Giants Everywhere…

County Down, Friday, 17th June, 2022…

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There are sections of the texts which we have been considering

that relate stories which are incredibly ancient.

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These ancient tracts make no bones

whatsoever about there being giants everywhere,

and they are not just present in the ranks of the Fomorians.

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The Dagda and the Morrigan

are a giant and giantess.

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The Morrigan sits astride a river

with one foot on either bank,

while the Dagda makes huge trenches

in the earth with his exposed member.

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‘Giant’s Organ’

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Are they regarded as a god and goddess

merely because of their size

or do they possess other god-like attributes?

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The Morrigan appears to possess potent destructive magical abilities…

and the Dagda is put to work constructing monuments,

which, hopefully, as you can now appreciate, involves much more

than lugging large lumps of stone to and fro…

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Balor, the Fomorian, is a large giant.

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When he falls he takes out twenty-seven

of his own men, presumably crushed to death beneath him.

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Clearly, then, he is a giant

of quite some considerable size.

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Or, alternatively, it takes the same number of men

to lift the lid of his baleful eye,

which, possibly, makes him even bigger.

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The malefic gaze of this evil eye

acts like some sort of spell, or hex,

and is ultimately reflected back onto Balor’s own folk.

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In one version of the tale,

the evil of the gaze consists

in burning to ash

everything it touches.

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Indech, another Fomorian, is also, quite clearly, a giant.

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When Balor collapses into his chest he is

able to withstand the blow,

and immediately calls for his poet…

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There are hints in the text at this point

that in an earlier version of the story

Balor and Indech are the names

of one and the same character.

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Even the statue of Nuadu, king of the Crafty Folk,

once so proudly displayed in Armagh Cathedral,

but now holding pride of place in the Navan visitor centre,

for all to see, and ponder, is decidedly giant-like!

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It is not just that the terms ‘men’ and ‘giants’

appear to be interchangeable, or confused,

but distinguishing between the Fomorians

and the Crafty Folk too seems,

at best, problematic, at worst, impossible.

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Given that all the leaders of their respective tribes

appear to be described as giants

could the champions of these folk be anything less?

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Which makes both Ogma

and Sreng giants too!

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But don’t take my word for it,

nor anyone else’s for that matter.

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‘Giants Graveyard?’

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Get over there

and check it out for yourself…

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Enjoy!

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Texts: Cath Maige Tuired – E. A. Gray.  Irish Texts Society

Lebor Gabala Erenn – R.A.S Macalister, D.P. Curtin. Dalcassian Publishing

Tour: Neil Mcdonald’s Megalithic Tours.