. The history of
3625-481: A time ", this tells us that a fairy tale or a märchen was originally a little story from a long time ago when the world was still magic. (Indeed, one less regular German opening is "In the old times when wishing was still effective".) The French writers and adaptors of the conte de fées genre often included fairies in their stories; the genre name became "fairy tale" in English translation and "gradually eclipsed
3770-401: A total population of 1.5 to 2.5 million Israelites. However, scholars have proposed multiple alternatives, as such a large number of Israelites does not conform to modern historical knowledge of the period or archaeological evidence. Some scholars see the book of Numbers as unhistorical, and the figures given as either greatly exaggerated or simply fabricated, opting instead to focus on Numbers as
3915-495: A version intended for children. The moralizing strain in the Victorian era altered the classical tales to teach lessons, as when George Cruikshank rewrote Cinderella in 1854 to contain temperance themes. His acquaintance Charles Dickens protested, "In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected." Psychoanalysts such as Bruno Bettelheim , who regarded
4060-539: A world where all the fairy tales take place, and the characters are aware of their role in the story, such as in the film series Shrek . Other authors may have specific motives, such as multicultural or feminist reevaluations of predominantly Eurocentric masculine-dominated fairy tales, implying critique of older narratives. The figure of the damsel in distress has been particularly attacked by many feminist critics. Examples of narrative reversal rejecting this figure include The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch ,
4205-409: Is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre . Such stories typically feature magic , enchantments , and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in
4350-405: Is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine : that is a fairytale ... of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the mere presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly
4495-451: Is best known today. The Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales and rewrote their tales after complaints that they were not suitable for children. In the modern era, fairy tales were altered so that they could be read to children. The Brothers Grimm concentrated mostly on sexual references; Rapunzel , in the first edition, revealed the prince's visits by asking why her clothing had grown tight, thus letting
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4640-470: Is clear: failure was not due to any fault in the preparation, because Yahweh had foreseen everything, but due to Israel's sin of unfaithfulness. In the final section, the Israelites of the new generation follow Yahweh's instructions as given through Moses and are successful in all they attempt. The last five chapters are exclusively concerned with land: instructions for the extermination of the Canaanites,
4785-747: Is exempted from military service and therefore not included in the census. Moses consecrates the Levites for the service of the Tabernacle in the place of the first-born sons, who hitherto had performed that service. The Levites are divided into three families, the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites, each under a chief. The Kohathites were headed by Eleazar , son of Aaron , while the Gershonites and Merarites were headed by Aaron's other son, Ithamar . Preparations are then made for resuming
4930-406: Is in its essence only one aspect of the collective unconscious as well as always representing also the whole collective unconscious. Other famous people commented on the importance of fairy tales, especially for children. For example, G. K. Chesterton argued that "Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child
5075-409: Is its own best explanation; that is, its meaning is contained in the totality of its motifs connected by the thread of the story. [...] Every fairy tale is a relatively closed system compounding one essential psychological meaning which is expressed in a series of symbolical pictures and events and is discoverable in these". "I have come to the conclusion that all fairy tales endeavour to describe one and
5220-524: Is known to have received its name from an Armenian tradition in which Nimrod was killed by an arrow shot by Hayk during a massive battle between two rival armies of giants to the south-east of Lake Van . Aztec mythology features the Quinametzin , a race of giant men created in one of the previous solar eras . They are credited with the construction of Teotihuacan . Giants are rough but generally righteous characters of formidable strength living in
5365-587: Is made to ward off these serpents. The Israelites arrive on the plains of Moab, across the River Jordan from Jericho . Here, the Israelites find themselves in conflict with the Amorites and Og , king of Bashan , both of whom they defeat. Balak , king of Moab decides to fight the Israelites as well, and summons a local diviner named Balaam to curse the Israelites. However, God tells Balaam not to curse them, and when Balaam attempts to travel to Balak with
5510-577: Is often portrayed as a giant in retellings of the Biblical narrative, he appears to be significantly smaller than other giants, biblical or otherwise. The Masoretic Text version of the Book of Samuel gives his height as six cubits and one span (possibly 313–372 centimetres (10 ft 3 in – 12 ft 2 in)), while the Septuagint , the 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and
5655-535: Is referring to an actual account of a numerical tally of the Israelite people. A more likely explanation for the large number stated in the book is that the actual numerical metrics cannot really be established today. This requires us to take the values given as they are, as any other alternatives raises more problems than solutions. In his commentary on the book of Numbers, John Calvin acknowledged that even among his contemporaries, "certain sceptics" had questioned
5800-630: Is that the fairy tale has ancient roots, older than the Arabian Nights collection of magical tales (compiled circa 1500 AD), such as Vikram and the Vampire , and Bel and the Dragon . Besides such collections and individual tales, in China Taoist philosophers such as Liezi and Zhuangzi recounted fairy tales in their philosophical works. In the broader definition of the genre,
5945-539: Is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah . The book has a long and complex history; its final form is possibly due to a Priestly redaction (i.e., editing) of a Yahwistic source made sometime in the early Persian period (5th century BC). The name of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites. Numbers is one of the better-preserved books of
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6090-491: The Hindu reckoning of time. According to Jainism , there was a time when giants walked upon this earth. Jain cosmology divides the worldly cycle of time into two parts or half-cycles, avasarpani (age of descending purity) and ascending ( utsarpani ). According to Jain texts , the height of Rishabhanatha , first tirthankara of the present half-cycle of time ( avasarpani ) was 500 dhanusa (longbow). In avasarpani , as
6235-573: The Old English poem The Seafarer speaks of the high stone walls that were the work of giants. Natural geologic features such as the massive basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland were attributed to construction by giants. In the Netherlands, giants are often associated with creating or forming the landscape. For instance, two giants are said to have dug
6380-639: The Pentateuch . Fragments of the Ketef Hinnom scrolls containing verses from Numbers have been dated as far back as the late seventh or early sixth century BC. These verses are the earliest known artifacts to be found in the Hebrew Bible text. Numbers begins at Mount Sinai , where the Israelites have received their laws and covenant from God and God has taken up residence among them in
6525-469: The Renaissance , such as Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile , and stabilized through the works of later collectors such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm . In this evolution, the name was coined when the précieuses took up writing literary stories; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term Conte de fée , or fairy tale, in the late 17th century. Before the definition of
6670-715: The Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains . After giving birth to a disfigured child, the giants treated the child so poorly that the Great Spirit responded by making the land hot and desolate and allowing enemies to conquer the giants. Only two giants survived: Paiute and his wife, both of whose skin became brown from eternally living in the hot desert. Several Jupiter-Giant-Columns have been found in Germania Superior . These were crowned with
6815-613: The Spartans uncovered in Tegea the body of Orestes , which was seven cubits long — approximately 3.73 m, or about 12 feet 3 inches. In his book The Comparison of Romulus with Theseus , Plutarch describes how the Athenians uncovered the body of Theseus , which was "of more than ordinary size." The kneecaps of Ajax were exactly the size of a discus for the boy's pentathlon , wrote Pausanias . A boy's discus
6960-583: The Titanomachy . The Hecatoncheires are giants that have 100 arms and 50 heads who were also the children of Gaia and Uranus. Other known giant races in Greek mythology include the six-armed Gegeines , the northern Hyperboreans , and the cannibalistic Laestrygonians . There are accounts stating humans grew to the size of giants during the Satya Yuga , the first of the four cyclical ages (yugas) in
7105-478: The sanctuary . The task before them is to take possession of the Promised Land . The people are counted and preparations are made for resuming their march. The Israelites begin the journey, but complain about the hardships along the way and about the authority of Moses and Aaron . They arrive at the borders of Canaan and send twelve spies into the land. Upon hearing the spies' fearful report concerning
7250-409: The "purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes" and "they represent the archetypes in their simplest, barest and most concise form" because they are less overlaid with conscious material than myths and legends. "In this pure form, the archetypal images afford us the best clues to the understanding of the processes going on in the collective psyche". "The fairy tale itself
7395-470: The 17th century, a passion for the conversational parlour game based on the plots of old folk tales swept through the salons. Each salonnière was called upon to retell an old tale or rework an old theme, spinning clever new stories that not only showcased verbal agility and imagination but also slyly commented on the conditions of aristocratic life. Great emphasis was placed on a mode of delivery that seemed natural and spontaneous. The decorative language of
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#17327655768437540-466: The 19th century: that the folk tradition preserved fairy tales in forms from pre-history except when "contaminated" by such literary forms, leading people to tell inauthentic tales. The rural, illiterate, and uneducated peasants, if suitably isolated, were the folk and would tell pure folk tales. Sometimes they regarded fairy tales as a form of fossil, the remnants of a once-perfect tale. However, further research has concluded that fairy tales never had
7685-729: The 2nd–1st-centuries BCE Dead Sea Scrolls give Goliath's height as four cubits and one span (possibly 216–258 centimetres (7 ft 1 in – 8 ft 6 in)). For comparison, the Anakites are described as making the Israelites seem like grasshoppers. See also Gibborim . Josephus also described the Amorites as giants in his Antiquities of the Jews , circa 93 CE, indicating that some sort of fossils may have been on display at that time: "For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all
7830-879: The American people with enthusiasm...Paul and his blue ox Babe are supposed to have altered the appearance of the American continent; the animal's hoof prints became the lake beds of the Northwest and from its drinking trough spilled the Mississippi River ." Fossilized remains of ancient mammals and reptiles common to the Sivalik Hills of India may have influenced aspects of the Mahābhārata that tell of battles in which "hundreds of mighty, and sometimes gigantic, heroes, horses, and war elephants are said to have died." Claudine Cohen , in her 2002 book The Fate of
7975-457: The Basque territory the giants are held accountable for the creation of many stone formations, hills and ages-old megalithic structures ( dolmens , etc.), with similar explanations provided in different spots. However, giants show different variants and forms, they are most frequently referred to as jentilak and mairuak , while as individuals they can be represented as Basajaun ("the lord of
8120-691: The Devil ) appears to date from the Bronze Age , some 6000 years ago. Various other studies converge to suggest that some fairy tales, for example the swan maiden , could go back to the Upper Palaeolithic. Originally, adults were the audience of a fairy tale just as often as children. Literary fairy tales appeared in works intended for adults, but in the 19th and 20th centuries the fairy tale became associated with children's literature. The précieuses , including Madame d'Aulnoy , intended their works for adults, but regarded their source as
8265-519: The Grimms' tale appears to be the only independent German variant. Similarly, the close agreement between the opening of the Grimms' version of Little Red Riding Hood and Perrault's tale points to an influence, although the Grimms' version adds a different ending (perhaps derived from The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids ). Fairy tales tend to take on the color of their location, through
8410-560: The Hebrew Bible, but left untranslated in others. According to Genesis 7:23 , the Nephilim were destroyed in the Flood, but Nephilim are reported after the Flood, including: The Book of Numbers includes the discouraging report by the spies sent by Moses into Canaan : "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are. (...) All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from
8555-594: The Israelite army. The Reubenites and the Gadites request Moses to assign them the land east of the Jordan . Moses grants their request after they promise to help in the conquest of the land west of the Jordan. The land east of the Jordan is divided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh . Moses recalls the stations at which the Israelites halted during their forty years' wanderings and instructs
8700-434: The Israelites are to observe; they are also to remain faithful to Yahweh, the god of Israel, meaning, among other things, that they must put their trust in his help. It is important to note that among the reasons this law was given was to establish the Israelite people as Yahweh's people. The laws and instructions were as much for identity as they were for obedience. Yahweh by providing all the different instructions and laws
8845-701: The Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites and destroy their idols. The boundaries of the land are spelled out; the land is to be divided under the supervision of Eleazar , Joshua, and twelve princes, one of each tribe. The majority of modern biblical scholars believe that the Torah —the books of Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers, and Deuteronomy —reached its present form in the post-Exilic period (i.e., after c. 520 BC), based on preexisting written and oral traditions, as well as contemporary geographical and political realities. The five books are often described as being drawn from four "sources", generally regarded as
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#17327655768438990-524: The Mammoth , argued that the history of human interaction with fossil bones of prehistoric megafauna was heavily influenced by giant lore. Per Cohen, the proto-scientific study of giants appears in several phases of human history: Herotodus reported that the remains of Orestes were found in Tegea ; Pliny described a giant's skeleton found in Crete after an earthquake, and seemed to refer to evolution as
9135-509: The Moabite officials God sends an angel to stop his donkey. Realising that he cannot curse the Israelites, Balaam blesses them instead, and foresees a figure whom he identifies as 'the Star of Jacob' who will defeat Israel's enemies. This angers Balak, but Balaam informs Balak that he cannot say anything except what God tells him to say. The longer the Israelites stay on the plains of Shittim ,
9280-557: The Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." The Book of Joshua , describing the actual conquest of Canaan in a later generation, makes reference to such people living there in (Joshua 14:12–15 and Joshua 15:13–14). The Bible also tells of Gog and Magog , who later entered European folklore, and of the famous battle between David and the Philistine Goliath . While Goliath
9425-827: The Prince of Aragon , Young Ronald , and Paul Bunyan . Ogres are humanoid creatures, sometimes of gigantic stature, that occur in various sorts of European folklore. Rübezahl , is a kind giant from German folklore who lived in the Giant Mountains , along with the Bergmönch , a giant mountain spirit. Antero Vipunen is a giant shaman that appears in the Kalevala , meeting the epic hero Väinämöinen to teach him creation spells. Fairy tales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale , fairy story , household tale , magic tale , or wonder tale )
9570-723: The Russian Alexander Afanasyev (first published in 1866), the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe (first published in 1845), the Romanian Petre Ispirescu (first published in 1874), the English Joseph Jacobs (first published in 1890), and Jeremiah Curtin , an American who collected Irish tales (first published in 1890). Ethnographers collected fairy tales throughout
9715-452: The Spanish Amadís de Gaula feature giants as antagonists, or, rarely, as allies. This is parodied famously in Cervantes' Don Quixote , when the title character attacks a windmill, believing it to be a giant. This is the source of the phrase tilting at windmills . Tales of combat with giants were a common feature in the folklore of the British Isles . Celtic giants also figure in Breton and Arthurian romances . In Kinloch Rannoch ,
9860-432: The allotment. God orders Moses to appoint Joshua as his successor. Prescriptions for the observance of the feasts and the offerings for different occasions are enumerated. Moses orders the Israelites to massacre the people of Midian , in retaliation for the Baal-Peor incident. Specifically, all Midianite men and boys and women who are not virgins are killed. Virgin Midianite women and girls are spared, but kept as prizes for
10005-424: The bones kicked off a "pamphlet war" between anatomists and surgeons of the day. The discovery of the so-called Claverack Giant in colonial New York triggered giantological investigations by two important early American intellectuals, Cotton Mather and Edward Taylor . Genesis tells of the Nephilim before and after Noah's Flood . The word Nephilim is loosely translated as giants in some translations of
10150-419: The census lists of Exodus and Numbers (not to mention other texts)" and produces several inconsistencies in the book of Numbers that cannot be resolved. Most scholars who hold this view posit a much lower number for the fighting men of Israel, closer to 20,000. Another theory is that of an error in transmission, with J.W. Wenham arguing that "biblical texts are often corrupted by the simple addition of zeroes to
10295-446: The chief god, is the great-grandson of the jötunn Ymir . Norse mythology also holds that the entire world of men was created from the flesh of Ymir, a giant of cosmic proportions whose name is considered by some scholars to share a root with Yama of Indo-Iranian mythology. Trolls are beings that are sometimes very large. The name troll is applied to jötnar . An old Icelandic legend says that two night-prowling giants,
10440-405: The children's window of tolerance". These fairy tales teach children how to deal with certain social situations and helps them to find their place in society. Fairy tales teach children other important lessons too. For example, Tsitsani et al. carried out a study on children to determine the benefits of fairy tales. Parents of the children who took part in the study found that fairy tales, especially
10585-435: The choice of motifs, the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color. The Brothers Grimm believed that European fairy tales derived from the cultural history shared by all Indo-European peoples and were therefore ancient, far older than written records. This view is supported by research by the anthropologist Jamie Tehrani and the folklorist Sara Graca Da Silva using phylogenetic analysis ,
10730-399: The color in them, triggered their child's imagination as they read them. Jungian Analyst and fairy tale scholar Marie Louise Von Franz interprets fairy tales based on Jung's view of fairy tales as a spontaneous and naive product of soul, which can only express what soul is. That means, she looks at fairy tales as images of different phases of experiencing the reality of the soul. They are
10875-452: The common elements in fairy tales found spread over continents. One is that a single point of origin generated any given tale, which then spread over the centuries; the other is that such fairy tales stem from common human experience and therefore can appear separately in many different origins. Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different cultures. Many researchers hold this to be caused by
11020-459: The conditions in Canaan, the Israelites refuse to take possession of it. God condemns them to death in the wilderness until a new generation can grow up and carry out the task. Furthermore, there were some who rebelled against Moses and for these acts, God destroyed approximately 15,000 of them through various means. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the plains of Moab ready for
11165-418: The conversations consisted of literature, mores, taste, and etiquette, whereby the speakers all endeavoured to portray ideal situations in the most effective oratorical style that would gradually have a major effect on literary forms." Many 18th-century folklorists attempted to recover the "pure" folktale, uncontaminated by literary versions. Yet while oral fairy tales likely existed for thousands of years before
11310-640: The crossing of the Jordan River . Numbers is the culmination of the story of Israel's exodus from oppression in Egypt and their journey to take possession of the land God promised their fathers . As such it draws to a conclusion the themes introduced in Genesis and played out in Exodus and Leviticus : God has promised the Israelites that they shall become a great (i.e. numerous) nation, that they will have
11455-503: The cruelty of older fairy tales as indicative of psychological conflicts, strongly criticized this expurgation, because it weakened their usefulness to both children and adults as ways of symbolically resolving issues. Fairy tales do teach children how to deal with difficult times. To quote Rebecca Walters (2017, p. 56) "Fairytales and folktales are part of the cultural conserve that can be used to address children's fears …. and give them some role training in an approach that honors
11600-499: The cycle moves ahead, height of all humans and animals decreases. The following table depicts the six aras of avasarpini – In Norse mythology , the jötnar (cognate with Old English : eotenas and English: ettin ) are often opposed to the gods. While often translated as "giants", most are described as being roughly human-sized. Some are portrayed as huge, such as some frost giants ( hrímþursar ), fire giants ( eldjötnar ), and mountain giants ( bergrisar ). The jötnar are
11745-540: The demarcation of the boundaries of the land, how the land is to be divided, holy cities for the Levites and "cities of refuge", the problem of pollution of the land by blood, and regulations for inheritance when a male heir is lacking. A large part of the theological theme in Numbers is the righteousness and holiness of God being met with human rebellion. The two censuses not only show the different response of two generations but rather that God had remained faithful despite
11890-655: The distinction is commonly made, even within the works of a single author: George MacDonald's Lilith and Phantastes are regarded as fantasies, while his " The Light Princess ", " The Golden Key ", and "The Wise Woman" are commonly called fairy tales. The most notable distinction is that fairytale fantasies, like other fantasies, make use of novelistic writing conventions of prose, characterization, or setting. Book of Numbers The Book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, Arithmoi , lit. ' numbers ' Biblical Hebrew : בְּמִדְבַּר , Bəmīḏbar , lit. ' In [the] desert ' ; Latin : Liber Numeri )
12035-408: The economy and concision of the tales. Originally, stories that would contemporarily be considered fairy tales were not marked out as a separate genre. The German term " Märchen " stems from the old German word " Mär ", which means news or tale. The word " Märchen " is the diminutive of the word " Mär ", therefore it means a "little story". Together with the common beginning " once upon
12180-478: The end of which the Israelites proceed to the desert of Paran on the border of Canaan . Twelve spies are sent out into Canaan and come back to report to Moses. Joshua and Caleb , two of the spies, report that the land is abundant and is "flowing with milk and honey", but the other spies say that it is inhabited by giants, and the Israelites refuse to enter the land. Yahweh decrees that the Israelites will be punished for their loss of faith by having to wander in
12325-433: The fairy tale Momotarō . Jack Zipes has spent many years working to make the older traditional stories accessible to modern readers and their children. Many fairy tales feature an absentee mother, as an example " Beauty and the Beast ", " The Little Mermaid ", " Little Red Riding Hood " and " Donkeyskin ", where the mother is deceased or absent and unable to help the heroines. Mothers are depicted as absent or wicked in
12470-403: The fairy tale is a distinct genre within the larger category of folktale, the definition that marks a work as a fairy tale is a source of considerable dispute. The term itself comes from the translation of Madame D'Aulnoy's Conte de fées , first used in her collection in 1697. Common parlance conflates fairy tales with beast fables and other folktales, and scholars differ on the degree to which
12615-453: The fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon , such stories may date back thousands of years, some to the Bronze Age . Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. The Jatakas are probably the oldest collection of such tales in literature, and
12760-655: The fairy tales served an important function: disguising the rebellious subtext of the stories and sliding them past the court censors. Critiques of court life (and even of the king) were embedded in extravagant tales and in dark, sharply dystopian ones. Not surprisingly, the tales by women often featured young (but clever) aristocratic girls whose lives were controlled by the arbitrary whims of fathers, kings, and elderly wicked fairies, as well as tales in which groups of wise fairies (i.e., intelligent, independent women) stepped in and put all to rights. The salon tales as they were originally written and published have been preserved in
12905-766: The first famous Western fairy tales are those of Aesop (6th century BC) in ancient Greece . Scholarship points out that Medieval literature contains early versions or predecessors of later known tales and motifs, such as the grateful dead , The Bird Lover or the quest for the lost wife. Recognizable folktales have also been reworked as the plot of folk literature and oral epics. Jack Zipes writes in When Dreams Came True , "There are fairy tale elements in Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales , Edmund Spenser 's The Faerie Queene , and in many of William Shakespeare plays." King Lear can be considered
13050-463: The fore: these chapters describe how Israel is to be organized around the Sanctuary, God's dwelling-place in their midst, under the charge of the Levites and priests, in preparation for the conquest of the land. The Israelites then set out to conquer the land, but almost immediately they refuse to enter it, and Yahweh condemns the whole generation who left Egypt to die in the wilderness. The message
13195-653: The forests"), Sanson (variation of the biblical Samson ), Errolan (based on the Frankish army general Roland who fell dead at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass ) or even Tartalo (a one-eyed giant akin to the Greek Cyclops Polyphemus ). In Bulgarian mythology, giants called ispolini inhabited the Earth before modern humans. They lived in the mountains, fed on raw meat and often fought against dragons . Ispolini were afraid of blackberries which posed
13340-503: The forms of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella . Although Straparola's, Basile's and Perrault's collections contain the oldest known forms of various fairy tales, on the stylistic evidence, all the writers rewrote the tales for literary effect. In the mid-17th century, a vogue for magical tales emerged among the intellectuals who frequented the salons of Paris. These salons were regular gatherings hosted by prominent aristocratic women, where women and men could gather together to discuss
13485-460: The genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales", including Tolkien's The Hobbit , George Orwell 's Animal Farm , and L. Frank Baum 's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . Indeed, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" includes discussions of world-building and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism. Although fantasy, particularly the subgenre of fairytale fantasy , draws heavily on fairy tale motifs,
13630-485: The genres are now regarded as distinct. The fairy tale, told orally, is a sub-class of the folktale . Many writers have written in the form of the fairy tale. These are the literary fairy tales, or Kunstmärchen . The oldest forms, from Panchatantra to the Pentamerone , show considerable reworking from the oral form. The Grimm brothers were among the first to try to preserve the features of oral tales. Yet
13775-497: The greater part of the rest are demonstrably more than a thousand years old. It is certain that much (perhaps one-fifth) of the popular literature of modern Europe is derived from those portions of this large bulk which came west with the Crusades through the medium of Arabs and Jews. Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among
13920-578: The hills of the Basque Country . Giants stand for the Basque people reluctant to convert to Christianity who decide to stick to the old lifestyle and customs in the forest. Sometimes they hold the secret of ancient techniques and wisdom unknown to the Christians, like in the legend of San Martin Txiki , while their most outstanding feature is their strength. It follows that in many legends all over
14065-641: The history of their development is necessarily obscure and blurred. Fairy tales appear, now and again, in written literature throughout literate cultures, as in The Golden Ass , which includes Cupid and Psyche ( Roman , 100–200 AD), or the Panchatantra ( India 3rd century BC), but it is unknown to what extent these reflect the actual folk tales even of their own time. The stylistic evidence indicates that these, and many later collections, reworked folk tales into literary forms. What they do show
14210-500: The idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." Albert Einstein once showed how important he believed fairy tales were for children's intelligence in
14355-412: The inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men." The Book of Enoch describes giants as the offspring of Watchers and women in 7:2. Hayk
14500-404: The issues of the day. In the 1630s, aristocratic women began to gather in their own living rooms, salons, to discuss the topics of their choice: arts and letters, politics, and social matters of immediate concern to the women of their class: marriage, love, financial and physical independence, and access to education. This was a time when women were barred from receiving a formal education. Some of
14645-617: The keeping of the Tabernacle. The Levites are ordered to surrender to the priests a part of the tithes taken to them. Miriam dies at Kadesh Barnea and the Israelites set out for Moab , on Canaan's eastern border. The Israelites blame Moses for the lack of water. Moses is ordered by God to speak to a rock but initially disobeys, and is punished by the announcement that he shall not enter Canaan. The king of Edom refuses permission to pass through his land and they go around it. Aaron dies on Mount Hor. The Israelites are bitten by fiery flying serpents for speaking against God and Moses. A brazen serpent
14790-521: The literary forms, there is no pure folktale, and each literary fairy tale draws on folk traditions, if only in parody. This makes it impossible to trace forms of transmission of a fairy tale. Oral story-tellers have been known to read literary fairy tales to increase their own stock of stories and treatments. The oral tradition of the fairy tale came long before the written page. Tales were told or enacted dramatically, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this,
14935-436: The march to the Promised Land . Various ordinances and laws are decreed. The Israelites set out from Sinai. The people murmur against God and are punished by fire; Moses complains of their stubbornness and God orders him to choose seventy elders to assist him in the government of the people. Miriam and Aaron insult Moses at Hazeroth, which angers God; Miriam is punished with leprosy and is shut out of camp for seven days, at
15080-458: The more general term folk tale that covered a wide variety of oral tales". Jack Zipes also attributes this shift to changing sociopolitical conditions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that led to the trivialization of these stories by the upper classes. Roots of the genre come from different oral stories passed down in European cultures. The genre was first marked out by writers of
15225-418: The more they intermarry with the local Moabites, and the more they participate in the local religion , worshipping a deity known as Baal-Peor. God sends a plague in retaliation, and Moses tells the judges to kill anyone participating in this practice. When one of Aaron's grandsons, Phinehas , finds out a Simeonite prince named Zimri has married a Midianite woman named Cozbi , he enters their tent and runs
15370-405: The most gifted women writers of the period came out of these early salons (such as Madeleine de Scudéry and Madame de Lafayette ), which encouraged women's independence and pushed against the gender barriers that defined their lives. The salonnières argued particularly for love and intellectual compatibility between the sexes, opposing the system of arranged marriages. Sometime in the middle of
15515-476: The most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales. Some folklorists prefer to use the German term Märchen or "wonder tale" to refer to the genre rather than fairy tale , a practice given weight by the definition of Thompson in his 1977 [1946] edition of The Folktale : "...a tale of some length involving
15660-500: The most popular contemporary versions of tales like " Rapunzel ", " Snow White ", " Cinderella " and " Hansel and Gretel ", however, some lesser known tales or variants such as those found in volumes edited by Angela Carter and Jane Yolen depict mothers in a more positive light. Carter's protagonist in The Bloody Chamber is an impoverished piano student married to a Marquis who was much older than herself to "banish
15805-419: The numbers", although the flaw in this suggestion "is that the mistake in zeroes would easily occur only where numbers were represented by figures rather than by words", and there is "little or no evidence that figures were used in the biblical texts during the biblical period." Based on the nature of the book and the many accounts of tax payment and records of animals and persons, it is most likely that Numbers
15950-561: The origin of most of various monsters in Norse mythology (e.g. the Fenrisulfr ) and in the eventual battle of Ragnarök , the giants will storm Asgard and fight the gods until the world is destroyed. Even so, the gods themselves were related to the jötnar by many marriages and descent; there are also jötnar such as Ægir who have good relationships with the gods and bear little difference in status to them. Odin , often regarded as
16095-464: The patriarchs, Abraham , Isaac and Jacob . The promise has three elements: posterity (i.e., descendants – Abraham is told that his descendants will be as innumerable as the stars), divine-human relationship (Israel is to be God's chosen people), and land (the land of Canaan, cursed by Noah immediately after the Deluge). The theme of the divine-human relationship is expressed, or managed, through
16240-399: The plains of Moab ), linked by two travel sections; an alternative is to see it as structured around the two generations of those condemned to die in the wilderness and the new generation who will enter Canaan, making a theological distinction between the disobedience of the first generation and the obedience of the second. Despite the strong chronological order and the clear distinction of
16385-480: The plausibility of a pre-exilic written tradition of the passage from Numbers 6 and Deuteronomy 7. Although this does not decisively prove that there was a canonical written tradition it does point to a possibility of such a tradition. David A. Clines, in his influential The Themes of the Pentateuch (1978), identified the overarching theme of the five books as the partial fulfilment of a promise made by God to
16530-422: The point of being monstrous, giants evoke terror and remind humans of their body's frailty and mortality. They are often portrayed as monsters and antagonists, but there are exceptions. Some giants intermingle with humans in a friendly way and can even be part of human families with their offspring being portrayed as regular humans where they are often referred to as half-giants . Folklorists and historians examine
16675-530: The presence of fairies and/or similarly mythical beings (e.g., elves , goblins , trolls , giants, huge monsters, or mermaids) should be taken as a differentiator. Vladimir Propp , in his Morphology of the Folktale , criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Nevertheless, to select works for his analysis, Propp used all Russian folktales classified as
16820-435: The presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales. Davidson and Chaudri identify "transformation" as the key feature of the genre. From a psychological point of view, Jean Chiriac argued for the necessity of the fantastic in these narratives. In terms of aesthetic values, Italo Calvino cited the fairy tale as a prime example of "quickness" in literature, because of
16965-476: The princess of Tololo Pampa. If a person manages to watch the giant while he works folklore says the person will be blessed with good luck for the rest of their life. In Greek mythology , the Gigantes (γίγαντες) were (according to the poet Hesiod ) the children of Uranus (Ουρανός) and Gaia (Γαία) (spirits of the sky and the earth) where some depictions had them with snake-like legs. They were involved in
17110-522: The process by which giants become human-size over time; and Saint Augustine mentions what is believed to have been the fossilized molar of an ancient Elephantidae in his City of God , in a passage reflecting on the nature and meaning of the Noahacian deluge. The academic consideration of giants continued through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and even the early modern period. Boccaccio devoted
17255-462: The quote "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairytales." The adaptation of fairy tales for children continues. Walt Disney 's influential Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was largely (although certainly not solely) intended for the children's market. The anime Magical Princess Minky Momo draws on
17400-462: The rebellion of the Israelites. The theme of the book should seem to be more centrally focused on the faithfulness and holiness of God as this is a common theme that runs through the whole of the Pentateuch, not just the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers records in some detail the population of the fighting men in Israel, providing a figure of approximately 600,000 soldiers. This would translate to
17545-406: The role giants are assigned in regional geomythologies . For example, Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have built the Giant's Causeway on the island of Ireland . Per a 1965 examination in an American studies journal, "It is generally admitted today that Paul Bunyan was a synthetic figure conceived by advertising men rather than the spontaneous product of the folk mind, yet he has been adopted by
17690-495: The same psychic fact, but a fact so complex and far-reaching and so difficult for us to realize in all its different aspects that hundreds of tales and thousands of repetitions with a musician's variation are needed until this unknown fact is delivered into consciousness; and even then the theme is not exhausted. This unknown fact is what Jung calls the Self, which is the psychic reality of the collective unconscious. [...] Every archetype
17835-419: The sea. In some stories the giants are black humanoids or black bulls. In southern Chile there are stories of giants said to belong to certain volcanoes such as Calbuco and Osorno . The mythical city of Tololo Pampa in northern Chile is said to be guarded by a giant known by various names including; Pata Larga , Gigante Minero and Minero Gigante . The giant enters to the mountains to obtain riches to
17980-445: The simpler riddle might argue greater antiquity. Folklorists of the "Finnish" (or historical-geographical) school attempted to place fairy tales to their origin, with inconclusive results. Sometimes influence, especially within a limited area and time, is clearer, as when considering the influence of Perrault's tales on those collected by the Brothers Grimm. Little Briar-Rose appears to stem from Perrault's The Sleeping Beauty , as
18125-431: The spectre of poverty". The story is a variant on Bluebeard , a tale about a wealthy man who murders numerous young women. Carter's protagonist, who is unnamed, describes her mother as "eagle-featured" and "indomitable". Her mother is depicted as a woman who is prepared for violence, instead of hiding from it or sacrificing herself to it. The protagonist recalls how her mother kept an "antique service revolver" and once "shot
18270-723: The spread of such tales, as people repeat tales they have heard in foreign lands, although the oral nature makes it impossible to trace the route except by inference. Folklorists have attempted to determine the origin by internal evidence, which can not always be clear; Joseph Jacobs , comparing the Scottish tale The Ridere of Riddles with the version collected by the Brothers Grimm, The Riddle , noted that in The Ridere of Riddles one hero ends up polygamously married, which might point to an ancient custom, but in The Riddle ,
18415-516: The stories printed under the Grimm name have been considerably reworked to fit the written form. Literary fairy tales and oral fairy tales freely exchanged plots, motifs, and elements with one another and with the tales of foreign lands. The literary fairy tale came into fashion during the 17th century, developed by aristocratic women as a parlour game. This, in turn, helped to maintain the oral tradition. According to Jack Zipes , "The subject matter of
18560-456: The story, as when Robin McKinley retold Donkeyskin as the novel Deerskin , with emphasis on the abusive treatment the father of the tale dealt to his daughter. Sometimes, especially in children's literature, fairy tales are retold with a twist simply for comic effect, such as The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and The ASBO Fairy Tales by Chris Pilbeam. A common comic motif is
18705-443: The tale through use of the erotic, explicit sexuality, dark and/or comic themes, female empowerment, fetish and BDSM , multicultural, and heterosexual characters. Cleis Press has released several fairy tale-themed erotic anthologies, including Fairy Tale Lust , Lustfully Ever After , and A Princess Bound . It may be hard to lay down the rule between fairy tales and fantasies that use fairy tale motifs, or even whole plots, but
18850-469: The tales in later editions to make them more acceptable, which ensured their sales and the later popularity of their work. Such literary forms did not merely draw from the folktale, but also influenced folktales in turn. The Brothers Grimm rejected several tales for their collection, though told orally to them by Germans, because the tales derived from Perrault, and they concluded they were thereby French and not German tales; an oral version of " Bluebeard "
18995-403: The tales that servants, or other women of lower class, would tell to children. Indeed, a novel of that time, depicting a countess's suitor offering to tell such a tale, has the countess exclaim that she loves fairy tales as if she were still a child. Among the late précieuses , Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont redacted a version of Beauty and the Beast for children, and it is her tale that
19140-569: The term "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale ; it is used especially to describe any story that not only not true, but also could not possibly be true. Legends are perceived as real within their culture; fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics , fairy tales usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and to actual places, people, and events; they take place " once upon
19285-494: The three geographic locations, the key theme of censuses among the Israelites and the parallels between the old and new generation seem to be a better fit for this book if seen as a theological account rather than a purely historical one. God orders Moses , in the wilderness of Sinai , to number those able to bear arms—of all the men twenty years and older and to appoint princes over each tribe. A total of 603,550 Israelites are found to be fit for military service. The tribe of Levi
19430-530: The tradition of literary fairy tales. Andersen's work sometimes drew on old folktales, but more often deployed fairytale motifs and plots in new tales. MacDonald incorporated fairytale motifs both in new literary fairy tales, such as The Light Princess , and in works of the genre that would become fantasy, as in The Princess and the Goblin or Lilith . Two theories of origins have attempted to explain
19575-591: The traditional protector of southwestern Iceland – appears as a supporter on the coat of arms of Iceland . According to Northern Paiute oral history, the Si-Te-Cah or Sai'i are a legendary tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants, the remains of which were allegedly found in 1911 by guano miners in Nevada's Lovelock Cave . Furthermore, the Paiute creation story tells of "beautiful giants" who once lived between
19720-531: The veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables . Prevalent elements include dragons , dwarfs , elves , fairies , giants , gnomes , goblins , griffins , merfolk , monsters , monarchy , pixies , talking animals , trolls , unicorns , witches , wizards , magic , and enchantments . In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy-tale ending" (a happy ending ) or "fairy-tale romance ". Colloquially,
19865-468: The veracity of the figures quoted, but defended the inerrancy of the text by invoking the miraculous "interference of God". According to Timothy R. Ashley's analysis: "No one system answers all the questions or solves all the problems. [...] In short, we lack the materials in the text to solve this problem. When all is said and done, one must admit that the answer is elusive. Perhaps it is best to take these numbers as R.K. Harrison has done — as based on
20010-403: The wilderness for 40 years. God orders Moses to make plates to cover the altar. The children of Israel murmur against Moses and Aaron on account of the destruction of Korah 's men and are stricken with the plague, with 14,700 perishing. Aaron and his family are declared by God to be responsible for any iniquity committed in connection with the sanctuary. The Levites are again appointed to help in
20155-417: The witch deduce that she was pregnant, but in subsequent editions carelessly revealed that it was easier to pull up the prince than the witch. On the other hand, in many respects, violence—particularly when punishing villains—was increased. Other, later, revisions cut out violence; J. R. R. Tolkien noted that The Juniper Tree often had its cannibalistic stew cut out in
20300-693: The works of schools of writers rather than individuals: the Yahwist and the Elohist (frequently treated as a single source), the Priestly source , and the Deuteronomist . There is an ongoing dispute over the origins of the non-Priestly source(s), but it is generally agreed that the Priestly source is post-exilic. Below is an outline of the hypothesis: However, the Ketef Hinnom scrolls do point to
20445-605: The world, finding similar tales in Africa, the Americas, and Australia; Andrew Lang was able to draw on not only the written tales of Europe and Asia, but those collected by ethnographers, to fill his "coloured" fairy books series . They also encouraged other collectors of fairy tales, as when Yei Theodora Ozaki created a collection, Japanese Fairy Tales (1908), after encouragement from Lang. Simultaneously, writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and George MacDonald continued
20590-585: Was about 12 cm (4.7 in) in diameter, while a normal adult patella is around 5 cm (2.0 in), suggesting Ajax may have been nearly 14 feet (over 4 m) tall. The Cyclopes are also compared to giants due to their huge size (e.g. Polyphemus , son of Poseidon and Thoosa and nemesis of Odysseus in Homer 's The Odyssey ). The Elder Cyclopes were the children of Gaia and Uranus, and later made Zeus ' "master thunderbolt", Poseidon's trident, and Hades ' "helm of darkness", during
20735-444: Was affirming that the Israelite people were his and would bear his identity. The theme of descendants marks the first event in Numbers, the census of Israel's fighting men: the huge number which results (over 600,000) demonstrates the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham of innumerable descendants, as well as serving as God's guarantee of victory in Canaan. As chapters 1–10 progress, the theme of God's presence with Israel comes to
20880-521: Was known as the founder of the Armenian state. Hayk was part of a race of giants who helped construct the Tower of Babel . Ancient historian Movses Khorenatsi wrote, "Hayk was handsome and personable, with curly hair, sparkling eyes and strong arms. Among the giants he was the bravest and most famous, opponent of all who raised their hand to become absolute ruler over the giants and heroes." Mount Nemrut
21025-414: Was thus rejected, and the tale of Little Briar Rose , clearly related to Perrault's " Sleeping Beauty ", was included only because Jacob Grimm convinced his brother that the figure of Brynhildr , from much earlier Norse mythology , proved that the sleeping princess was authentically Germanic folklore. This consideration of whether to keep Sleeping Beauty reflected a belief common among folklorists of
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