Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. Words in italics in the original are surrounded with _underscores_. Ellipses match the original. A row of asterisks represents a thought break.

_THE LIBRARY OF ROMANCE_

A BOOK OF GIANTS

_THE LIBRARY OF ROMANCE_

A BOOK OF GIANTS

TALES OF VERY TALL MEN OF MYTH,
LEGEND, HISTORY, AND SCIENCE

BY

HENRY WYSHAM LANIER
AUTHOR OF "A BOOK OF BRAVERY," "THE ROMANCE OF PISCATOR," ETC.

"_And there we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the
giants: and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we
were in their sight._"--NUMBERS: xiii, 33.

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE

Copyright, 1922
By E. P. Dutton & Company

_All Rights Reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Thanks are due to the Frederick A. Stokes Company for permission to use, in Part III, three tales from volumes published by them: Chapter XX, The Biter Bit, from "Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians," by Vojislav M. Petrovic; Chapter XXI, The Peach's Son, from "Myths and Legends of Japan," by F. Hadland Davis; and Chapter XXIII, The Stone Giantess, from "The Myths of the North American Indians," by Lewis Spence.

In a number of cases the text of the original romance or "history" has been followed as closely as possible, to retain the flavor of the old tales.

CONTENTS

PART I. GIANTS OF THE MORNING OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER PAGE
I. HOW ZEUS FOUGHT WITH TITANS AND GIANTS 3

II. THE GIANT WHO SHINES IN THE SKY 18

III. THE OUTWITTING OF POLYPHEMUS 46

IV. WHEN THOR WENT TO JOTUNHEIM 68

V. THE GIANT PYRAMID-BUILDER 90

VI. THE FATAL PRIDE OF VUKUB 95

VII. OG, KING OF BASHAN 102

VIII. A SON OF ANAK 108

PART II. IN THE DAYS OF ROMANCE

IX. FERRAGUS, WHO OWNED THE BRAZEN HEAD 119

X. THE GIANT OF ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT 128

XI. SIR LAUNCELOT AND TARQUIN 146

XII. THE ADVENTURES OF YVAIN 161

XIII. THE TURKE AND GAWAIN 191

XIV. AMADIS AMONG THE GIANTS 202

XV. GOGMAGOG 216

XVI. THE GIANT BEHIND THE WATERFALL 235

XVII. THE ONE GOOD GIANT: ST. CHRISTOPHER 244

PART III. NURSERY TALES OF MANY LANDS

XVIII. THE GIANT HAND (IRISH) 255

XIX. THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART IN HIS BODY (NORSE) 265

XX. THE BITER BIT (SERBIAN) 275

XXI. THE PEACH'S SON (JAPANESE) 290

XXII. THE MAN WHO LOST HIS LEGS (KOREAN) 295

XXIII. THE STONE GIANTESS (NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN) 299

PART IV. SOME REAL GIANTS

XXIV. SOME REAL GIANTS 305

XXV. WHAT SCIENCE HAS LEARNED ABOUT GIANTS 315