They are one of the more mysterious races of Middle-earth. It’s possible that even within
Middle-earth, they were merely the stuff of myth. Yet, while they are mentioned little in
the works Tolkien published, we find they once played a much larger role in his vision for Arda
Today, on Nerd of the Rings, we cover the Giants of Middle-earth.
Like dwarves and trolls, and many other mythological creatures, we find Giants within the
pages of Middle-earth’s history. However, unlike others, the existence of giants is up for debate,
as they are only briefly mentioned and often come in earlier drafts of Tolkien’s writings.
The most concrete instance of giants appearing comes in the pages of The Hobbit, where we
find Bilbo and the Dwarves attempting to cross the Misty Mountains after departing Rivendell.
There they were sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and he lay beneath a blanket and
shook from head to toe. When he peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the
valley the stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game,
and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among
the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang. Then came a wind and a rain,
and the wind whipped the rain and the hail about in every direction, so that an overhanging rock
was no protection at all. Soon they were getting drenched and their ponies were standing with their
heads down and their tails between their legs, and some of them were whinnying with
fright. They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.
As we know, The Hobbit is quite different in tone to Tolkien’s other works. It is far
more a whimsical children's tale than what some might see as the more serious later
works. This has lead many to believe that the Stone Giants of this story are simply
a figment of Bilbo’s imagination as he experiences something far more terrible than
his hobbit mind could comprehend. Immediately before the description of the Stone-giants,
we find the storm itself being described through Bilbo’s eyes…
All was well, until one day they met a thunderstorm—more than a thunderstorm,
a thunder-battle. You know how terrific a really big thunderstorm can be down in the land and in a
river-valley; especially at times when two great thunderstorms meet and clash. More terrible still
are thunder and lightning in the mountains at night, when storms come up from East and
West and make war. The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes
split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled
with overwhelming noise and sudden light. Bilbo had never seen or imagined anything of the kind.
Some believe that Bilbo, unable to grasp what he was seeing, and in his fright,
imagined or embellished the existence of Stone-giants. It would certainly not be the
first time Bilbo would be known to embellish his story, after all. Yet, when the company
later comes to Beorn’s house, Gandalf speaks to Beorn of what transpired in the mountains:
Gandalf does not appear to be saying this metaphorically or mockingly, but as if Beorn would
have a complete understanding of the creatures he is talking about. Gandalf is described as being
“far from happy about the giants himself”. And it is said that Beorn’s ancestors lived in the
mountains before the giants came - these are creatures that Beorn would certainly know of.
Now, we have obviously been referring thus far to Stone-Giants specifically, as they
are called. While the Hobbit films depicted these as Giants made of stone themselves,
there’s no indication this is what Tolkien meant by the term, but rather more likely is
they were simply giants who threw stones - this action giving them their name.
Outside of these moments in The Hobbit, we find that giants were certainly talked about
in various places of Middle-earth - even if only in legend. During the Riddles in
the Dark between Gollum and Bilbo, we are told during one riddle Bilbo attempts to
recall all the names of all the giants and ogres he had ever heard about in tales. But
it is not only the stories of Gandalf and Shire hobbits that feature giants.
We find a specific example that actually comes in The Lord of the Rings, among the
mannish realm of Gondor. In this instance, the pre-Numenorean people living in Gondor
had a legend to explain some unique geography of their land. Their legend tells that giants
once lived in the lands north of the Bay of Belfalas and that they created
the White Mountains themselves in order to keep men out of their lands. In this effort,
a giant named Tarlang tripped, breaking his neck. And rather than dispose of his body,
the giants left him where he fell, and thus Tarlang became part of the land.
His neck - or rather the break in it - becomes Tarlang’s Neck,
his head is called Dol Tarlang - translated as Tarlang’s Head, and the two stones he
was carrying become Cûl Bîn and Cûl Veleg - translated as ‘little load’ and ‘big load’,
respectively. While this can quite easily be written off as a tall tale of the pre-Numenorean
men, it is interesting to note that Minas Tirith itself is described as “so strong and old that it
seemed to have been not builded but carven by giants out of the bones of the earth.”
Again, this is simply a grand description of the city to convey the wondrous Guarded
City of Minas Tirith. Yet, I think it is notable that this description is given to
the greatest city of Gondor - where the original inhabitants had such a great tale as Tarlang.
Diving deeper into things like The Book of Lost Tales, The History of Middle-earth,
and The History of The Hobbit, we find that Giants were meant to be one of the races
serving Morgoth (here called Melko). He even gives us two variations of giants - Ulbandi or
‘wood-giants’ and Taulir or ‘mountainous-giants’. He even at one point provided two named giant
characters - Nan and Gilim. Both are mentioned in the Lay of Leithian, where Luthien invokes their
names to cast a spell to escape her captivity by her father. She names the longest things
in Middle-earth in order to grow out her hair, using it as rope for her escape…
Thus Luthien uses this woven rope to escape,
making her way to aid her beloved Beren after invoking among others - the names of two giants.
But what were the giants of Middle-earth? Some fans and scholars believe they were simply a
variation of troll - Douglas Anderson puts forth this theory in The Annotated Hobbit. With this
comes the common perception that such beings were lumbering and stupid beasts. However, we
find in The Return of Shadow that, while writing the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien envisioned giants
possibly being a race of overly large men far more clever and powerful than one might assume…
giants were spoken of, a Big Folk only far bigger and stronger than Men the [?ordinary] Big Folk,
and no stupider, indeed often full of cunning and wizardry.
However, in yet another surprising quote,
we find that Gandalf, when speaking of the Front Porch into Goblin-town:
“I must see if I can’t find a more or less decent giant to block it up again,
or soon there will be no getting over the mountains at all.”
In the end, we can’t be wholly certain what giants were or if they existed. Gandalf’s comments about
the Front Porch and to Beorn certainly seem as if they do. As always, it’s fascinating to see the
various versions of his tales Tolkien went through - be they troll or giant men, or good or evil,
or as Robert Foster says in his Complete Guide to Middle-earth, a joking reference,
giants make for another great topic to ponder and speculate over in the wide world of Middle-earth.
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