The History of Giants
Giants are recorded in ancient cultures across our world today. In our stories of mythology, they have been recorded and alluded to over and over again. Despite their recurrence in mythology worldwide, we still view giants as fictitious. However, if we look at different mythologies from around the world, could it be possible that a history of giants exists?
Could giants be real?
Many of us first learn about the history of giants on earth as children. In the bible, the story of David and Goliath presents our first encounter with these humanoids. You might be surprised to learn that these large humans are found in many different cultures around the world.
They’re rarely are helpful to humans and are usually the antagonist force (probably because of their sheer height and strength). If we look at the mythology from different cultures, a more detailed view of giants begins to emerge.
Are giants humanoids?
In Indian mythology, called the Vedas, giants are mentioned as early humans. They’re almost presented as the ancestors of modern humans.
In the Vedas, time is measured in epochs called Yugas, which each Yuga lasting several thousand years. Giants were said to live during the golden age or Satya Yuga. In Satya Yuga humans are 32 feet tall which is about 9.7m tall. This matches the height of a giant that we would expect today.
As time goes on however, humans decreased in size. By the epoch of Dwapara Yuga (3,100 BCE) humans were said to stand between 8 feet - 6 feet tall. For comparison, Goliath is said to have been between 7 feet and 11 feet tall. Goliath belonged to the Philistines which historians know lived from the 12th century BC. This lines up pretty perfectly when it comes to mythology and archaeology so according to the Vedas, Goliath and the race of giants is highly plausible.
If giants did live mostly in these very ancient times, that would make sense as to why we don’t have any skeletons of them today. Ancient evidence especially in Canaan is especially scant which makes it hard for archaeologists to paint a comprehensive picture of the past.
If the Vedas are correct, then does that mean all humans were giants? Well, not quite.
The History of Giants in the Bible
Let’s wind back even before David and Goliath to the time of Noah and the flood. It’s at this time that God was said to have wiped out all the “Nephilim” on Earth with the flood. Here we have another clue about who these humanoids are.
The Nephilim are said to be “large and strong” and in old Jewish texts are likened to “fallen angels.” They’re described as being men of the old times, or the times that preceded the flood, which also aligns with the Vedic sources.
“The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.”
Archaeologically speaking, the evidence we have for the flood is scant but it is emerging more and more. Plato mentions the flood and Atlantis, dating the destruction to the time of the Younger Dryas around 9,600BC. Recently, evidence for the flood was found in a crater in the Atlantic Ocean formed by a comet at the time of the Younger Dryas. According to Graham Hancock, this was the catalyst for a worldwide flood that sent ancient tribes and communities into a world of darkness.
The Sumerian History of Giants
There are many similarities between the Sumerian texts and the bible. In fact many scholars say that the Sumerian texts are the predecessor to the bible because so many of the stories mirror each other.
In Sumerian texts, the Anunnaki while commonly being associated with gods or angels, are also said to have been giants. This is very interesting because there is a race of giants mentioned in the bible called the Anakites from which Goliath descends.
The texts state that the Anunnaki descend from An, the god of the sky. A flood is sent upon the earth to destroy these descendants or to force them from the earth and into the caverns underneath. When you compare this story to the biblical view of the Nephilim or 'fallen angels, to the Anunnaki who descended from the sky, then there is far more contextual information to make sense of the myth. In both cases, giants descended from the gods and chose to live on earth.
The Types of Giants
In many traditions, giants are portrayed as being malevolent towards humans. In fairytales, it’s the giant that tries to eat Jack when he climbs up the bean stalk to grind his bones for bread. In native American folk tradition, giants similarly were always trying to catch a human for dinner.
In some cultures, giants are actually portrayed as benevolent beings. In the Vedas, they’re called Daityas. Daityas are seen as one level below the status of an angel and were created to assist humans. The Daityas descend from the Diti or the earth goddess.
There are often two types of Daityas described; one class who are wiser and wanting to become devas, while the other class get caught up in the cravings of the ego and wreak havoc on the surrounding tribes.
These two different types of giants gives us a much better view of them. Rather than always menacing with humans, giants act differently depending on whether they are aiming to be released from reincarnation, or are consumed by the ego. So in many ways they are the same as humans. Some are kind and some are not, it depends on how caught up in the ego we are.
In the Ramayana, the giant Ravana is the antagonist of the story, while his brother Kumbhakarna is said to have been calm and well natured. Like in the Bible and the Sumerian texts, the Daityas perished in the deluge, leaving only a few devas to carry on assisting humans.
The Basque History of Giants
In the Basque culture, giants mirror the Indian view of the benevolent helpers of humanity.
In Basque mythology, giants called Jentilak coming from the word gentile or someone who is not Jewish. This is taken by historians to mean that the idea of the Jentilak came from a time before Christianity had spread to the west.
The Jentilak were said to have been 12 feet tall and helped the early Basque humans build their megalithic monuments. If this is the case, it would explain how our ancestors were able to build monuments with such precision. They were said to be so huge that they could stand in the ocean and throw rocks from the coast to the top of the mountains. Centuries later, the Basque people created a sport around this called pilota.
In the Basque texts, the Jentilak lived peacefully alongside the Basque people. They were described as being hairy, which is a very different description than we get in the eastern texts.
How did they help humans besides monument building? Well, they were said to have also taught our ancestors how to farm wheat, how to saw wood to create shelter, and how to smelt metals and create alloys. Essentially, without giants, the Basque people couldn't evolve from their primitive state. The giants refused to live in the valleys with the humans, preferring to live in the mountains.
In Basque mythology, the end of the Jentilak race aligns with the stories of the deluge and of Atlantis. It’s said that one day, the Jentilak said they had to leave because of a bright star in the sky. Could this star have been the comet that was hurdling towards Earth?
They left the world by going into a dolmen, a stone structure that forms the shape of a little house built by the Jentilak. Dolmens were said to be portals, perhaps to different dimensions, or perhaps a portal to the innards of the earth. There is also a divine connection here since Dolmens were also revered for being able to connect to the gods.
Is it really so fantastical to think that giants were once apart of our history? There are so many sub-species of humanoids in our past, surely giants are just another branch of our lineage.
If giant Mammoths were the ancestors of Elephants, and megafauna once roamed the earth, surely its not too out-there to have a giant human species in our past.
