Some proto, obscure, but advanced civilisation probably. Somehow. Every culture seems to consider them ancient and holds them in high regard. Couldn't all be a fantasy, right?
I wonder if the tales of "Giants turning to stone" was a story meant to explain and describe Early Humans discovering Fossils of Larger creatures, like Dinosaurs and Titanboa. Even just considering how Sedimentary Rock like Limestone is made from bones teeth and shells
I can't help but wonder if giants, goblins, trolls, etc are garbled memories of when we lived with other hominids. Neanderthals, Heidelbergensis, etc. Tales passed down through eons until their original subjects are barely recognizable.
Jesus."as it was in the days of noah. So shall it be at the coming of the son of man." A few beleivers have done research into multiple mythologies from christian perspective. Words and meanings. Names. Nephalim (nef ah leem) "the falen ones" naphal means "to fall". Their children... the Gohbirim (go beer eem) the mighty ones. Were not called Giants untill much later. A greek word Gigantis (gee gan tiss) means "earth born" if nephalim are from beyond the veil. Their sons were born here on the earth. Even the navajo indians have dance ceremony about evil giants from the sky that took their women and devoured the people and men.
I wonder at thus too. I also wonder elves and dwarves are memories of encounter with surviving hunter gather groups that passed on to myth and legend as people living in the deep forest who retain ancient knowledge of the land and then became magical as legends grew. Definitely there always seems to be "the others" in all prehistory stories. I cant help but believe these were at least influenced by older stories now lost that recorded actual events if eskewed by time and legend. The oldest myth of dwarves from Scandinavia is basically about this strange people who lived in the mountains came down for trade and help with crops.
Thats exactly what it is. We know that early modern humans lived with Neanderthals, Denisovians, Homosassa Gigantus, and a few others. Each of these translated into various mythical beings that we know of today.
I came here to say this cuz it's something I've long thought about. think about modern sapiens coming up to Europe from a completely different climate, how the neanderthal essentially took them in and taught them how to survive in a vastly different land. how those neanderthals would've been revered as wise or knowledgeable, but also looked upon with a degree of contempt or even horror at their perceived archaic practices by the more "advanced" sapiens.
As a norseman, it makes me so happy that someone actually understands what the Jotnar were, cuz it saddens me that people continues to misrepresent them. The word "Giant" is a mistranslation. They were basically gods, like the Aesir and Vanir, but represented chaos forces where the Aesir and Vanir represented order. I really wish people would stop using the word "giant" when talking about them, and just use Jotunn/Jotnar instead.
Thick bois? :) I do understand your frustration, but common fantasy tropes work easy in many D&D-esqe stories :/ Misunderstood concept, but there you go.
Yeah it always kinda irks me when people call them “the Norse giants” as a blanket term, but it’s probably too far into the pop culture of humanity to change any time soon
@@kendallchaos Sadly, that might be true, but one can still hope. It would be nice if big influencers, like game studios, movie companies, etc, would at least get it right that way more people might become aware of it.
Not that the show was fantastic, it was fun, but Ragnarok on Netflix, shows the Jotun in these way, advanced by primal legacy giants in the sense that they tower over others, seeing it visually put out i was able to flesh out that irking suspicion
One of the most striking accounts of giants can be found in the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal biblical text which describes them as skilled with crafting weapons of war and introducing humans to cosmetics. It even describes their height which was immense. There is one quote that describes them as “mighty men of old and great renown” or something along those lines. Very cool stuff.
Aren't they the offspring of fallen angels that bred with humans? And this is basically what led to Yahweh destroying the earth with the flood? Because he was disgusted by them or something?
@@frauleinhohenzollern yes correct. Apparently the fallen angels also had an obsession with human women’s long flowing hair which is the rumor as to why many of the early major religions required women to wear headdress to hide their locks.
@@frauleinhohenzollern yes they are, and they're descendants still run this "show". Their time is short and they know it. Hence all the nonsense and evil being pushed like a broken fire hydrant these days.
@@tylerbrooks2492 And they are going to degenerate western culture and lands as much as they can, things are never going to be the same. I hate these "people"
I love how you point out that "history (or mythology) is written by the winners," because thats exactly it. Mythology is the form that history took when we were unable to whop out out phones, cameras, and recording devices with our cool filters and so on. So we found other ways to embellish or emphasize. Wow.
In my personal opinion, in Norse Myth at least, there are three layers of deities that can be seen. Giants are holdovers from the days as Hunter-Gatherers, back in the Mesolithic Era. During the Neolithic farming era and migrations, when groups were mixing and mingling, we gained the Vanir gods and the Giants were replaced in importance. Still there, just seen as relics from a wilder world. Then I think we gained the Aesir during the raids by Indo-Europeans and the eventual peace between the Vanir and Aesir mirrored, or was based on, the actual peace between the Indo-Europeans and the native cultures.
The stories of Giants could be from sporadic trips to North America. There are Native accounts of Giants living in North America and early Spanish accounts of their presence as well.
@@HepCatJack those giants were also said to be red haired. I think a viking couldve been kukalkhan too. He came from a land to the east and was bearded, and came on a boat, with a book.
@@jknott1509 there's an account of U.S troops encountering one in the Afghan mountains. A cannibal like the Si teh cah describe in Native American lore.
My ex husband is Jordanian, and he spoke quite proudly of the caves at Petra, which he said were carved by giants. I've never been there, though watching his face as he spoke about them helped me see how awe- inspiring they are.
@@johnsaxer3458 It’s sad really that people make up all these myths about how things in the past were built. Nowadays it’s myths about aliens. The truth is, of course, that humans were and are capable of great achievements, no fairytale creatures necessary.
In a subject matter so populated by... People with a very clear agenda, it is always a breath of fresh air to come across someone approaching it calmly, with respect for all parties and with very clear expertise in the matter. And looking like he would normally share a beer with me at a reenactment festival, talking about tea with a voice that would make Barry Manilow jealous and an accent I cannot place but sounds great: all bonus points! I think I have found my next evening binge channel...
I discussed the giants of the old nordic mythologies with my mum, and she said they could be the old neolithic people who lived here before the Indoeuropean peoples. She didn't go into detail about this, but she said something along the lines of them often living on farms were an indication.
They could possibly be people who were taller than average for the time. As an example I’m using my dad’s family. The tallest man in my dad’s family was between 6’6” and 6’8”. This was during the late 19th/early 20th century in America, Chicago to be exact. At that time the average male was only 5’8”. My grandpa was 5’10” which is a good height but not like the unusual height for the time of this unnamed ancestor. Not only that but from what my dad recalled a lot of the male members of his family were built like bears, very burly. Grandpa meanwhile was quite slender in build so some of the inspiration for giants could be memories of interacting with people who were taller than average for the period. That’s just my theory.
You offer further proof that everything keeps getting older the deeper we dig. I’m appreciative of the comments about other hominids entering our stories and myths as it makes sense that the myths and stories we have are ancient, layered inheritances. Thank you for your work.
If you mean to dig in an actual sense then the deeper you delve the more ancient the fossils will be, then I agree. If you think claims are evidence then I need an explanation. Because claims made in statements are not evidence. Evidence supports claims or the opposite direction and neither both can be true.
as the Norse mythology has 3 sets of gods, we can see it clearer. so could we consider the giants the gods of the disorderly hunter-gatherers, which were subdued by the orderly agriculturalists, who were themselves conquered by the PIE? the gods of stones and caves; the gods of the matriarchical fields; & the gods of the patriarchical herds?
This could very well be the case, with the jötnar being the oldest, the vanir being the old, and the Aesir being the tradditional gods. It does seem to fit.
Keep in mind that in hindouism (and thus buddhism), happiness does not result from creating order from nature's chaos; but by accepting chaos as it is. Maybe just like the Aesir embraced the existance of the Jotnir, (and the Vanir for that matter). Loved your video. Keep them coming!
@@InternetMameluq yes taoism and shinto too. But i mentionned hindouism as it is more likely to be related to the religion of the old norse pagans i mention in my initial post.
Wonderful video. I've often imagined that, with the Norse myth in particular, and based on the Patralinial Mammoth Hunter DNA present in the Indo-Europeans - Ymir and the creation of the world from his body, could be reflexes of Odin and his brothers on a "wild hunt" , where they later built shelter with the corpses of the Mammoths hunted.
Fantastic take! A quick reminder that the Wildhunt takes place 12/24-1/6 Christmas Eve to Epiphany the descent of the Holy Spirit. I doubt there are any coincidence
There's nothing as "INDO-european" .This term was invented by British to justify their occupation of India and steaI our sanskrit terms like Aryan and swastika (which has no meaning in any European language) .North indian vedic culture was different from European one and should be related to anything. So it's better you don't use such fake terms, and refer your ancestors as just Europeans.
@Prit Singh You do realize the Vedic Aryans migration was an off shoot of European Corded Ware, right? This is not only confirmed by ancient dna, but in the Vedas themselves. A great book on the topic is "The Arctic Homeland in the Vedas" by Tilak - though some information is outdated, the chosen source texts from Vedic Scripture help illustrate my point well. North Eastern Europe is and has long been the source, though after a certain World War this has become problematic to suggest, though impossible to dispute. Furthermore, the oldest evidence of a Swastika goes back to Ukraine with its precursor symbolism evident in the Mal'ta Buret culture of Siberia - from which R paternal lineages are derived(the most common in Europe, with notable R1a signatures in Northern India, which only show up after 1500BCE, ie the Aryan movement to India) The Swastika is present all over Europe for thousands of years, and it was the philogical congruencey that Europeans noticed between their languages and Sanskrit which spawned the term Indo-European - I must agree however, it should never have been called such. It's homeland is Europe, not India, and thus it is indisputably European.
@@pritsingh9766 You have no idea how much you embarrass yourself with your anti-scientific bs. This kind of historic negationism is proof that nationalism makes anyone dumb.
@@Crecganford Dude.. you sure know alot but are cluless. Read genesis 6.. learn about granite polonium halows, and the fact that geological layers are nothing more than sediment layers formed after Noahs flood. Thats why we have thousands of petrified trees standing through all layers at the same time.. hope this helps you a bit to get out of the black hole of lies the world fed you since day 1. God bless.. take care.
I gotta thank you for this video! This might help me a lot with my urban fantasy worldbuilding, especially with the origins of some of my races and pantheons. I hope to learn more from you!
I think it is very telling that every culture that lives where there were other hominids have stories about wild men on the edge of civilization and cultures from areas that didn’t have native hominid populations generally don’t have those stories. Europe, Southeast and East Asia, and parts of Oceania have “wild people” stories, and Siberia and the Americas generally don’t. I think there is a danger of over-literalizing, because people can just make things up and enjoy fantasy to the point of that fantasy becoming culturally important, but I also think it is important to call a spade a spade. He are modern humans who have the evidence that we met those people and some made children with them. It seems obvious that we would have had stories about this. If we are to speculate that some stories and folk tales extend back 15-20 thousand years, then we can presume that the equivalent to meeting aliens would also be in our culture stories as well.
I stumbled across this channel on accident, but I am so glad I did. Keep up the good work man, your genuine love of history shines through in your content
That's how I found him too... Funny how the world of Algorithm throws you a Great video🤩🤩. Have a Rockstar day of warm smiles, joyous laughter and great stories☺️
I've always thought of the giants simply as a narrative neccessity because they help resolve a contradiction within the concept of mythology as a means to explain things. Because if you are going to explain the natural phenomena of the world as observed in everyday life by telling stories of the gods, then these gods need to: 1: Be incredibly powerful, their wisdom strength and magical prowess far beyond the limits of mortal men. How else could they create the world, or establish order in a universe of chaos? 2: Be relatable. Before abrahamic monotheism became as popular as it has been in the past millennia, people were not too keen on ineffable plans or divine omnipotence. If a god in a story did something, they did it for a reason and that reason was something the people listening to the story could comprehend. Generally, the reason why anyone does literally anything is because they want to prevent or escape some kind of plight. You hunt so you can eat so you are not hungry. You build a house because you do not want to freeze. You build a wall around your village because you fear an attack. That is not different for the gods in those stories. This however creates a contradiction: Why would beings so utterly powerful have to be afraid? Mythological stories often contain accounts of the gods employing their cunning to outsmart the enemy or seeking out means to become more powerful or even wiser. To me, this is the reason why giants are part of these stories: Because the gods require competitors, enemies, beings of simular power and capability as them, but with other intentions. Foes that the gods could not easily crush with their might, but who in spite of their power should not be worshipped. I once heard someone say (I believe it was Jackson Crawford) that it would more sense to call the Jötnar something like "anti-gods" rather than just giants, and I wholeheartedly agree. To me, their purpose is basically to normalize divine power so far that gods remain relatable for human believers and so that they can still serve as an example. For an honest Christian, the question "What would god do?" can only be answered with a simple shrug, as the abrahamic god is beyond mortal comprehension. A 9th century dane on the other hand might be able to come up with a guess as to how the likes of Thor, Odin or Loki would approach an issue and from that, they might draw a conclusion as to what they themselves should do.
Yes, where you say competitors, or anti-gods, I say chaos. They definitely have that kind of purpose. Thank you for watching, and a well thought out comment. It is really appreciated.
According to Enoch, the giants used all the resourcesof man, then ate humans and ended up eating eachother. So this would be a reason to guard against invasion of their iwn kind. There are huge megalithic remains of buildings that could not have been erected by normal size men.
@Darthplagueis13 I'm about to say your argument is a bit simplistic, but your saying that gods needed powerful enemies to be seen as powerful is one of the best single explanations I've ever heard! It explains Narrative as well as the Subjects of Narratives while you're at it! And your remark about people not being much into ineffable plans is hilarious! I love it!
Jon, now I understand the Jotunn! Your channel is a wonderful source of information about the beliefs of our ancestors. I introduced my adult son back in Australia to your channel as he has a particular interest in Norse mythology, and you provide the connection to even older Proto-Indo-European mythology.
@@Crecganford I'm sure that will be the case, Jon! He has a big interest in mythology, especially Norse mythology. This is despite the fact that he now has a job as a laboratory micro-propagator of Australian native plants!
To the ones theorizing about other hominids. In Eastern Indonesia there has been an ancient folklore tail about a mischievous cannibalist old dwarf lady, called Ibu Gogo or Ebu Gogo (Grandmother who Eats all), who was said to live in the mountain forest and she would at night come down from the mountain and she would always taunt the villagers from a distance, but she would also kidnap and eat bad children from the village. This dwarf spoke a murmuring language which was not understood and she would interact with villagers on occasion but was often seen as non friendly, and practiced shamanistic and cannibalistic rituals which would be described in similar stories by different island tribes but the attributes would always be the same: mischievous character, cannibistic, dwarf and often living an isolated cave dwelling life, and not keen on engaging with the villagers, in some cases she was hunted. Sort of looking like an old version of Hans and gretle from the Pacific. It was long thought by anthropologists to be another myth or bedtime story the islanders told their kids to make them behave, until they actually discovered a new type of archaic human in the remains of what we now know as the hobbit or Java hominin - that appeared to have roamed the archipelago alongside modern humans and this human fit the exact description the islanders told about in their stories about this cannibalistic dwarf witch from the folklore. This race of human was found to be however extinct or assimilated over 50k years ago. The story describes in detail how this human probably looked and behaved towards modern humans when we first came to the island and encountered this human living there, where we chased them into the mountains where they forever blamed and taunted us bigger humans for their exile.
Subbed, love this channel already! Very well presented very professional yet casual. Love it keep it up man! Especially as a practitioner of Ásatrú this is great as our knowledge is always growing about our ancient mythos.
@@Crecganford I will unfortunately I was really getting nice into this vid about 6-8 mins n w morning coffee and something came up lol.. But u absolutely will I’m a historian myself, “independent historian” as I mainly just tutor and write (I write all sorts of genres but my faves are alternative history or historical fiction and high fantasy n other fantasy genres as well as the “weird tale” and really kinda anything is my fancy.. but yea history and it’s cousins are my preferred area of learning and teaching. Anyways sorry for the ramble I’m hitting the ringer bell for your notifications and putting this one in my watch later as I check that every few days tops… Also given how I’m looking to possibly do some content creation related to my field, would love some further discourse I will have some pointed questions for ya soon!
Instead of the "short videos" I had said I preferred, I now concur with the majority of your responding-viewers - any length is okay with me. Because I have always wanted to assemble and understand the knowledge you share, I can focus. To me, it fits my perspective of reality, so I immediately understand you, even when it's the 'first time' I've heard it. The underlying profoundness of your own perspective is what is most exciting, delightful, and gratifying. (When I was young, my mentor would say, "You flatter, but you're sincere.") The mind's nature is to seek the comfort of resolution - using mysticism or physical reality - but (to me) there is no absolute and soon the mind is stimulated to seek more correct - never arriving at 'most correct' - generalizations and understanding. As you said in a previous presentation, [in my words] wild chaos can give creative birth to new or greater knowledge and understanding to provide some stability. (Philosophically, Nietzsche has used the Greek's Dionyses and Apollo to describe this concept.) Thank you, thank you, Jon White! for leading my mind to transcend the mundaneness of my daily self-imposed duties! The future may not know your name, but some will know that someone like you existed.
The giant of Grabbist in Somerset was friendly to humans saving the crews of sinking ships and protecting them from the devil by throwing him into the Bristol channel.
I see I’m not the only one to speculate on how other hominids might have influenced our early oral cultures ;) Giants, Dwarves, elves, fairies, etc. I think these are all ancient peoples (not specific tribes, just half-memories later codified as stories) who were similar to “us”….but also different enough to be terrifying. Who knows what these people could be capable of? Seemingly primitive but with their own magics…and you will notice these stories are nearly 1:1 with areas where hominid populations existed…Europe, Southeast Asia and Oceana. The exception is North America, but we have Gigantipithocus here, who wasn’t a hominid, but was an giant upright walking ape. I think we still tell these stories to eachother still when we talk about Bigfoot, Yeti, Almas, Orang Pendek, etc. 9:00 Omg did I influence academia via a TH-cam comment? because you and I talked about this in the comments in your Genesis video, where you also talked about Manu and Yemo o.o If I played a part, I’m honored :)
Look into pygmies/leprechauns as well. There are insane oral histories on some cultures, including one where a large group of pygmies fought a war against a species of giant storks, and apparently that’s where the urban legend of the storks delivering babies came from.
@@teeheeteeheeish helps to know the title carried in legend. Those pygmies are not just legend but were known to the Cherokee as the moon eyed people and thousands and thousands of graves were found in the Appalachians. Some photos exist as well and pygmy doesn't do their tiny little bodies justice. They were Smurf like in stature. So tiny. The storks is also an interesting research. Not only did giant storks exist and skeletal remains have been found but also in the same region storks and other birds can be found on family crests so likely these were pirate like people using large storks as a sort of carrier pigeon to get these tiny people. My deduction from researching.
Delighted by your lecture on this fantastic topic. Living in the eastern part of the Netherlands (Province of Drenthe) since a few months, we are surrounded by dolmen and longbarrows from the late neolithic and early bronze ages known locally as ‘Hune-bedden’ (literally ‘Giant’s beds’). They are primarily located on a fast geological ridge known as ‘de Hondsrug’, originally ‘Hünes rug’ or ‘Giant’s back’. The old tribes recognised and respected these ancient monuments of the land and their sacrality, though they did not know by who they were built. Some monumenal dolmens and even burial mounds stayed sacred and played a role as thing-places, five-thousand years on.
I am excited to see this, having been intrigued by your discussion of the Vanir as being possibly from other and potentially earlier cultures. I remain intrigued by the choice of the Poetic Edda's surviving Asgardians: Modi & Magni (Thor's Sons, Magni is half-giant, and their grandparents were Gaia and Odin); as well as Vidar & Vali (Odin's sons, both half-giants); and the resurrection of Hodr & Baldr (and thus possibly Hel). The Völuspá also spares Hoenir (one of the first 3 Aesir that created humans), and Njord - a Vanir of the sea; and a daughter of Sol - a sun goddess/Titaness. This is ultimately a wild mix of cultural influences and a really interesting start to a new Pantheon.
Thank you for watching, and I am happy to speculate (unlike some other academics) as I feel it allows thoughts to be more easily expressed providing they’re given context. The Old Norse pantheon really is fascinating as your peel away layers and try to understand why it is like it is.
I think since humans tend to exaggerate("that guy I fough was BIGGER, but I defeated him because Im destined because Im stonger!"): previous homo species who ruled some lands with their tribes, were our ancestors' "giants", and their stories passed on with additional exaggeration to make the story more amazing and epic.
I'm absolutely fascinated by the nature of myths and legends and how they might have come from previous events or inspired by what these ancient peoples saw around them, be them ancient structures, astronomical phenomena or half-forgotten wars. Your channel was a godsend!
@@4pmpm114 Ok, you made a few claims. How did you determine this? What did you actually actively do to discern what you are stating as a fact? Can you describe the process you used?
Its striking how many parallels there are between Norse and Hittite mythology. The primary Anatolian God 'Tarh' and his battles with the serpent Iullyanka, is identical to the myth as Thor and the Midgard serpent.
Yes the battling of the serpent is a common motif in mythology, especially across Eurasia. I do touch on this in my Dragon Slaying video. That might be worth watching if you’re interested in that. Thank you for watching this, and your comment. It is all appreciated.
@@brooklynboiprod Not completely unreasonable The Greeks and many other polytheistic religions believed that other religions were just variations of each other
@@LordBackuro I don't know if the following as any relevance but in the beginning of The Prose Edda Thracia, Troy and Anatolia are mentioned "where Tror (Thor) travelled widely and overcoming all manner of berserkers and giants as well as one of the greatest dragons...."
Fun fact: In Danish Ymir ( ymer) means yogurt - says alot about our close ancient "relationship" with cows. Thanks for a great video 👍 greetings from Denmark.
Different spellings denote differences in meaning. Bible doesn't have a real definition. It's a wordplay on the Greek word for book, biblia. It doesn't mean more than book. And is the root of the word for bible. Ymir- Ymer Notice the dissimilar spelling which also denotes a difference in pronunciation. It's evidently not the same word.
@@jrskp3677 This is entirely untrue, words are found in different forms at different times through time in the same language. Sometimes the same word can Even be found in other languages in other forms; Thunder and Thor for example, though not immediately visible share a word root, and have evolved from the same word, Even though Thunder no longer looks the same as the word Thor.
@@-_pi_- Thuma is thunder Elding is lightning in old Norse, minus the symbol for the "th" sound. As much as languages go through evolution, there wasn't ever a person who was the first to speak Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and such and are all descendants of Latin. Evidently, these people didn't make a decision to do this either. So, there are parts of your position I don't dispute and others that are also not in dispute but for a different reason.
@@jrskp3677 That’s basically the point I’m getting at here, when does a word split from its relatives and become a different word/if it ever really does is up for linguistic debate. On the surface Pedes and Feet aren’t related, but being semantic about it one could say its the same word affected by different sound changes, or that its undergone enough changes to be its own word. I could make arguments for or against both views.
I'm really happy to find a more academic video talking about the origins of giants - I've had a lot of discussions involving a sort of mutual mythos building between hunter-gatherers and city-dwellers where the HGs became 'giants' in some form, and the city dwellers would become dwarves to the hunter-gatherers. Learning some more of that social connective tissue is really neat, it makes me wonder how long the indo-european peoples using these myths may have understood hunter-gatherers as the previous form of society!
I recently stumbled upon your channel and very glad I did... I've dipped into at least one video a day since then. Fascinating subject this morning... I will be enjoying it over my coffee. Thank you good sir
Thank you for watching, and taking the time to comment, it is appreciated. And We do allow coffee drinkers here, even though tea is a much better drink :)
@@Crecganford Coffee for mornings, tea for evenings ;) and thank you as well for the response, it is also appreciated. I look forward to more of your work ☀️🙏
I appreciate the conclusion and the application of these ancient lessons to contemporary life. This is my favorite thus far. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.
Got to love Norse mythos where Frost Giants weren't necessarily giants and Dwarves weren't really short. I think the creation myth with Ymir is really interesting: of the world being born of ice and how these myths go really far back, whispers of colder times and probably a similar root to the flood myths.
As a Christian interested in shared PIE history (and admittedly biased that some form of paleoHebrew understanding differs greatly from misconceptions derived from a more recent Iodaismos, which was more influenced by Babylonian occultism; i.e. not to be confused with Iodaismos), it strikes me as resentment when ethnic brethren (usually those also with strong drives in understanding our PIE history) blame Christianity as a whole for essentially undermining the history and cultural elements of our ancestors. While it may hold a lot more credibility than we initially give credit (largely due to sweeping generalizations we get from poorly-taught history) that the early conversion efforts where accompanied by many noble efforts of also preserving language, culture, and myths in writing, I consider it fair enough to categorize the aggressive/disrespectful nature of any conversion efforts to be repulsive. If such methods could be forgiven, it helps openmindedness to the concept that the ideologies are reconcilable. I speculate that one of the most challenging concepts to reconcile is the idea of gods/goddesses in PIE pagan myths with the idea of the Christian and paleoHebrew religion of "only one God" (though many occasions of Him acting in different forms/roles and through other agents). However, I contend that the paleoHebrew understanding, largely misconstrued based on translation issues and traditions of misteaching through Iodaismos, was that there were beings somewhere near "angels" that many others would have considered gods/goddess. Of course, the Ben Elohim passage in Genesis 6 (which takes place BEFORE a major event, whether regional or planetary) has been discussed already for the mention of the Nephilim. But the translation issue mentioned here for the Jotnar/giants is incredibly similar to El and Gibborim in ancient Hebrew. Respectively, they can mean lord/lords/god/gods and mighty ones [of old]/mightier/mightiest. Thus, when I read in Genesis 6 that the "sons of God" (Ben Elohim) did whatever they did with the "daughters of men" (of Adamites) as the origin story for the Gibborim (might ones of old), I see the same story, just with more distance from involvement from a being much higher up in the pantheon, as interactions between the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotnar. I also see the same story, but with a different spin on what may have happened, in Cain, Abel, and Seth as Manu, Yemo, and Trito. One suspicion I have is that if the descendants of the antagonist of that story developed their own myths (perhaps the Kenites), they might make their patriarch a hero, remove emphasis upon the God of the protagonist, make pacts with the later "mighty ones" for wisdom and assistance, and even treat the victimized Abel as if he was some cattle that needed to be sacrificed. And if those "mighty ones"/Jotnar in the Norse-myths interacted with the original inhabitants later encountered by Germanic peoples that migrated there and later recorded those myths, they may have justified some of the practices that would have been condemned by cousins elsewhere (protaganists in the paleoHebrew). For example, the difference between the Aesir and Vanir in practicing seidr/sorcery/divination could be the equivalent of the difference between the Ben Elohim (sons of the mightiest above the Nephilim and Gibborim) that mated with the daughters of Adamites and those that did not, the very difference between angels and fallen angels (Nephilim) perhaps, if one puts the Lucifer-became-Satan-theory out of mind for one moment, as it is not actually clear canonically, being incredibly contradictory with the chronology depicted in Revelation 12, which is one of the most cited passages in Christian canon for supporting such a theory. If Revelation 12 is taught wrong by most Christian practitioners influenced by false teachings, but still correct, and the Lucifer-became-Satan theory is disqualified from this discussion, then the reconciliation of these ideas between PIE paganism and paleoHebrew monotheism can be much better understood.
This is the best video on you channel I have seen so far. I always fancied Trolls and Giants and was upset that they were always defeated. The older scientific works on mythology (like Golthers and Grimm) identified them as the gods of old, while newer material (Katja Schulz) just concluded them being members of other tribes and cultures. This made me unhappy, due to lack of glamour. You bound the strings together, that both of it is true in some way and now I really understand the concept in indo-european culture like you promised in the beginning of the video. Thanks for that.
The true origin of Giants is told in BIBLE,Genesis 6:2-4, When the Sons of God(=fallen angels=nefilim,hebreic=fallen) took the daughters of men as their wifes (and maybe also later,they appear in Canaan and should be killed by Israelites) and got kids, they were giants,
What could be very interesting concerning languages and myths is taking a look at Basque mythology to find out whether or not a form of giant can be found in their myths and legends as well. The reason behind this idea is that Basque is a language isolate and probably the only surviving pre-indoeuropean language in all of europe.
Finnish and Same languages are surviving p.i. languages as well. Interestingly in Same language are loanwords or vice versa from Basque that meaning they have had commercial or cultural connections by sea when Same people populated Finnish ground wider,before being pushed up to Lapland as original nomads.
I wish I stumbled upon this video a few years earlier when I was doing a research on a similar topic. I found you by a mere chance and I really enjoyed your presentation and your vast knowledge as well. Thank you!
thank u for sharing stuff like these as an scandinavian these stories are important and have an signicance in our culture and can learn from them but i think it is an Asatrú made it too make sense of the world and believe in an something greater and that the Giants resemblence evil forces and i love ur content Crecganford keep it up man Skål!!! :)
In Finland the Jötunn are called Jatuli, the Saami called them Jiehtanas. They settled in Kvenland before the Saami and Suomalaiset (Finns) came to the Finnish peninsula thousands of years ago and were considered to be Finno Ugric. Its known that Kvenland called Kainuu in Finnish was known for very tall people. Its speculative but Jatuli were generally from 6'5" up to 8 footers. Jötunn were not Norse, but Finnic. The tallest soldier in WW2 was Helsinki born Väinö Myllyrinne and was 8 foot 3 inch, so its completely plausible. Myllyrinne was proportionate and athletic, not crippled like most giants like Robert Wadlow Fornjotur was a Jötunn he had 3 sons, one of which was the Jötunn Aegir (or Hler). Aegir could be Ahti Saarelainen of the Kalevala. Ahti Saarelainen lived on the Island of Laeso just north of the Danish peninsula. Saarelainen means Islander, saari is Island. Although Ahti is called Lemminkäinen in Kalevala, its a gloss by Lönnrot, so Väinämöinen maybe Ahti instead. Aegir may also very well be Väinämöinen as Väinämöinen was know to be strongly associated with the sea and water. Väinä means slow moving broad river. Aegir was known to get along well with the Aesir and at times with the Vanir, in contrast Aegirs brother Loge (Liekko) was hostile to both Aesir and Vanir. So I believe in Euhemerism, and that these were living breathing folk who were later mythologized. Also the Finnish god Juma, Jumo had a twin named Jon, Jyn or Jen (depending on dialects) and they correspond closely to the IE Manu and Yemo, and Indian Yami and Yama. Ymir has a nod at Jumo, as Ymir means twin.
It could be just some batic sea culture thing some of the first people in the area could have been the original believer of the Jötunn, but I have doubts that the jötunn were real. However as I'm typing this i had a thought 🤔. What if the jötunn are Neanderthal accounts of humans. Humans are taller than Neaderthal on average and the first human in the area would have encountered them on the way. Tales of humans could have traveled fasters than humans did enough for them to inflat the size and as the IE and Uralis people come in the story to spread
Genesis 6:4 always bugged me: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to." I am no religious man, but I do consider the Bible to be an important bundle of ancient stories
Another request. How about looking into The Cynocephali, the dog-headed men. They are mentioned a lot in middle English writings and even older writings. Anubis was the jackel-headed god of death in ancient Egypt. Also their land is notated on many old maps. And members of the church, saints and monks talked of them and argued whether they had souls or not or whether they were the minions of the devil. I remember reading that a dog-headed man lead the wild hunt.
I too would like to see a video about different cultures mythology relating to these mysterious creatures. I know they were described by European sources as being located in the Altai mountains. But I think there is also an ancient Greek account that puts them in the mountains of India. If I remember correctly, I could be getting mixed up but I think that a Chinese myth includes cynocephali in 'Kabul' which is located across the mountains not too far from northern India ?
Primitive humans seeing much in their environment they couldn't understand or explain as simple human activity, used a very fertile imagination and propensity for looking for agency, naturally came up with some really fantastic folk lore.
I am so happy that a english speaking youtuber finally describe the Jötnar as more than just giants/frostgiants they was so much more to the nordic culture
Giant can be a physical attribute, but also can describe intellect, power, etc. And you make a wonderful point talking about Egyptian Ptah, the creator, who was represented as a dwarf or midget. Great video as usual! :)
27:00 if the Giants are a result of the influence of a previous culture, in this case the influence definitely happen before the Indo-Europeans separated and migrated in Europe, Southern Asia and India. Because the giants are present in all Indo-European mythologies, and the Twin is present in pretty much every mythology (see Remus for example, his name means the Twin).
This sounds like a confirmation bias more than anything else. Like you're predisposed to believing giants over the objective reality which doesn't fit into the narrative. That said, why would you believe in something that defies the natural world? If something is true then there's good reason for it. (True for/to you doesn't count) Truth is objectively verifiable, testable and falsifiable too. Did you ever try to falsify the belief in giants pertaining to the evidence? Like biological processes. What about how stories are claims and not evidence. Just because an ancient prehistoric culture has written stories, doesn't mean it was actually recording historical events, animals or person's.
@@fairygal8223 Are they twins though? But yes, there is similarity, as the Twin gets sacrificed in the PIE mythology (Remus and Ymir for example). Ymir is not murder by his brother though, but by Odin, Villi and Ve.
I always thought religious myths were more representative than to be taken literally. This approach is a fantastic explanation! Very easy to listen to and follow. Since I recently began discovering Heathenry, I thank you!
Why not Bible, instead. I bet you never have really read it as it is written. It begins before creation, goes beyond time, into another dimension.'It includes all history and future of the whole mankind and is the truth and whole truth and stands when the world disappears. It is the love letter of God to mankind and the history is His Story.
@@Crecganford Dr. Michael S. Heiser has some interesting books concerning this topic. "Hermon reversed", videos. etc illuminating stuff. Of loans and their meaning. Of Divine Council, Cosmic Geography etc. Higly recommend, they are interesting and open new sights to history. Ancient is most interesting, esp. when explaining the end from the beginning.
@@maija-liisapiittari9618 Can you explain to me, then, what is the Trinity and whether that makes Christianity polytheism? This alone is very confusing to me and seems illogical. Personally, I just never believed the underlying message of eternal damnation for simply not believing in one God or doing bad deeds in life. I never related to the supposed "all-loving" singular God who was also full of vengeance and intolerance. I tend to find Heathenry very useful in connecting spiritually with the land and ancestors. It's speaks to blood and soil which is very real.
@@traddad7756 I can try to answer, I'll do my best, but it is the Holy Spirit of God almighty, streaming out of Father God and the son of God, Jesus Christ, who shall explain it in his great mercy, because it is His job, to clarify to us Jesus Christ, our Savior from the power of Satan, Hell, Death and sin. Should I say first, that Christianity is meaningless to you, unless you first understand, where you are saved from. And that the spiritual realm is more real than the obvious seen one. The modern physics has made this clear in Quantum mechanics from the beginning of last century. The materialistic worldview became obsolete by then. The singular God is the (un)god of islam, a despotic one. It is not the same as our God in Christianity.The Trinity is the secret of love, you see, There is perfect love and harmony between them 3. You can never say in islam that God is love, as it is in between the Godhead. And from where it's radiating to the creation. It is the union of 3, unity= not polyteism. Where is one person of them in action, there are all 3 of them. I'm not native englishspeaker, hope I can get this clear. God is both just and merciful and all sin demand justification, and that took place in the Cross. Vengeance of sin when our sinless Jesus suffered it on behalf of us. But it is of no use, if you not accept is as a free gift .From the Holy Trinity, where Father God himself was on the Cross in Lord Jesus CHRIST( =anointed to this task) reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of conciliation. (2 Cor.5:19) For He has made Him to be sin(offer) for us, that we might be made righteousness of God in him.(21) Quite a generous offer,or? For God's foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of men. You can't find any logic in this. or can you? The Hell is meant to Satan only and to with him fallen angels, but if you choose to bear your trespasses and sins, God doesn't force you to Heaven. It's all your choice. The Heaven is actually another dimension, when you're saved and in Christ, it starts here among us and goes on into eternity. The dimensions "are mixed"here. The time is just a dimension of mater, as Einstein saw it. And in heaven, there is no time, it's another dimension,totally, that's why the descriptions of it are so lacking,poor. But if you're making a tour through paganism, that might be good and meant to you, actually I too made a tour through world religions, before Lord Jesus found me, and I went straight to Bible School. I never could have imagined to become a believer, but everything is possible to God.= All is easy to our God. And there in the Bible are many gods, really, but also The Most High God. Psalm 82, and many places tell it. Dr. Mike S. Heiser is explaining this in his videos: Reversing Hermon, Unseen Realm, etc. And Books. Interesting, there are so many misconceptions of this stuff that no wonder apostasy is taking place everywhere by now, especially in the West. Into Ireland Christianity came already 500 AD, and to us to Finland around 1200 AD. Sadly it seems to be a thin layer over paganism, shamanism and witchcraft,which all are returning well and alive. Jonathan Cahn just published a book: "The Return of Gods," a review of this. The western culture having become possessed of demons of all kind and the exorcism which happened after the beginning of Christianity having faided away needing exorcists in today's world commonly. The videos in youtube, by Derek Gilbert and his books of Saturn and ancient Gods and their many names can explain what's now taking place everywhere, paganism is here, among us. No need to go to search it further, just open your eyes and see, look around and think a bit. What's going on. This whole evolution, all the history of mankind has been written in Bible, and in the Revelation specially. You can read there what's going on now and what's to come, what to expect. It can explain the mess coming out in news and has no sense, all the nonsense and deception being everywhere.
Just came across you channel yesterday. I've watched a few videos so far, but just wow at the interaction you have in the comment sections. Currently it seems void of nonsense and generally filled with deep thinkers. It's refreshing.
I always assumed Jötunn, Gigantes, Fir Bolg, and so on were a sort of "wild god" opposed to the "civilized gods" like the Olympians and Aesir. Much more forces of nature personified than other deities.
Rather than just being a myth about the origin of megaliths in isolation, the stories seem to reflect experience of another set of people that are like "us" but not "us"; who are generally more physically powerful than us; who were capable of having offspring with us and who could often be physically desirable and whose bloodlines were thought to provide power (magical or physical) to the offspring; who live in caves and can be wise or monstrous. To me these attributes quite easily describe Neanderthals, and the parallel in the archealogical record of the time when Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals were living alongside each other is well proven, as is the interbreeding between them, so we know with certainty that this happened - the populaitons overlapped for up to five and a half thousand years in some places. It would also explain why these stories appear in the societies descending from the proto-indo-europeans as those populations are the ones carrying Neanderthal DNA. It seems possible that the sacrificial world origin may even be a surviving origin story told to us by Neanderthals. You recently gave evidence of the survival of the Cosmic Hunt story surviving for a similar length of time, so it doesn't seem impossible!
The primary focus here is on the Nordic. In the Greek, the Titans are also not of enormous size in the myth and many are also noted for their wisdom, such as Prometheus, Themis, and Metis. Speaking of Metis, she is Zeus' first wife who he consumed to prevent her from giving birth to a child that would overthrow him. She was pregnant at time and gave birth to a daughter who erupted from Zeus' head as the goddess Athena. As the Titan Metis and Olympian Athena are almost identical beings, it is possible that this myth is used to explain the Hellenization of an older native deity absorbed into the Greek pantheon.
Fascinating John, love the comparative similarities and differences of the myths to come to a conclusion - and your passionate telling of these. Many thanks.
@@Crecganford Could a similar conclusion for giants also be applied to the like of Fairies, sprites and other common mythical creatures - or are these types of mythic beings too different and disparate across the various mythologies to draw/apply the same thought process to? Or are the more diminutive mythical people more closely aligned with actual physical/geographic cultural stories?
In Ireland it seems some of the giants are earlier groups of invaders. But for the Greek and Norse giants it sure seems to be the case. What about Sumerian and Babylonian giants ? They seem to be different groups rather than gods. The Niflheim or whatever that was... and Goliath was just a big Philistine . Great discussion
Gen 6. The Giants (Nephilim) were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God (fallen angels) came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. We have found bones and have seen so many stories about finding bones throughout history. They were real in my little opinion.
Yes, they were real, and some are trying to revive them again as is done in Jurassic Park-movie. By gene manipulation, found in those old bones, which all suddenly disappear somewhere after they are found . Darpa and Pentagon are most interested in creating super-cyber-soldier-robots etc. of that kind. And those jailed in Abyss from old are soon to be released to torture mankind, as is told in Revelation 9. Gog being the king of the locusts coming up of the abyss. Maybe CERN is releasing them with it's activities. Standing on the place of the old temple of Apollyon=GOG=destroyer.
Also, in Irish mythology we have The Fomorians or Fomori (Old Irish: Fomóire. They are often portrayed as giants and their story is very similar to aspects of Norse and Greek mythology.
So glad I found this channel. Love hearing the educated reasoning for how and why the old myths arose. You can imagine an iron age man seeing standing stones or erratic boulders and being asked by his kids who put them there and answering "the giants". He's certain of this because of pareidolia he's seen faces in the crags on the mountains and the monsterous stone bones as they fall out of the cliffs. Many thanks, keep up the good work. 👍
In the Egyptian pyramid texts, the god-king or Pharaoh is sometimes described as "exceedingly tall" i.e., a giant like that depicted with Orion or Uarion. The description of giant rulers is common in the ancient world like with the Ugarit god Baal, and the Babylonian god Marduk. In ancient Sumer, the gods are depicted as giants. I suspect that being described as a giant is synonymous with power. It's a kind of typology.
No, indo - European people of all R paternal lineages where all very tall in their own respective mythologies. It had to do with cow milk , following of dharm as code of conduct in each moment of life and ascetic practices. Body is also a manifestation of your spiritual energy. And when people are laden with negative karma - they mentally physically weak. A bit complex to explain. But yes it's true.
@@Crecganford I will also add, from my reading of Gerald Massey on Egyptian religion, that the giant was synonymous with periodic time. The god that was associated with solar time was considered taller, larger than the god of lunar time: solar is eschatological or "the last things" and is therefore greater. Lunar period is much shorter than solar period. This is why, says Massey, the lunar god Thoth defeats or "slays" the god Seth in the Book of the Dead: the latter being the "giant-slayer". In this way, the legend can be compared with the Hebrew legend of David (Thoth) and Goliath (Seth), the latter being a giant. So this interprets giants as a typology of periodic time.
Power and periodic time are also linked. Anyone looking for giant skeletons embedded in the ground will not find them. The giants of old where never real giants. They were never real divine beings. They were mythical figures described via typology, describing periodic time, celestial objects and their power or stature. Size is associated with length of time, and the greater the time, the greater the power or force and stature among the other divine beings. The creator god (unknown to the ancients, but to the Egyptians became the god Amun) set time in motion, a cosmos in perfect harmony, and then came the other "lesser" gods, who brought forth chaos, the children of Nut in Egyptian religion. First came harmony and then discord. This discord was corrected by going back in time or reversing time. This is why many ancient religions were about creation: they are describing creation myths from typology and reversing time. Giants represent big power and stature and larger periodic time. Lesser gods fought the giants by slaying them, another way of describing lunar time eclipsing that of solar time.
Well, in Hindu Vedic scriptures, the gods are themselves were very tall and gigantic and almost blaze like sun blazes at noon - with an extremely powerful golden hue and aura. Though as we see , some opponents they fight or face maybe way too big even for them. Like Indra fought vritra who could grow up to the size of oceans and basically block them all. Similarly, Veerbhadra is described as God of gods - born from just a small tuft of lord Shiva's large hair. He was said to have made the entire earth tremble with his might and terror and he was so tall that scriptures say he touched the skies. Nothing could describe his prowess and might..all attributed to his birth imbued with billions of years of ascetic penance of lord Shiva. He is himself described as the fiercest ascetic. When he landed on earth , there were tsunamis all across the world. He punished and defeated all the gods who had dared participate in a yagya ( large scale fire ritual ) where lord Shiva was deliberately mocked and disrespected by the person conducting or sitting as the chief of yagya. He was daksha. You should certainly find an equivalent of Virbhadra. But he is described as something way beyond all descriptions.. Virbhadra is fierce and born from lord Shiva's tuft whereas lord Shiva's own seed born son - kartikeya is also described as majestic and powerful.
John, at first I thought, I'm not gonna be able to listen to this guy because of this accent, but then your content hit me like a giant sledgehammer. I don't drink tea, yet, but man, this is incredible! Thank you for your work! You're intelligent. I can see through your eyes that you and I have some similar characteristics. Be good.
Another thing: 'myth' doesn't always mean 'not true', so even as a Christian myself I can label many of the stories in the first half of the Old Testament (not just Genesis) as mythology. They're probably not entirely true, but regardless of if they were true or not, they're still myths by definition. Some religious people might get offended if their sacred stories are called myths, but that's usually because they assume that we're using the Mythbusters definition of myth rather than the traditional sacred belief definition of myth.
Immanuel Velikovsky's books of the development of the solar system tells of ancient historic events found in folklore of all world. IN the Bible as well.Where the Exodus and the 10 plagues having been Venus bypassing the earth and moving from comet into planet in the solar system. And collisions of planets, Mars ets. The changing of calender when earth moved further away from the sun, thus getting 5 days more in the year. "The worlds in collision"-book tells of it interestingly.
Love your content mate! I got interested in Indo-European mythology and culture recently. I’m doing my own research. Maybe someday we can collaborate. 😁 Just a small question. Before the modern human migrated to Europe from Africa, Europe was abode of the Neanderthals. They were stronger and big in size but modern humans were able to outnumbered them. Is it possible that some of the stories or the faint memory of that time got imbibed into mythology and gave birth to giants? We often see giants aren’t moving as a group. They are mainly separated out, like the Neanderthals. And as the proto Indo-Europeans were mainly from Europe, do you think that the giants could be those other human sub-species who were still living in the cave or in the jungle?
I love teaching, and so if I can help I will, although please consider my time isn’t limitless. And as for Neanderthals, it is definitely a possibility, although personally I like the aspect of using aspects of the landscape to convince the people that giants used to live. But we will never know for sure. Thanks for watching, and if you want to collaborate please feel free to get in touch via email (see my About page).
I would not discard the size of Giants, supported by the numerous large bones found, and large weapons that strong men cannot use. Interesting the knowledge of mythology, something to learn about.
I find it interesting that the conflict between Aesir and Vanir are solved by trading hostages, and the way it happens. It almost reads as an instruction. When you cant take land by force, offer to trade hostages, make sure the hostage you trade away are intelligent. Have your hostage gain politicial influence over your adversaries. Reap the benefits.
Well. I was just gonna say: this is a very interesting channel and the lectures are great but please don't let your video titles be auto-translated when the video is in English anyways with no subtitles. Because that's how many, many other channels do it. Of course, to be sure, I actually looked at it before writing this comment. And what do I see? Subtitles! For a huuuge number of different languages! And they seem to be outstandingly well done, so big fat kudos from me and thank you very much. Even though I don't need them, it's awesome to see someone putting effort into making their channel as accessible as possible
Another theory is they could be the Nephilim, the Angel/human hybrids of Christian texts. (The book of Enoch 1 that was removed) Enoch still remains in the Ethiopian Bible. The native Americans told stories of giants as well. I love what you are doing, hopefully it brings us all together to combine all the old texts to see the similarities
These men and women of old and renoun were not the demons they are now spoken about, you’ve only got to look around our war ravaged world today to see who the true demons are.
Not sure if the giants are ex gods, but our boomer supreme court surely does consists of hella ancient species that we're not sure if they even are our ancestors after all.
Incredible video with a profound message at the end because modern people could definitly profit from accepting the view that existence is a struggle against the chaos of life and that the only way to deal with that pain is to act heroic and bear it willingly. I think another very important part of the myth has to do with the familial relationship between the slayer and the slain. Odin's mother Bestla was a Jötunn and Ymir was the progenitor of all Jotnar. As you said we see this motive of Manu and Yemo in many myths like Tiamat being the mother of all gods, Osiris and Set being brothers etc. I believe this about a destructive human behaviour that Friederich Nietzsche called ressentiment which to this day is very common in not only familiar settings but also on larger scales like political movements. I presume our ancestors had to deal with this quiet often when relatives were left with next to nothing due to inheritance and became resentful towards their sibling recieving the farm. An article in the Guardian from 2015 called 'Mass grave reveals prehistoric warfare in ancient European farming community' describes a massacre amongst the early farming communities. In the Bible there is the story of Cain slaying his brother Abel out of resentment. After being exiled from Eden Cain is the founder of the first city, so the first builder, and his decendant Tubal-Cain is the first blacksmith and forges the first weapons of war. Killing one of Cain's decendants results in them avenging the death sevenfold. The message of the story is clear that resentment only leads to pain and destruction and to continue it's path will only increase it exponentially.
According to John Kraft (1999), place names chronology in Sweden challenge the Eddas. Skade/Skädja was a very early figure in the mythology. It would be interesting to see the shadows of her world.
Considering the Dacian idea that they were immortal, and when they died the soul ascended to the sky to become a star, then it makes sense that the earlier men, especially kings, ascended to heaven to become the biggest stars. As we call jupiter and saturn gas giants, so would the ancients who could see these giant souls, then titans, then later gods, would consider them giants.
The titans seam to be both older deities, as well as some of them made up. Krios has no mythology, and may have been invented to round out the mythology (although there is a place of the same name to the south, on Crete, that shares the same name, and Krios is the titan of the south). However, some titans seam ancient. Variations of Eos (the dawn) appear all over the world, often with similar names, and Eos was a titanid. But what about the giants of greak mythology, and I do not mean the titans, but the 24 earthborn giants? Weirdly, their may be a connecting link, with shared name. Pallas springs to mind, being both a giant, and a titan, and a nymph, and a goddess.
Partway through I realized that phrase, “Standing on shoulders of Giants.” applies. Giants ancestors. And keepers of strange useful ways and powers. And Giants as strange women, whom might make wives. Yeah. They are simply the forces of the past, or outside. Chaos in many ways, but Chaos given form. Who wear the form of this like and unlike those whom represent the warrior representation of archetypal men. Of the essence of those who hold the Mythos forward in tradition and culture. You know as a descendent of Europeans, it’s interesting to recall these. To reassociate with them. Though I’m American. And know highly unspecific origins. Still I find that a strength, not a weakness. I am forced to associate with a thousand origins. And parse from each one it’s meaning, and collate the principles in many ways, distant from the specifics, while closest to the essence. Which means I have a personal association with the principles themselves, that accounts for it’s many manifestations. I also don’t begrudge Christianity like many of these newly educated pups. Their perspective being laid down within them in the past 60 years. One who hates the entire thing for it’s crimes, but knows nothing of the circumstance of actual men, and their troubles and perspectives over those several thousand spans. On one hand seeing the loss of a culture unique to them, on the other ignoring or cheering the cultures subsumed by the one they lament the loss of. As the world was, has been, and may well be again. The needs of the moment dictate a new or reinterpreted relationship with these concepts. So with that, the readaptation of these old ways is showing something bigger. What is good. And what is evil. And how to understand who these stories were told by, when, and what they meant to them. Context. Which is also what’s happening to Christianity. The advantage among all is that even if we can’t believe specifics. We can talk about the essence and meanings of those beliefs, and speak the same language again. To talk about one way, and contrast the other way. Doing so via context, to find the roots. Which are often universal, and unique to the experience of all men. Or that’s what I see.
Taking into consideration the wide knowledge about myths you possess, would you probably be interested also in tallking about how modern myths share a connection to the old and ancient myths too? I find amazing how some modern authors by themselves have come up with ideas and concepts that are very similar to old and ancient concepts. Its as if there's a deep connection in our minds regardless of culture and time that makes us come to similar ideas.
Yes, the Jungian theory of things... that is why we have to be careful when saying something has an ancient origin, we need to prove these things weren't just thought up. And what is fascinating is that there are many myths with an ancient source.
There ancient Giant bones found different parts of North America especially the story of love rock cave in Nevada. The native Americans defeated an ancient Giant red head beings. The early European explorers met Giant native Americans people on the explorers through the non known lands in North and South America.
Wonderful presentation - and a wonderful morale in the end, about the order and striving toward it. I've always felt that this mythological archetype of the giant is missing some core elements to it, and you've just put it into place for me - the giants are predecessors of the given people, having lived on the given land before them and having left behind all the weird structures and all the bits of magic - i.e., knowledge that is unfamiliarly-flavoured to the new people coming into their place, who probably violently replaced them in the process. Some of these giants' attributes also hint at them being just stone-age people. Hypothesizing them to be Neanderthals is probably a stretch already, but this idea also lingers.
Who do you think the giants were? Gods? Civilizations? Fantasy? or just very tall people?
Some proto, obscure, but advanced civilisation probably. Somehow. Every culture seems to consider them ancient and holds them in high regard. Couldn't all be a fantasy, right?
@@soumyarupghosh9997 You'll have the answer after watching... possibly...
Did you even make a review of The Northman?
Remnants of the powers of nature, before gods became a concept, but after nature was spirits with non-human form.
I wonder if the tales of "Giants turning to stone" was a story meant to explain and describe Early Humans discovering Fossils of Larger creatures, like Dinosaurs and Titanboa.
Even just considering how Sedimentary Rock like Limestone is made from bones teeth and shells
I can't help but wonder if giants, goblins, trolls, etc are garbled memories of when we lived with other hominids. Neanderthals, Heidelbergensis, etc. Tales passed down through eons until their original subjects are barely recognizable.
They very well could be an influence in those tales and stories...
Jesus."as it was in the days of noah. So shall it be at the coming of the son of man." A few beleivers have done research into multiple mythologies from christian perspective. Words and meanings. Names. Nephalim (nef ah leem) "the falen ones" naphal means "to fall". Their children... the Gohbirim (go beer eem) the mighty ones. Were not called Giants untill much later. A greek word Gigantis (gee gan tiss) means "earth born" if nephalim are from beyond the veil. Their sons were born here on the earth. Even the navajo indians have dance ceremony about evil giants from the sky that took their women and devoured the people and men.
I wonder at thus too. I also wonder elves and dwarves are memories of encounter with surviving hunter gather groups that passed on to myth and legend as people living in the deep forest who retain ancient knowledge of the land and then became magical as legends grew. Definitely there always seems to be "the others" in all prehistory stories. I cant help but believe these were at least influenced by older stories now lost that recorded actual events if eskewed by time and legend. The oldest myth of dwarves from Scandinavia is basically about this strange people who lived in the mountains came down for trade and help with crops.
Thats exactly what it is. We know that early modern humans lived with Neanderthals, Denisovians, Homosassa Gigantus, and a few others. Each of these translated into various mythical beings that we know of today.
I came here to say this cuz it's something I've long thought about.
think about modern sapiens coming up to Europe from a completely different climate, how the neanderthal essentially took them in and taught them how to survive in a vastly different land.
how those neanderthals would've been revered as wise or knowledgeable, but also looked upon with a degree of contempt or even horror at their perceived archaic practices by the more "advanced" sapiens.
As a norseman, it makes me so happy that someone actually understands what the Jotnar were, cuz it saddens me that people continues to misrepresent them. The word "Giant" is a mistranslation. They were basically gods, like the Aesir and Vanir, but represented chaos forces where the Aesir and Vanir represented order.
I really wish people would stop using the word "giant" when talking about them, and just use Jotunn/Jotnar instead.
Exactly!
Thick bois? :)
I do understand your frustration, but common fantasy tropes work easy in many D&D-esqe stories :/ Misunderstood concept, but there you go.
Yeah it always kinda irks me when people call them “the Norse giants” as a blanket term, but it’s probably too far into the pop culture of humanity to change any time soon
@@kendallchaos Sadly, that might be true, but one can still hope. It would be nice if big influencers, like game studios, movie companies, etc, would at least get it right that way more people might become aware of it.
Not that the show was fantastic, it was fun, but Ragnarok on Netflix, shows the Jotun in these way, advanced by primal legacy giants in the sense that they tower over others, seeing it visually put out i was able to flesh out that irking suspicion
One of the most striking accounts of giants can be found in the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal biblical text which describes them as skilled with crafting weapons of war and introducing humans to cosmetics. It even describes their height which was immense. There is one quote that describes them as “mighty men of old and great renown” or something along those lines. Very cool stuff.
The books of Enoch are a fascinating source of mythology. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
Aren't they the offspring of fallen angels that bred with humans? And this is basically what led to Yahweh destroying the earth with the flood? Because he was disgusted by them or something?
@@frauleinhohenzollern yes correct. Apparently the fallen angels also had an obsession with human women’s long flowing hair which is the rumor as to why many of the early major religions required women to wear headdress to hide their locks.
@@frauleinhohenzollern yes they are, and they're descendants still run this "show". Their time is short and they know it. Hence all the nonsense and evil being pushed like a broken fire hydrant these days.
@@tylerbrooks2492 And they are going to degenerate western culture and lands as much as they can, things are never going to be the same. I hate these "people"
I love how you point out that "history (or mythology) is written by the winners," because thats exactly it. Mythology is the form that history took when we were unable to whop out out phones, cameras, and recording devices with our cool filters and so on. So we found other ways to embellish or emphasize. Wow.
In my personal opinion, in Norse Myth at least, there are three layers of deities that can be seen. Giants are holdovers from the days as Hunter-Gatherers, back in the Mesolithic Era. During the Neolithic farming era and migrations, when groups were mixing and mingling, we gained the Vanir gods and the Giants were replaced in importance. Still there, just seen as relics from a wilder world. Then I think we gained the Aesir during the raids by Indo-Europeans and the eventual peace between the Vanir and Aesir mirrored, or was based on, the actual peace between the Indo-Europeans and the native cultures.
Yes, there is something to this hypothesis. Thank you for watching.
The stories of Giants could be from sporadic trips to North America. There are Native accounts of Giants living in North America and early Spanish accounts of their presence as well.
@@HepCatJack those giants were also said to be red haired. I think a viking couldve been kukalkhan too. He came from a land to the east and was bearded, and came on a boat, with a book.
@@jknott1509 there's an account of U.S troops encountering one in the Afghan mountains. A cannibal like the Si teh cah describe in Native American lore.
@@HepCatJack why are there such stories? Do they really exist?
My ex husband is Jordanian, and he spoke quite proudly of the caves at Petra, which he said were carved by giants. I've never been there, though watching his face as he spoke about them helped me see how awe- inspiring they are.
Another view us that Angel's built Petra
Visited Petra during my first deployment back in 2007...words really can't describe it
@@johnsaxer3458 It’s sad really that people make up all these myths about how things in the past were built. Nowadays it’s myths about aliens. The truth is, of course, that humans were and are capable of great achievements, no fairytale creatures necessary.
In a subject matter so populated by... People with a very clear agenda, it is always a breath of fresh air to come across someone approaching it calmly, with respect for all parties and with very clear expertise in the matter.
And looking like he would normally share a beer with me at a reenactment festival, talking about tea with a voice that would make Barry Manilow jealous and an accent I cannot place but sounds great: all bonus points!
I think I have found my next evening binge channel...
Thank you for watching my videos, and taking the time to write such a kind comment. I do appreciate this very much.
Agreed. Just posted that I could listen to him all day!
I discussed the giants of the old nordic mythologies with my mum, and she said they could be the old neolithic people who lived here before the Indoeuropean peoples. She didn't go into detail about this, but she said something along the lines of them often living on farms were an indication.
I hope you find the video of interest then :)
@@Crecganford I sure did. I will have to listen again of course
@@breakaleg10 Thank you for saying so, it is appreciated
Scandinavian Hunter gatherer made from DNA of EHG and WHG
They could possibly be people who were taller than average for the time. As an example I’m using my dad’s family. The tallest man in my dad’s family was between 6’6” and 6’8”. This was during the late 19th/early 20th century in America, Chicago to be exact. At that time the average male was only 5’8”. My grandpa was 5’10” which is a good height but not like the unusual height for the time of this unnamed ancestor. Not only that but from what my dad recalled a lot of the male members of his family were built like bears, very burly. Grandpa meanwhile was quite slender in build so some of the inspiration for giants could be memories of interacting with people who were taller than average for the period. That’s just my theory.
You offer further proof that everything keeps getting older the deeper we dig. I’m appreciative of the comments about other hominids entering our stories and myths as it makes sense that the myths and stories we have are ancient, layered inheritances. Thank you for your work.
Thank you for watching
If you mean to dig in an actual sense then the deeper you delve the more ancient the fossils will be, then I agree.
If you think claims are evidence then I need an explanation.
Because claims made in statements are not evidence. Evidence supports claims or the opposite direction and neither both can be true.
700LB buddha apparently teaches self discipline?
as the Norse mythology has 3 sets of gods, we can see it clearer.
so could we consider the giants the gods of the disorderly hunter-gatherers, which were subdued by the orderly agriculturalists, who were themselves conquered by the PIE?
the gods of stones and caves; the gods of the matriarchical fields; & the gods of the patriarchical herds?
This could very well be the case, with the jötnar being the oldest, the vanir being the old, and the Aesir being the tradditional gods. It does seem to fit.
@@Crecganford This corresponds well with the age of placenames in Sweden.
I think this can be a very valid model.
This is also found in Irish mythology. First there were the Formors or Formorians , then the Tuatha de Danann, and finally the Milesians.
Dude... 🤯🤯🤯
Keep in mind that in hindouism (and thus buddhism), happiness does not result from creating order from nature's chaos; but by accepting chaos as it is.
Maybe just like the Aesir embraced the existance of the Jotnir, (and the Vanir for that matter).
Loved your video. Keep them coming!
Thank you for the interesting comment, and for watching the video, it is all appreciated.
That sounds based.
Also Daoism and Shinto.
@@KnightofEkron Is that pun intentional?
@@InternetMameluq yes taoism and shinto too. But i mentionned hindouism as it is more likely to be related to the religion of the old norse pagans i mention in my initial post.
Wonderful video. I've often imagined that, with the Norse myth in particular, and based on the Patralinial Mammoth Hunter DNA present in the Indo-Europeans - Ymir and the creation of the world from his body, could be reflexes of Odin and his brothers on a "wild hunt" , where they later built shelter with the corpses of the Mammoths hunted.
Fantastic take! A quick reminder that the Wildhunt takes place 12/24-1/6 Christmas Eve to Epiphany the descent of the Holy Spirit. I doubt there are any coincidence
There's nothing as "INDO-european" .This term was invented by British to justify their occupation of India and steaI our sanskrit terms like Aryan and swastika (which has no meaning in any European language) .North indian vedic culture was different from European one and should be related to anything. So it's better you don't use such fake terms, and refer your ancestors as just Europeans.
@Prit Singh You do realize the Vedic Aryans migration was an off shoot of European Corded Ware, right? This is not only confirmed by ancient dna, but in the Vedas themselves. A great book on the topic is "The Arctic Homeland in the Vedas" by Tilak - though some information is outdated, the chosen source texts from Vedic Scripture help illustrate my point well. North Eastern Europe is and has long been the source, though after a certain World War this has become problematic to suggest, though impossible to dispute. Furthermore, the oldest evidence of a Swastika goes back to Ukraine with its precursor symbolism evident in the Mal'ta Buret culture of Siberia - from which R paternal lineages are derived(the most common in Europe, with notable R1a signatures in Northern India, which only show up after 1500BCE, ie the Aryan movement to India) The Swastika is present all over Europe for thousands of years, and it was the philogical congruencey that Europeans noticed between their languages and Sanskrit which spawned the term Indo-European - I must agree however, it should never have been called such. It's homeland is Europe, not India, and thus it is indisputably European.
@@pritsingh9766 You have no idea how much you embarrass yourself with your anti-scientific bs. This kind of historic negationism is proof that nationalism makes anyone dumb.
@@pritsingh9766 there is nothing like India
This has answered many questions I've had of old mythology. Well done.
And thank you for watching.
Loving this channel man, your content is absolutely fascinating and well presented. Great work! :)
Thank you for watching, and your support.
@@Crecganford Dude.. you sure know alot but are cluless. Read genesis 6.. learn about granite polonium halows, and the fact that geological layers are nothing more than sediment layers formed after Noahs flood. Thats why we have thousands of petrified trees standing through all layers at the same time.. hope this helps you a bit to get out of the black hole of lies the world fed you since day 1. God bless.. take care.
I gotta thank you for this video! This might help me a lot with my urban fantasy worldbuilding, especially with the origins of some of my races and pantheons. I hope to learn more from you!
I’m pleased you enjoyed it and it helps your research. I hope you do watch more, thank you.
I always saw the jötnar as the inherited memory of the Neanderthals
There could be a bit of that in there too, but that would make the stories very old and very Euro-centric which is less likely, but not impossible.
That idea crossed my mind too
I think it is very telling that every culture that lives where there were other hominids have stories about wild men on the edge of civilization and cultures from areas that didn’t have native hominid populations generally don’t have those stories.
Europe, Southeast and East Asia, and parts of Oceania have “wild people” stories, and Siberia and the Americas generally don’t.
I think there is a danger of over-literalizing, because people can just make things up and enjoy fantasy to the point of that fantasy becoming culturally important, but I also think it is important to call a spade a spade.
He are modern humans who have the evidence that we met those people and some made children with them.
It seems obvious that we would have had stories about this. If we are to speculate that some stories and folk tales extend back 15-20 thousand years, then we can presume that the equivalent to meeting aliens would also be in our culture stories as well.
I would think the Neanderthals were more analogous to the Dwarves.
@@dstinnettmusic The native Americans have stories of wild men though. Sasquatch, Wendigo, etc..
I stumbled across this channel on accident, but I am so glad I did. Keep up the good work man, your genuine love of history shines through in your content
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment, it is appreciated.
That's how I found him too... Funny how the world of Algorithm throws you a Great video🤩🤩.
Have a Rockstar day of warm smiles, joyous laughter and great stories☺️
I've always thought of the giants simply as a narrative neccessity because they help resolve a contradiction within the concept of mythology as a means to explain things.
Because if you are going to explain the natural phenomena of the world as observed in everyday life by telling stories of the gods, then these gods need to:
1: Be incredibly powerful, their wisdom strength and magical prowess far beyond the limits of mortal men. How else could they create the world, or establish order in a universe of chaos?
2: Be relatable. Before abrahamic monotheism became as popular as it has been in the past millennia, people were not too keen on ineffable plans or divine omnipotence. If a god in a story did something, they did it for a reason and that reason was something the people listening to the story could comprehend. Generally, the reason why anyone does literally anything is because they want to prevent or escape some kind of plight. You hunt so you can eat so you are not hungry. You build a house because you do not want to freeze. You build a wall around your village because you fear an attack. That is not different for the gods in those stories.
This however creates a contradiction: Why would beings so utterly powerful have to be afraid? Mythological stories often contain accounts of the gods employing their cunning to outsmart the enemy or seeking out means to become more powerful or even wiser.
To me, this is the reason why giants are part of these stories: Because the gods require competitors, enemies, beings of simular power and capability as them, but with other intentions. Foes that the gods could not easily crush with their might, but who in spite of their power should not be worshipped.
I once heard someone say (I believe it was Jackson Crawford) that it would more sense to call the Jötnar something like "anti-gods" rather than just giants, and I wholeheartedly agree. To me, their purpose is basically to normalize divine power so far that gods remain relatable for human believers and so that they can still serve as an example. For an honest Christian, the question "What would god do?" can only be answered with a simple shrug, as the abrahamic god is beyond mortal comprehension. A 9th century dane on the other hand might be able to come up with a guess as to how the likes of Thor, Odin or Loki would approach an issue and from that, they might draw a conclusion as to what they themselves should do.
Yes, where you say competitors, or anti-gods, I say chaos. They definitely have that kind of purpose. Thank you for watching, and a well thought out comment. It is really appreciated.
According to Enoch, the giants used all the resourcesof man, then ate humans and ended up eating eachother. So this would be a reason to guard against invasion of their iwn kind. There are huge megalithic remains of buildings that could not have been erected by normal size men.
@Darthplagueis13 I'm about to say your argument is a bit simplistic, but your saying that gods needed powerful enemies to be seen as powerful is one of the best single explanations I've ever heard! It explains Narrative as well as the Subjects of Narratives while you're at it! And your remark about people not being much into ineffable plans is hilarious! I love it!
@@teresaweeks8214 that’s just not true, what kind of structures exist, that humans couldn’t build?
@@lucabohn look at Balbeck.
as soon as this man spoke, subbed. Hes got the perfect voice to talk about this stuff
Thank you.
Thank you for another informative well put together and conducted podcast. Thanks so much. Mario
Jon, now I understand the Jotunn! Your channel is a wonderful source of information about the beliefs of our ancestors. I introduced my adult son back in Australia to your channel as he has a particular interest in Norse mythology, and you provide the connection to even older Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Thank you for watching, and your support. I do hope your son also enjoys these videos.
@@Crecganford I'm sure that will be the case, Jon! He has a big interest in mythology, especially Norse mythology. This is despite the fact that he now has a job as a laboratory micro-propagator of Australian native plants!
To the ones theorizing about other hominids. In Eastern Indonesia there has been an ancient folklore tail about a mischievous cannibalist old dwarf lady, called Ibu Gogo or Ebu Gogo (Grandmother who Eats all), who was said to live in the mountain forest and she would at night come down from the mountain and she would always taunt the villagers from a distance, but she would also kidnap and eat bad children from the village. This dwarf spoke a murmuring language which was not understood and she would interact with villagers on occasion but was often seen as non friendly, and practiced shamanistic and cannibalistic rituals which would be described in similar stories by different island tribes but the attributes would always be the same: mischievous character, cannibistic, dwarf and often living an isolated cave dwelling life, and not keen on engaging with the villagers, in some cases she was hunted. Sort of looking like an old version of Hans and gretle from the Pacific. It was long thought by anthropologists to be another myth or bedtime story the islanders told their kids to make them behave, until they actually discovered a new type of archaic human in the remains of what we now know as the hobbit or Java hominin - that appeared to have roamed the archipelago alongside modern humans and this human fit the exact description the islanders told about in their stories about this cannibalistic dwarf witch from the folklore. This race of human was found to be however extinct or assimilated over 50k years ago. The story describes in detail how this human probably looked and behaved towards modern humans when we first came to the island and encountered this human living there, where we chased them into the mountains where they forever blamed and taunted us bigger humans for their exile.
Thank s for watching, and taking the time to comment.
The way you wrapped up this video and gave your conclusion was beautiful
Subbed, love this channel already! Very well presented very professional yet casual. Love it keep it up man! Especially as a practitioner of Ásatrú this is great as our knowledge is always growing about our ancient mythos.
Thank you for watching, and please feel free to ask questions as I try my best to answer as many as I can.
@@Crecganford I will unfortunately I was really getting nice into this vid about 6-8 mins n w morning coffee and something came up lol.. But u absolutely will I’m a historian myself, “independent historian” as I mainly just tutor and write (I write all sorts of genres but my faves are alternative history or historical fiction and high fantasy n other fantasy genres as well as the “weird tale” and really kinda anything is my fancy.. but yea history and it’s cousins are my preferred area of learning and teaching.
Anyways sorry for the ramble I’m hitting the ringer bell for your notifications and putting this one in my watch later as I check that every few days tops…
Also given how I’m looking to possibly do some content creation related to my field, would love some further discourse I will have some pointed questions for ya soon!
Instead of the "short videos" I had said I preferred, I now concur with the majority of your responding-viewers - any length is okay with me. Because I have always wanted to assemble and understand the knowledge you share, I can focus. To me, it fits my perspective of reality, so I immediately understand you, even when it's the 'first time' I've heard it. The underlying profoundness of your own perspective is what is most exciting, delightful, and gratifying. (When I was young, my mentor would say, "You flatter, but you're sincere.")
The mind's nature is to seek the comfort of resolution - using mysticism or physical reality - but (to me) there is no absolute and soon the mind is stimulated to seek more correct - never arriving at 'most correct' - generalizations and understanding. As you said in a previous presentation, [in my words] wild chaos can give creative birth to new or greater knowledge and understanding to provide some stability. (Philosophically, Nietzsche has used the Greek's Dionyses and Apollo to describe this concept.)
Thank you, thank you, Jon White! for leading my mind to transcend the mundaneness of my daily self-imposed duties! The future may not know your name, but some will know that someone like you existed.
And thank you for your kinds words, for taking the time to comment, and for making me feel like what I do has a positive impact.
The giant of Grabbist in Somerset was friendly to humans saving the crews of sinking ships and protecting them from the devil by throwing him into the Bristol channel.
Never heard of this, but sounds absolutely fascinating. Any chance you got a link to follow, or an author/title I can find?
I see I’m not the only one to speculate on how other hominids might have influenced our early oral cultures ;)
Giants, Dwarves, elves, fairies, etc.
I think these are all ancient peoples (not specific tribes, just half-memories later codified as stories) who were similar to “us”….but also different enough to be terrifying. Who knows what these people could be capable of? Seemingly primitive but with their own magics…and you will notice these stories are nearly 1:1 with areas where hominid populations existed…Europe, Southeast Asia and Oceana. The exception is North America, but we have Gigantipithocus here, who wasn’t a hominid, but was an giant upright walking ape.
I think we still tell these stories to eachother still when we talk about Bigfoot, Yeti, Almas, Orang Pendek, etc.
9:00
Omg did I influence academia via a TH-cam comment? because you and I talked about this in the comments in your Genesis video, where you also talked about Manu and Yemo o.o
If I played a part, I’m honored :)
No you're not the only one. Lucky that most of your kind are quite harmless and the other part is safely locked away. 😂
Look into pygmies/leprechauns as well. There are insane oral histories on some cultures, including one where a large group of pygmies fought a war against a species of giant storks, and apparently that’s where the urban legend of the storks delivering babies came from.
Gigantopithecus was in Asia, not in North America. No evidence of them anywhere near there besides youtube charlatans.
@@teeheeteeheeish helps to know the title carried in legend. Those pygmies are not just legend but were known to the Cherokee as the moon eyed people and thousands and thousands of graves were found in the Appalachians. Some photos exist as well and pygmy doesn't do their tiny little bodies justice. They were Smurf like in stature. So tiny. The storks is also an interesting research. Not only did giant storks exist and skeletal remains have been found but also in the same region storks and other birds can be found on family crests so likely these were pirate like people using large storks as a sort of carrier pigeon to get these tiny people. My deduction from researching.
@@inquisitive- thanks for that, lots of cool information
Delighted by your lecture on this fantastic topic. Living in the eastern part of the Netherlands (Province of Drenthe) since a few months, we are surrounded by dolmen and longbarrows from the late neolithic and early bronze ages known locally as ‘Hune-bedden’ (literally ‘Giant’s beds’). They are primarily located on a fast geological ridge known as ‘de Hondsrug’, originally ‘Hünes rug’ or ‘Giant’s back’. The old tribes recognised and respected these ancient monuments of the land and their sacrality, though they did not know by who they were built. Some monumenal dolmens and even burial mounds stayed sacred and played a role as thing-places, five-thousand years on.
Thanks a lot! Enjoyed this insightful chat!
My pleasure!
I am excited to see this, having been intrigued by your discussion of the Vanir as being possibly from other and potentially earlier cultures.
I remain intrigued by the choice of the Poetic Edda's surviving Asgardians: Modi & Magni (Thor's Sons, Magni is half-giant, and their grandparents were Gaia and Odin); as well as Vidar & Vali (Odin's sons, both half-giants); and the resurrection of Hodr & Baldr (and thus possibly Hel). The Völuspá also spares Hoenir (one of the first 3 Aesir that created humans), and Njord - a Vanir of the sea; and a daughter of Sol - a sun goddess/Titaness. This is ultimately a wild mix of cultural influences and a really interesting start to a new Pantheon.
Thank you for watching, and I am happy to speculate (unlike some other academics) as I feel it allows thoughts to be more easily expressed providing they’re given context. The Old Norse pantheon really is fascinating as your peel away layers and try to understand why it is like it is.
When you say Gaia do you mean Erde?
I think since humans tend to exaggerate("that guy I fough was BIGGER, but I defeated him because Im destined because Im stonger!"): previous homo species who ruled some lands with their tribes, were our ancestors' "giants", and their stories passed on with additional exaggeration to make the story more amazing and epic.
I'm absolutely fascinated by the nature of myths and legends and how they might have come from previous events or inspired by what these ancient peoples saw around them, be them ancient structures, astronomical phenomena or half-forgotten wars.
Your channel was a godsend!
Thank you so much for watching, and your kind words.
Not Myths.
Recorded History it is.
Our timeline thinks they know better.
Its our History.
@@4pmpm114
Ok, you made a few claims.
How did you determine this?
What did you actually actively do to discern what you are stating as a fact?
Can you describe the process you used?
What about the nature of biology?
That does count.
Its striking how many parallels there are between Norse and Hittite mythology. The primary Anatolian God 'Tarh' and his battles with the serpent Iullyanka, is identical to the myth as Thor and the Midgard serpent.
Yes the battling of the serpent is a common motif in mythology, especially across Eurasia. I do touch on this in my Dragon Slaying video. That might be worth watching if you’re interested in that. Thank you for watching this, and your comment. It is all appreciated.
All these stories are the same, but with different names
@@brooklynboiprod
Not completely unreasonable
The Greeks and many other polytheistic religions believed that other religions were just variations of each other
Feudalism
The greeks and the hittites and the goths are all brothers.
@@LordBackuro
I don't know if the following as any relevance but in the beginning of The Prose Edda Thracia, Troy and Anatolia are mentioned
"where Tror (Thor) travelled widely and overcoming all manner of berserkers and giants as well as one of the greatest dragons...."
I just got cotton-eyed-joe stuck in my head from the intro- “where did they come from? Where did they go?”
Fun fact: In Danish Ymir ( ymer) means yogurt - says alot about our close ancient "relationship" with cows.
Thanks for a great video 👍 greetings from Denmark.
I never knew that, thank you!
Different spellings denote differences in meaning.
Bible doesn't have a real definition.
It's a wordplay on the Greek word for book, biblia.
It doesn't mean more than book.
And is the root of the word for bible.
Ymir- Ymer
Notice the dissimilar spelling which also denotes a difference in pronunciation.
It's evidently not the same word.
@@jrskp3677 This is entirely untrue, words are found in different forms at different times through time in the same language. Sometimes the same word can Even be found in other languages in other forms; Thunder and Thor for example, though not immediately visible share a word root, and have evolved from the same word, Even though Thunder no longer looks the same as the word Thor.
@@-_pi_-
Thuma is thunder
Elding is lightning in old Norse, minus the symbol for the "th" sound.
As much as languages go through evolution, there wasn't ever a person who was the first to speak Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and such and are all descendants of Latin.
Evidently, these people didn't make a decision to do this either.
So, there are parts of your position I don't dispute and others that are also not in dispute but for a different reason.
@@jrskp3677 That’s basically the point I’m getting at here, when does a word split from its relatives and become a different word/if it ever really does is up for linguistic debate. On the surface Pedes and Feet aren’t related, but being semantic about it one could say its the same word affected by different sound changes, or that its undergone enough changes to be its own word. I could make arguments for or against both views.
The goat drops another banger!🐐
Thank you so much for your kind words
I'm really happy to find a more academic video talking about the origins of giants - I've had a lot of discussions involving a sort of mutual mythos building between hunter-gatherers and city-dwellers where the HGs became 'giants' in some form, and the city dwellers would become dwarves to the hunter-gatherers. Learning some more of that social connective tissue is really neat, it makes me wonder how long the indo-european peoples using these myths may have understood hunter-gatherers as the previous form of society!
I recently stumbled upon your channel and very glad I did... I've dipped into at least one video a day since then. Fascinating subject this morning... I will be enjoying it over my coffee. Thank you good sir
Thank you for watching, and taking the time to comment, it is appreciated. And We do allow coffee drinkers here, even though tea is a much better drink :)
@@Crecganford Coffee for mornings, tea for evenings ;) and thank you as well for the response, it is also appreciated. I look forward to more of your work ☀️🙏
I appreciate the conclusion and the application of these ancient lessons to contemporary life. This is my favorite thus far. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.
And thank you for watching it.
Got to love Norse mythos where Frost Giants weren't necessarily giants and Dwarves weren't really short.
I think the creation myth with Ymir is really interesting: of the world being born of ice and how these myths go really far back, whispers of colder times and probably a similar root to the flood myths.
If you watch the flood myth video I give clues, and hopefully my next video will answer a this a little more.
🌎: "🙂"......................
Links to real things in our history.
Cold times Ice age
I always appreciate the amount of research put into your videos
Thank you, I appreciate your kind words.
As a Christian interested in shared PIE history (and admittedly biased that some form of paleoHebrew understanding differs greatly from misconceptions derived from a more recent Iodaismos, which was more influenced by Babylonian occultism; i.e. not to be confused with Iodaismos), it strikes me as resentment when ethnic brethren (usually those also with strong drives in understanding our PIE history) blame Christianity as a whole for essentially undermining the history and cultural elements of our ancestors. While it may hold a lot more credibility than we initially give credit (largely due to sweeping generalizations we get from poorly-taught history) that the early conversion efforts where accompanied by many noble efforts of also preserving language, culture, and myths in writing, I consider it fair enough to categorize the aggressive/disrespectful nature of any conversion efforts to be repulsive. If such methods could be forgiven, it helps openmindedness to the concept that the ideologies are reconcilable. I speculate that one of the most challenging concepts to reconcile is the idea of gods/goddesses in PIE pagan myths with the idea of the Christian and paleoHebrew religion of "only one God" (though many occasions of Him acting in different forms/roles and through other agents). However, I contend that the paleoHebrew understanding, largely misconstrued based on translation issues and traditions of misteaching through Iodaismos, was that there were beings somewhere near "angels" that many others would have considered gods/goddess. Of course, the Ben Elohim passage in Genesis 6 (which takes place BEFORE a major event, whether regional or planetary) has been discussed already for the mention of the Nephilim. But the translation issue mentioned here for the Jotnar/giants is incredibly similar to El and Gibborim in ancient Hebrew. Respectively, they can mean lord/lords/god/gods and mighty ones [of old]/mightier/mightiest. Thus, when I read in Genesis 6 that the "sons of God" (Ben Elohim) did whatever they did with the "daughters of men" (of Adamites) as the origin story for the Gibborim (might ones of old), I see the same story, just with more distance from involvement from a being much higher up in the pantheon, as interactions between the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotnar. I also see the same story, but with a different spin on what may have happened, in Cain, Abel, and Seth as Manu, Yemo, and Trito. One suspicion I have is that if the descendants of the antagonist of that story developed their own myths (perhaps the Kenites), they might make their patriarch a hero, remove emphasis upon the God of the protagonist, make pacts with the later "mighty ones" for wisdom and assistance, and even treat the victimized Abel as if he was some cattle that needed to be sacrificed. And if those "mighty ones"/Jotnar in the Norse-myths interacted with the original inhabitants later encountered by Germanic peoples that migrated there and later recorded those myths, they may have justified some of the practices that would have been condemned by cousins elsewhere (protaganists in the paleoHebrew). For example, the difference between the Aesir and Vanir in practicing seidr/sorcery/divination could be the equivalent of the difference between the Ben Elohim (sons of the mightiest above the Nephilim and Gibborim) that mated with the daughters of Adamites and those that did not, the very difference between angels and fallen angels (Nephilim) perhaps, if one puts the Lucifer-became-Satan-theory out of mind for one moment, as it is not actually clear canonically, being incredibly contradictory with the chronology depicted in Revelation 12, which is one of the most cited passages in Christian canon for supporting such a theory. If Revelation 12 is taught wrong by most Christian practitioners influenced by false teachings, but still correct, and the Lucifer-became-Satan theory is disqualified from this discussion, then the reconciliation of these ideas between PIE paganism and paleoHebrew monotheism can be much better understood.
Thank you for watching, and for taking the time to write down your thoughts.
This is the best video on you channel I have seen so far.
I always fancied Trolls and Giants and was upset that they were always defeated. The older scientific works on mythology (like Golthers and Grimm) identified them as the gods of old, while newer material (Katja Schulz) just concluded them being members of other tribes and cultures. This made me unhappy, due to lack of glamour. You bound the strings together, that both of it is true in some way and now I really understand the concept in indo-european culture like you promised in the beginning of the video. Thanks for that.
Thank you for watching and your kind words.
I love learning more about giants - they turn up so often in the mythology of the British Isles!
The true origin of Giants is told in BIBLE,Genesis 6:2-4, When the Sons of God(=fallen angels=nefilim,hebreic=fallen) took the daughters of men as their wifes (and maybe also later,they appear in Canaan and should be killed by Israelites)
and got kids, they were giants,
What could be very interesting concerning languages and myths is taking a look at Basque mythology to find out whether or not a form of giant can be found in their myths and legends as well. The reason behind this idea is that Basque is a language isolate and probably the only surviving pre-indoeuropean language in all of europe.
But they are heavily influenced by IE in the last thousand years or so... So idk about that
Finnish and Same languages are surviving p.i. languages as well. Interestingly in Same language are loanwords or
vice versa from Basque that meaning they have had commercial or cultural connections by sea when Same people populated Finnish ground wider,before being pushed up to Lapland as original nomads.
@@maija-liisapiittari9618 The Irish version of the name "Finn" is written "Fionn" and means "fair-haired". So I don't know if there's a connection.
@@Juarqua We Finns are mostly fair-haired ! The scribe style might have changed, too.? Or ? But thank you for answering.
Jentil giants from Basque mythology.
I wish I stumbled upon this video a few years earlier when I was doing a research on a similar topic. I found you by a mere chance and I really enjoyed your presentation and your vast knowledge as well. Thank you!
Thank you for your kind words, they are appreciated.
Saw a post about some polarization...I say controversy is good. Keep them coming!
thank u for sharing stuff like these as an scandinavian these stories are important and have an signicance in our culture and can learn from them but i think it is an Asatrú made it too make sense of the world and believe in an something greater and that the Giants resemblence evil forces and i love ur content Crecganford keep it up man Skål!!! :)
In Finland the Jötunn are called Jatuli, the Saami called them Jiehtanas. They settled in Kvenland before the Saami and Suomalaiset (Finns) came to the Finnish peninsula thousands of years ago and were considered to be Finno Ugric. Its known that Kvenland called Kainuu in Finnish was known for very tall people. Its speculative but Jatuli were generally from 6'5" up to 8 footers. Jötunn were not Norse, but Finnic. The tallest soldier in WW2 was Helsinki born Väinö Myllyrinne and was 8 foot 3 inch, so its completely plausible. Myllyrinne was proportionate and athletic, not crippled like most giants like Robert Wadlow
Fornjotur was a Jötunn he had 3 sons, one of which was the Jötunn Aegir (or Hler). Aegir could be Ahti Saarelainen of the Kalevala. Ahti Saarelainen lived on the Island of Laeso just north of the Danish peninsula. Saarelainen means Islander, saari is Island. Although Ahti is called Lemminkäinen in Kalevala, its a gloss by Lönnrot, so Väinämöinen maybe Ahti instead.
Aegir may also very well be Väinämöinen as Väinämöinen was know to be strongly associated with the sea and water. Väinä means slow moving broad river. Aegir was known to get along well with the Aesir and at times with the Vanir, in contrast Aegirs brother Loge (Liekko) was hostile to both Aesir and Vanir. So I believe in Euhemerism, and that these were living breathing folk who were later mythologized.
Also the Finnish god Juma, Jumo had a twin named Jon, Jyn or Jen (depending on dialects) and they correspond closely to the IE Manu and Yemo, and Indian Yami and Yama. Ymir has a nod at Jumo, as Ymir means twin.
It could be just some batic sea culture thing some of the first people in the area could have been the original believer of the Jötunn, but I have doubts that the jötunn were real. However as I'm typing this i had a thought 🤔. What if the jötunn are Neanderthal accounts of humans. Humans are taller than Neaderthal on average and the first human in the area would have encountered them on the way. Tales of humans could have traveled fasters than humans did enough for them to inflat the size and as the IE and Uralis people come in the story to spread
Genesis 6:4 always bugged me: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to." I am no religious man, but I do consider the Bible to be an important bundle of ancient stories
It is a fascinating book of mythology, and I do treat it like that and worth reading for that purpose.
@@Crecganford Exactly!
Another request. How about looking into The Cynocephali, the dog-headed men. They are mentioned a lot in middle English writings and even older writings. Anubis was the jackel-headed god of death in ancient Egypt. Also their land is notated on many old maps. And members of the church, saints and monks talked of them and argued whether they had souls or not or whether they were the minions of the devil. I remember reading that a dog-headed man lead the wild hunt.
I too would like to see a video about different cultures mythology relating to these mysterious creatures.
I know they were described by European sources as being located in the Altai mountains. But I think there is also an ancient Greek account that puts them in the mountains of India. If I remember correctly, I could be getting mixed up but I think that a Chinese myth includes cynocephali in 'Kabul' which is located across the mountains not too far from northern India ?
I'm glad that I've grown out of my intense childhood fear of Anubis and Cynocephali. I would like to see a video about this too!
St. Christopher was depicted as a dog-faced man, in very early Christian work.
Primitive humans seeing much in their environment they couldn't understand or explain as simple human activity, used a very fertile imagination and propensity for looking for agency, naturally came up with some really fantastic folk lore.
I am so happy that a english speaking youtuber finally describe the Jötnar as more than just giants/frostgiants they was so much more to the nordic culture
Thank you, I hope you like the other videos here too.
Giant can be a physical attribute, but also can describe intellect, power, etc.
And you make a wonderful point talking about Egyptian Ptah, the creator, who was represented as a dwarf or midget.
Great video as usual! :)
Thank you, and yes, there were many reasons on why something became a giant, and they are good attributes to highlight.
@@Crecganford
Please describe this in further detail, thanks.
27:00 if the Giants are a result of the influence of a previous culture, in this case the influence definitely happen before the Indo-Europeans separated and migrated in Europe, Southern Asia and India. Because the giants are present in all Indo-European mythologies, and the Twin is present in pretty much every mythology (see Remus for example, his name means the Twin).
Yes, I agree
This sounds like a confirmation bias more than anything else.
Like you're predisposed to believing giants over the objective reality which doesn't fit into the narrative.
That said, why would you believe in something that defies the natural world?
If something is true then there's good reason for it.
(True for/to you doesn't count)
Truth is objectively verifiable, testable and falsifiable too.
Did you ever try to falsify the belief in giants pertaining to the evidence?
Like biological processes.
What about how stories are claims and not evidence.
Just because an ancient prehistoric culture has written stories, doesn't mean it was actually recording historical events, animals or person's.
Cain and Abel, as well.
@@fairygal8223 Are they twins though? But yes, there is similarity, as the Twin gets sacrificed in the PIE mythology (Remus and Ymir for example). Ymir is not murder by his brother though, but by Odin, Villi and Ve.
@@fairygal8223
They weren't ever described as giants. Or did I miss this, please include the verse in which you derive this conclusion, thanks.
I always thought religious myths were more representative than to be taken literally. This approach is a fantastic explanation! Very easy to listen to and follow. Since I recently began discovering Heathenry, I thank you!
Why not Bible, instead. I bet you never have really read it as it is written.
It begins before creation, goes beyond time, into another dimension.'It includes all history and future of the whole mankind and is the truth and whole truth and stands when the world disappears. It is the love letter of God to mankind and the history is His Story.
I have to disagree, the bible starts after creation, and takes all of its mythology from other, older sources.
@@Crecganford Dr. Michael S. Heiser has some interesting books concerning this topic. "Hermon reversed", videos. etc illuminating stuff. Of loans and their meaning. Of Divine Council, Cosmic Geography etc. Higly recommend, they are interesting and open new sights to history. Ancient is most interesting, esp. when explaining the end from the beginning.
@@maija-liisapiittari9618 Can you explain to me, then, what is the Trinity and whether that makes Christianity polytheism? This alone is very confusing to me and seems illogical.
Personally, I just never believed the underlying message of eternal damnation for simply not believing in one God or doing bad deeds in life. I never related to the supposed "all-loving" singular God who was also full of vengeance and intolerance.
I tend to find Heathenry very useful in connecting spiritually with the land and ancestors. It's speaks to blood and soil which is very real.
@@traddad7756 I can try to answer, I'll do my best, but it is the Holy Spirit of God almighty, streaming out of Father God and the son of God, Jesus Christ, who shall explain it in his great mercy, because it is His job, to clarify to us Jesus Christ, our Savior from the power of Satan, Hell, Death and sin. Should I say first, that Christianity is
meaningless to you, unless you first understand, where you are saved from. And that the spiritual realm is more real than the obvious seen one. The modern physics has made this clear in Quantum mechanics from the beginning of last century. The materialistic worldview became obsolete by then.
The singular God is the (un)god of islam, a despotic one. It is not the same as our God in Christianity.The Trinity is the secret of love, you see, There is perfect love and harmony between them 3. You can never say in islam that God is love, as it is in between the Godhead. And from where it's radiating to the creation. It is the union of 3, unity= not polyteism. Where is one person of them in action, there are all 3 of them. I'm not native englishspeaker, hope I can get this clear. God is both just and merciful and all sin demand justification, and that took place in the Cross. Vengeance of sin when our sinless Jesus suffered it on behalf of us. But it is of no use, if you not accept is as a free gift .From the Holy Trinity, where Father God himself was on the Cross in Lord Jesus CHRIST( =anointed to this task) reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of conciliation. (2 Cor.5:19) For He has made Him to be sin(offer) for us, that we might be made righteousness of God in him.(21)
Quite a generous offer,or? For God's foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of men. You can't find any logic in this. or can you?
The Hell is meant to Satan only and to with him fallen angels, but if you choose to bear your trespasses and sins, God doesn't force you to Heaven. It's all your choice.
The Heaven is actually another dimension, when you're saved and in Christ, it starts here among us and goes on into eternity. The dimensions "are mixed"here. The time is just a dimension of mater, as Einstein saw it.
And in heaven, there is no time, it's another dimension,totally, that's why the descriptions of it are so lacking,poor.
But if you're making a tour through paganism, that might be good and meant to
you, actually I too made a tour through world religions, before Lord Jesus found me, and I went straight to Bible School. I never could have imagined to become a believer, but everything is possible to God.= All is easy to our God.
And there in the Bible are many gods, really, but also The Most High God.
Psalm 82, and many places tell it. Dr. Mike S. Heiser is explaining this in his videos: Reversing Hermon, Unseen Realm, etc. And Books. Interesting,
there are so many misconceptions of this stuff that no wonder apostasy is taking place everywhere by now, especially in the West. Into Ireland Christianity came already 500 AD, and to us to Finland around 1200 AD. Sadly it seems to be a thin layer over paganism, shamanism and witchcraft,which all are returning
well and alive. Jonathan Cahn just published a book: "The Return of Gods," a review of this. The western culture having become possessed of demons of all kind and the exorcism which happened after the beginning of Christianity having faided away needing exorcists in today's world commonly. The videos in youtube, by Derek Gilbert and his books of Saturn and ancient Gods and their many names can explain what's now taking place everywhere, paganism is here, among us. No need to go to search it further, just
open your eyes and see, look around and think a bit. What's going on.
This whole evolution, all the history of mankind has been written in Bible,
and in the Revelation specially. You can read there what's going on now and
what's to come, what to expect. It can explain the mess coming out in news and
has no sense, all the nonsense and deception being everywhere.
Just came across you channel yesterday. I've watched a few videos so far, but just wow at the interaction you have in the comment sections. Currently it seems void of nonsense and generally filled with deep thinkers. It's refreshing.
Thank you, I do try to help and converse with all those who interact with the channel.
Your videos are doing soooooo good bro!
Cheers Derek! Thanks for watching, you know you love the old gods really :)
I always assumed Jötunn, Gigantes, Fir Bolg, and so on were a sort of "wild god" opposed to the "civilized gods" like the Olympians and Aesir. Much more forces of nature personified than other deities.
FOMORIAN
Rather than just being a myth about the origin of megaliths in isolation, the stories seem to reflect experience of another set of people that are like "us" but not "us"; who are generally more physically powerful than us; who were capable of having offspring with us and who could often be physically desirable and whose bloodlines were thought to provide power (magical or physical) to the offspring; who live in caves and can be wise or monstrous. To me these attributes quite easily describe Neanderthals, and the parallel in the archealogical record of the time when Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals were living alongside each other is well proven, as is the interbreeding between them, so we know with certainty that this happened - the populaitons overlapped for up to five and a half thousand years in some places. It would also explain why these stories appear in the societies descending from the proto-indo-europeans as those populations are the ones carrying Neanderthal DNA. It seems possible that the sacrificial world origin may even be a surviving origin story told to us by Neanderthals. You recently gave evidence of the survival of the Cosmic Hunt story surviving for a similar length of time, so it doesn't seem impossible!
Yes, a few people think this, and I must say whilst I think it is unlikely, it is not impossible to consider.
The primary focus here is on the Nordic. In the Greek, the Titans are also not of enormous size in the myth and many are also noted for their wisdom, such as Prometheus, Themis, and Metis.
Speaking of Metis, she is Zeus' first wife who he consumed to prevent her from giving birth to a child that would overthrow him. She was pregnant at time and gave birth to a daughter who erupted from Zeus' head as the goddess Athena. As the Titan Metis and Olympian Athena are almost identical beings, it is possible that this myth is used to explain the Hellenization of an older native deity absorbed into the Greek pantheon.
Comparative mythology essentiial to gain insight about our human story.
Fascinating John, love the comparative similarities and differences of the myths to come to a conclusion - and your passionate telling of these. Many thanks.
And thank you for watching my videos, and taking the time to comment. It is always appreciated.
@@Crecganford Could a similar conclusion for giants also be applied to the like of Fairies, sprites and other common mythical creatures - or are these types of mythic beings too different and disparate across the various mythologies to draw/apply the same thought process to? Or are the more diminutive mythical people more closely aligned with actual physical/geographic cultural stories?
In Ireland it seems some of the giants are earlier groups of invaders.
But for the Greek and Norse giants it sure seems to be the case.
What about Sumerian and Babylonian giants ? They seem to be different groups rather than gods. The Niflheim or whatever that was... and Goliath was just a big Philistine .
Great discussion
Thank you, it does open up many questions, which allows me to make more videos, and drink more tea.
@@Crecganford
Why don't you do a video on the biological processes that would need to happen to have giants?
Then where are the burial grounds?
The fossilized remains?
Notice how these videos don't ever have real answers or evidence?
@@jrskp3677 because the evidence is stolen just like the engineering that supposedly took us to the moon in 1969
Have you been watching TV 📺 lately? The whole world is a myth.
Gen 6.
The Giants (Nephilim) were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God (fallen angels) came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
We have found bones and have seen so many stories about finding bones throughout history. They were real in my little opinion.
Yes, they were real, and some are trying to revive them again as is done in Jurassic Park-movie. By gene manipulation, found in those old bones,
which all suddenly disappear somewhere after they are found . Darpa and Pentagon are most interested in creating super-cyber-soldier-robots etc.
of that kind. And those jailed in Abyss from old are soon to be released
to torture mankind, as is told in Revelation 9. Gog being the king of the locusts coming up of the abyss. Maybe CERN is releasing them with it's
activities. Standing on the place of the old temple of Apollyon=GOG=destroyer.
Also, in Irish mythology we have The Fomorians or Fomori (Old Irish: Fomóire. They are often portrayed as giants and their story is very similar to aspects of Norse and Greek mythology.
So glad I found this channel. Love hearing the educated reasoning for how and why the old myths arose. You can imagine an iron age man seeing standing stones or erratic boulders and being asked by his kids who put them there and answering "the giants". He's certain of this because of pareidolia he's seen faces in the crags on the mountains and the monsterous stone bones as they fall out of the cliffs. Many thanks, keep up the good work. 👍
Thank you so much for watching and your kind words. They are very much appreciated.
LOVE the begging between chapters.
TH-cam isn’t easy, and is quite resource hungry, otherwise we’d all be doing it.
In the Egyptian pyramid texts, the god-king or Pharaoh is sometimes described as "exceedingly tall" i.e., a giant like that depicted with Orion or Uarion. The description of giant rulers is common in the ancient world like with the Ugarit god Baal, and the Babylonian god Marduk. In ancient Sumer, the gods are depicted as giants. I suspect that being described as a giant is synonymous with power. It's a kind of typology.
That's interesting, especially considering the size attribute I discuss here. Thank you for sharing that.
No, indo - European people of all R paternal lineages where all very tall in their own respective mythologies. It had to do with cow milk , following of dharm as code of conduct in each moment of life and ascetic practices.
Body is also a manifestation of your spiritual energy. And when people are laden with negative karma - they mentally physically weak.
A bit complex to explain. But yes it's true.
@@Crecganford I will also add, from my reading of Gerald Massey on Egyptian religion, that the giant was synonymous with periodic time. The god that was associated with solar time was considered taller, larger than the god of lunar time: solar is eschatological or "the last things" and is therefore greater. Lunar period is much shorter than solar period. This is why, says Massey, the lunar god Thoth defeats or "slays" the god Seth in the Book of the Dead: the latter being the "giant-slayer". In this way, the legend can be compared with the Hebrew legend of David (Thoth) and Goliath (Seth), the latter being a giant. So this interprets giants as a typology of periodic time.
Power and periodic time are also linked. Anyone looking for giant skeletons embedded in the ground will not find them. The giants of old where never real giants. They were never real divine beings. They were mythical figures described via typology, describing periodic time, celestial objects and their power or stature. Size is associated with length of time, and the greater the time, the greater the power or force and stature among the other divine beings. The creator god (unknown to the ancients, but to the Egyptians became the god Amun) set time in motion, a cosmos in perfect harmony, and then came the other "lesser" gods, who brought forth chaos, the children of Nut in Egyptian religion. First came harmony and then discord. This discord was corrected by going back in time or reversing time. This is why many ancient religions were about creation: they are describing creation myths from typology and reversing time. Giants represent big power and stature and larger periodic time. Lesser gods fought the giants by slaying them, another way of describing lunar time eclipsing that of solar time.
Most giants found in mounds are in The Americas, truly fascinating finds of very large people.
This is true in Ireland , as well.
@@fairygal8223 both very close in proximity, makes sense
Well, in Hindu Vedic scriptures, the gods are themselves were very tall and gigantic and almost blaze like sun blazes at noon - with an extremely powerful golden hue and aura.
Though as we see , some opponents they fight or face maybe way too big even for them.
Like Indra fought vritra who could grow up to the size of oceans and basically block them all.
Similarly, Veerbhadra is described as God of gods - born from just a small tuft of lord Shiva's large hair. He was said to have made the entire earth tremble with his might and terror and he was so tall that scriptures say he touched the skies.
Nothing could describe his prowess and might..all attributed to his birth imbued with billions of years of ascetic penance of lord Shiva.
He is himself described as the fiercest ascetic.
When he landed on earth , there were tsunamis all across the world. He punished and defeated all the gods who had dared participate in a yagya ( large scale fire ritual ) where lord Shiva was deliberately mocked and disrespected by the person conducting or sitting as the chief of yagya. He was daksha.
You should certainly find an equivalent of Virbhadra. But he is described as something way beyond all descriptions..
Virbhadra is fierce and born from lord Shiva's tuft whereas lord Shiva's own seed born son - kartikeya is also described as majestic and powerful.
Thank you for writing such an interesting comment.
Just a clarification that Indra is the title for the head of the gods who live in heaven.....
Always a pleasure John, thank you for making these videos which are fast becoming my 'goto' for all things mythology. amazing work Sir...
John, at first I thought, I'm not gonna be able to listen to this guy because of this accent, but then your content hit me like a giant sledgehammer. I don't drink tea, yet, but man, this is incredible! Thank you for your work! You're intelligent. I can see through your eyes that you and I have some similar characteristics. Be good.
Thank you, your kind words are appreciated.
Another thing: 'myth' doesn't always mean 'not true', so even as a Christian myself I can label many of the stories in the first half of the Old Testament (not just Genesis) as mythology. They're probably not entirely true, but regardless of if they were true or not, they're still myths by definition.
Some religious people might get offended if their sacred stories are called myths, but that's usually because they assume that we're using the Mythbusters definition of myth rather than the traditional sacred belief definition of myth.
Immanuel Velikovsky's books of the development of the solar
system tells of ancient historic events found in folklore of all world.
IN the Bible as well.Where the Exodus and the 10 plagues having been Venus
bypassing the earth and moving from comet into planet in the solar system. And collisions of planets, Mars ets. The changing of calender
when earth moved further away from the sun, thus getting 5 days more in the year. "The worlds in collision"-book tells of it interestingly.
Love your content mate! I got interested in Indo-European mythology and culture recently. I’m doing my own research. Maybe someday we can collaborate. 😁
Just a small question. Before the modern human migrated to Europe from Africa, Europe was abode of the Neanderthals. They were stronger and big in size but modern humans were able to outnumbered them. Is it possible that some of the stories or the faint memory of that time got imbibed into mythology and gave birth to giants? We often see giants aren’t moving as a group. They are mainly separated out, like the Neanderthals. And as the proto Indo-Europeans were mainly from Europe, do you think that the giants could be those other human sub-species who were still living in the cave or in the jungle?
I love teaching, and so if I can help I will, although please consider my time isn’t limitless. And as for Neanderthals, it is definitely a possibility, although personally I like the aspect of using aspects of the landscape to convince the people that giants used to live. But we will never know for sure. Thanks for watching, and if you want to collaborate please feel free to get in touch via email (see my About page).
I would not discard the size of Giants, supported by the numerous large bones found, and large weapons that strong men cannot use. Interesting the knowledge of mythology, something to learn about.
I agree, occasionally the size was necessary, but many giants were not large, and so was not an essential property to have and so be called a giant.
I find it interesting that the conflict between Aesir and Vanir are solved by trading hostages, and the way it happens. It almost reads as an instruction. When you cant take land by force, offer to trade hostages, make sure the hostage you trade away are intelligent. Have your hostage gain politicial influence over your adversaries. Reap the benefits.
Well. I was just gonna say: this is a very interesting channel and the lectures are great but please don't let your video titles be auto-translated when the video is in English anyways with no subtitles. Because that's how many, many other channels do it. Of course, to be sure, I actually looked at it before writing this comment. And what do I see? Subtitles! For a huuuge number of different languages! And they seem to be outstandingly well done, so big fat kudos from me and thank you very much. Even though I don't need them, it's awesome to see someone putting effort into making their channel as accessible as possible
I do write my own subtitles, you should be able to select them.
Another theory is they could be the Nephilim, the Angel/human hybrids of Christian texts. (The book of Enoch 1 that was removed) Enoch still remains in the Ethiopian Bible. The native Americans told stories of giants as well. I love what you are doing, hopefully it brings us all together to combine all the old texts to see the similarities
2nd Enoch has a reflex of the PIE creation myth written in it, and so this would all tie together. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
These men and women of old and renoun were not the demons they are now spoken about, you’ve only got to look around our war ravaged world today to see who the true demons are.
Oy vey
Not sure if the giants are ex gods, but our boomer supreme court surely does consists of hella ancient species that we're not sure if they even are our ancestors after all.
True
When the Anglo-Saxons arrived in Britain, they described the Roman ruins they found as 'the work of giants'...now we know why.
Exactly, yes, thank you for commenting and watching!
Incredible video with a profound message at the end because modern people could definitly profit from accepting the view that existence is a struggle against the chaos of life and that the only way to deal with that pain is to act heroic and bear it willingly.
I think another very important part of the myth has to do with the familial relationship between the slayer and the slain. Odin's mother Bestla was a Jötunn and Ymir was the progenitor of all Jotnar. As you said we see this motive of Manu and Yemo in many myths like Tiamat being the mother of all gods, Osiris and Set being brothers etc. I believe this about a destructive human behaviour that Friederich Nietzsche called ressentiment which to this day is very common in not only familiar settings but also on larger scales like political movements. I presume our ancestors had to deal with this quiet often when relatives were left with next to nothing due to inheritance and became resentful towards their sibling recieving the farm.
An article in the Guardian from 2015 called 'Mass grave reveals prehistoric warfare in ancient European farming community' describes a massacre amongst the early farming communities.
In the Bible there is the story of Cain slaying his brother Abel out of resentment. After being exiled from Eden Cain is the founder of the first city, so the first builder, and his decendant Tubal-Cain is the first blacksmith and forges the first weapons of war. Killing one of Cain's decendants results in them avenging the death sevenfold. The message of the story is clear that resentment only leads to pain and destruction and to continue it's path will only increase it exponentially.
Thank you for watching
According to John Kraft (1999), place names chronology in Sweden challenge the Eddas. Skade/Skädja was a very early figure in the mythology. It would be interesting to see the shadows of her world.
Thank you for watching, and taking the time to comment. It is appreciated.
Considering the Dacian idea that they were immortal, and when they died the soul ascended to the sky to become a star, then it makes sense that the earlier men, especially kings, ascended to heaven to become the biggest stars. As we call jupiter and saturn gas giants, so would the ancients who could see these giant souls, then titans, then later gods, would consider them giants.
The titans seam to be both older deities, as well as some of them made up. Krios has no mythology, and may have been invented to round out the mythology (although there is a place of the same name to the south, on Crete, that shares the same name, and Krios is the titan of the south). However, some titans seam ancient. Variations of Eos (the dawn) appear all over the world, often with similar names, and Eos was a titanid.
But what about the giants of greak mythology, and I do not mean the titans, but the 24 earthborn giants?
Weirdly, their may be a connecting link, with shared name. Pallas springs to mind, being both a giant, and a titan, and a nymph, and a goddess.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing.
I have just recently discovered this channel, I am so grateful for the knowledge you're sharing. Absolutely fascinating.
Thank you so much for watching, and taking the time to comment. It is appreciated.
Thank you for this channel, as my name suggests I enjoy ancient history.
Well, I'm really surprised by the quality of your video and being more informative and entertaining than I have expected.
Thank you for your kind words, they are appreciated.
Partway through I realized that phrase, “Standing on shoulders of Giants.” applies. Giants ancestors. And keepers of strange useful ways and powers. And Giants as strange women, whom might make wives.
Yeah. They are simply the forces of the past, or outside. Chaos in many ways, but Chaos given form. Who wear the form of this like and unlike those whom represent the warrior representation of archetypal men. Of the essence of those who hold the Mythos forward in tradition and culture.
You know as a descendent of Europeans, it’s interesting to recall these. To reassociate with them. Though I’m American. And know highly unspecific origins. Still I find that a strength, not a weakness. I am forced to associate with a thousand origins. And parse from each one it’s meaning, and collate the principles in many ways, distant from the specifics, while closest to the essence. Which means I have a personal association with the principles themselves, that accounts for it’s many manifestations.
I also don’t begrudge Christianity like many of these newly educated pups. Their perspective being laid down within them in the past 60 years. One who hates the entire thing for it’s crimes, but knows nothing of the circumstance of actual men, and their troubles and perspectives over those several thousand spans. On one hand seeing the loss of a culture unique to them, on the other ignoring or cheering the cultures subsumed by the one they lament the loss of. As the world was, has been, and may well be again. The needs of the moment dictate a new or reinterpreted relationship with these concepts. So with that, the readaptation of these old ways is showing something bigger. What is good. And what is evil. And how to understand who these stories were told by, when, and what they meant to them. Context. Which is also what’s happening to Christianity.
The advantage among all is that even if we can’t believe specifics. We can talk about the essence and meanings of those beliefs, and speak the same language again. To talk about one way, and contrast the other way. Doing so via context, to find the roots. Which are often universal, and unique to the experience of all men.
Or that’s what I see.
0:13 The Titans aren't giant. All depictions of them in Greek Mythology showcase the Titans being human-sized.
Giants aren't large, you're right, and I do say this in the video.
Who were the actual tall beings? The ones that could reach the staggering tall doors in the old world buildings?
What do you think of Survive the Jive's ideas that Hengist and Horsa are ancient Indo-European horse twins, similar to Castor and Pollux?
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic representations of the Divine Twins as were Castor and Pollux, but are, because of this, just myth.
Great topic, well covered and thoughtful. thank you.
Thank you for your kind words.
Another fascinating video, thank you for making these
And thank you for watching.
Taking into consideration the wide knowledge about myths you possess, would you probably be interested also in tallking about how modern myths share a connection to the old and ancient myths too?
I find amazing how some modern authors by themselves have come up with ideas and concepts that are very similar to old and ancient concepts.
Its as if there's a deep connection in our minds regardless of culture and time that makes us come to similar ideas.
Yes, the Jungian theory of things... that is why we have to be careful when saying something has an ancient origin, we need to prove these things weren't just thought up. And what is fascinating is that there are many myths with an ancient source.
There ancient Giant bones found different parts of North America especially the story of love rock cave in Nevada. The native Americans defeated an ancient Giant red head beings. The early European explorers met Giant native Americans people on the explorers through the non known lands in North and South America.
Wonderful presentation - and a wonderful morale in the end, about the order and striving toward it. I've always felt that this mythological archetype of the giant is missing some core elements to it, and you've just put it into place for me - the giants are predecessors of the given people, having lived on the given land before them and having left behind all the weird structures and all the bits of magic - i.e., knowledge that is unfamiliarly-flavoured to the new people coming into their place, who probably violently replaced them in the process. Some of these giants' attributes also hint at them being just stone-age people. Hypothesizing them to be Neanderthals is probably a stretch already, but this idea also lingers.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed it, and yes, who they specifically represented is a lingering puzzle. Thank you for your support. it is appreciated :)
Morale, or moral?
@@watcher805 ...Hm. Seems like it's actually moral. Not too shabby.
Stories are where memories go when they’re forgotten
Fine words, thank you
Love, love, love your videos. Thank you so much.