In many of the stories, as well as in toponymics (the study of proper geographic names) based on descriptions from the past, we find references to giants.
As far back as the Homeric, epics we read about the Cyclops, the one-eyed man-eating giant that Odysseus and his crew had to blind before they could escape his cave.
Ancient civilizations did believe in the existence of giants, and these beliefs were deeply woven into their mythologies and cultural narratives. On the island of Malta, there’s a prehistoric site, perhaps a temple, called Ġgantija, meaning “the place of the giants.”
The Greeks believed that the megalithic walls of Mycenae and the Lion’s gate (pictured at top) were built by giants. Even in the Bible, we have the Nephilim, a race imagined as being of great size.
There’s the tradition that the “sons of God” who were “spirit beings” mated with human women, “daughters of men,” and produced the immortal Nephilim. The words “sons of God” in the Old Testament refer to angels.
The Giant’s Tomb found on the island of Sardinia is an ancient stone structure dating back to the Nuraghi period. There are many oversized megalithic structures there that could have been either fortifications of some sort for a small village or perhaps residences for extended families. We still don’t know for sure.
Many cultures have references in their writings to giants. All the Abrahamic religions, as well as religions of the ancient Near East, have such tales. Even in more recent times, we have tales about oversized djin in what is now the Arab world. Think of the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights.”
The Daidarabotchi were giants of Japanese mythology. The Daityas came from Hindu mythology. The Jotun came from Norse mythology, and the Gigantes came from Greece.
In Chinese culture, we have the story of the god, Fangfeng, who was most prominent in the Six Dynasties regions of Wu and Yue (modern day Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai). A common depiction of Fangfeng was of a giant with the head of a dragon and the ears of an ox.
In English fairytales, we have Jack and the Beanstalk and the giant at the top of the beanstalk after Jack traded the family cow for magic beans and planted them.
Der Ring des Nibelungen is an adulation of Germanic/Scandinavian mythology loosely based on characters from Norse sagas. Richard Wagner tells the story of the Germanic gods that await completion of their palace, Valhalla, which is being built by the giants Fafner and Fasolt, his brother.
As payment, Wotan promised to hand Freia, goddess of youth and beauty, to the giants. However, his wife, Fricka, and the other gods persuade Wotan to offer a different payment instead to the giants – a magic ring of power that has been fashioned from the Rhinemaidens’ gold. The ring grants the wearer the power to rule the world. Delving into any region’s mythology, you can find stories about giants! So were they ever real, or were all of them just figments of a storyteller’s imagination?
Manos Angelakis was one of the founders, the former Managing Editor for 25 years, the former Managing Editor Emeritus, and former Senior Food & Wine Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. He passed away in 2025 as an accomplished travel writer, photographer, and food and wine critic based in Hackensack, New Jersey. As a travel writer, he wrote extensively about numerous cities and countries. Manos was also certified as a Tuscan Wine Master and traveled to wine-producing areas in order to evaluate firsthand the product of top-rated vineyards. His articles in other publications include Vision Times and Epoch Times.
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