Chapter LXI: The Blinded Giant

_Source._--Henderson's _Folk-Lore of Northern Counties_. See also _Folk-Lore_.

_Parallels._--Polyphemus in the Odyssey and the Celtic parallels in _Celtic Fairy Tales_, No. v., "Conall Yellowclaw." The same incident occurs in one of Sindbad's voyages.

_Remarks._--Here we have another instance of the localisation of a well-known myth. There can be little doubt that the version is ultimately to be traced back to the Odyssey. The one-eyed giant, the barred door, the escape through the blinded giant's legs in the skin of a slaughtered animal, are a series of incidents that could not have arisen independently and casually. Yet till lately the mill stood to prove if the narrator lied, and every circumstance of local particularity seemed to vouch for the autochthonous character of the myth. The incident is an instructive one, and I have therefore included it in this volume, though it is little more than an anecdote in its present shape.