THE OGRE AND OTHER GIANTS AUTHORITY

I know I promised to do an Ogre Authority, but I decided to also include other types of giants. As you almost certainly know, a giant is a really big monstrous humanoid.

 

OGRES

Ogres are mythical creatures commonly featured as cannibals and human baby eaters. They appear in many Fairy Tales such as Puss in Boots, Pinocchio, and Sleeping Beauty.

Two similar creatures are Orcneas and Oni. Orcneas are one of the three races descended from Cain, alongside elves and ettins. Oni are big red Japanese demons.

 

 

 

 

 

Orcnea

Oni

In some old stories Ogres lived in England before humans, but were killed out by heroes like Beowulf.

 

ENTS AND ETTINS

The Anglo-Saxon (old English) word for giant is Ent. J.R.R. Tolkien used that for his Tree Giants. Ettin is a variant of that word combined with Jotun (jotun, eoten, ettin, you can see the connection) usually associated with two-headed four-armed giants. The smaller ones are Boggles.

 

 

 

 

 

They are used in many popular fantasy settings such as DnD and Narnia. Not to get too swept up in etymology, but ettin is an anglicized version of…

JOTUN

which is the Norse Mythology version of giant. However, they are not the typical legendary giant, because they include not just giant versions of humans, but giant wolves, vultures, and wargneas.

 

 

 

 

 

They were the first race created, living during the Chaos period. When Addnumbla the cow licks Bor into existence, the giant Ymir and his sons kill him. Bor’s son Beor and his brothers launch all-out-war on the giants. Beor’s son is Odin, who marries Frigga and that’s where the gods come from.

From then on the Jotuns live in Jotunheim, waging cold war on the gods, until Loki leads them into battle on Ragnarok.

Loki was one of the Jotuns. He is always tricking people and being annoying, until he goes a little too far by killing Baldor.

Fenrir is a giant wolf, Loki’s son, who at Ragnarok eats the Sun and Moon (The word Jotun means “devourer,” which probably has to do with this legend).

 

There are a few types of Jotuns specifically mentioned. There are Clay Giants, Sons of Muspl (fire giants), mountain giants, sea giants, frost giants, trolls, and wind giants. Also there are a few that seem to be half giant half animal, such as wolf-headed and vulture-headed. Trolls, Iron Witches, and wolf mosters live in the Iron Wood.

 

TITANS AND THEIR BROS

The Greeks and Romans had a few types of primordial giants. They were the brothers of the gods, but when the gods rebelled against Chronos (Father Time), the giants and titans sided with Chronos. Not to mention freaks like Typhon, who had dragons for hands and was half tornado. That war was the Tytanomachy.

Typhon

Atlas the titan

a giant

The cyclopes, who were one eyed giants, helped the gods during the war against the titans, so they got rewarded. Some live in the north, some work for Vulcan, and some live out in the sea on islands and eat sailors.

GIANTS IN FANTASY

So, with all this folklore it is pretty obvious that modern fantasy books would taken them up. Even in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books the giants exist, seeming to come from the northern mountains. This suggests that they were bred by Morgoth, as is told in his earlier pre-canonical stories. The good giants, the Ents, were created by Eru Illuvitar.

In the Narnia books, giants exist alongside Ettins, Ogres, Boggles, and Orcneas as servants of the White Witch. In Dungeons and Dragons, giants are basically the same, and species related to giants are cyclopes, ettins, ogres, trolls, fomorians, voadkyn, golems, and verbeegs.

 

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this article! If you did, then subscribe, like, comment, and all that. If you did not enjoy the article then, well, anyway that wouldn’t ever happen.

Bye folks!