Editing Giant (section)

===Other European===
[[File:Walter Crane King Arthur and the Giant Book I, Canto VIII.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[King Arthur]] faces a giant in this engraving by [[Walter Crane]].]]
In [[folklore]] from all over Europe, giants were believed to have built the remains of previous civilizations. The Danish historian [[Saxo Grammaticus]] thought giants had a hand in the creation of [[megalith]]ic monuments. Similarly, the [[Old English poetry|Old English poem]] ''[[The Seafarer (poem)|The Seafarer]]'' speaks of the high stone walls that were the work of giants. Natural geologic features such as the massive [[basalt]] columns of the [[Giant's Causeway]] on the coast of [[Northern Ireland]] were attributed to construction by giants.

In the Netherlands, giants are often associated with creating or forming the landscape. For instance, two giants are said to have dug a channel, until they reached the village of [[Akkrum]], where they had an argument and each went his own way, thus splitting the channel into two separate waterways. Others threw up hills, or became hills themselves when they died on the spot. In several legends, giants were evil beings that threatened, robbed and killed travellers or locals; such as [[Ellert and Brammert]], in the province of [[Drenthe]].

Medieval [[chivalry romance]]s such as the Spanish ''[[Amadís de Gaula]]'' feature giants as antagonists, or, rarely, as allies. This is parodied famously in Cervantes' ''[[Don Quixote]]'', when the title character attacks a windmill, believing it to be a giant. This is the source of the phrase [[tilting at windmills]].

Tales of combat with giants were a common feature in the folklore of the [[British Isles]]. Celtic giants also figure in [[Breton literature|Breton]] and [[Matter of Britain|Arthurian]] [[Romance (heroic literature)|romances]]. In [[Kinloch Rannoch]], a local myth has a local hill resembling a giant named as ''The Sleeping Giant''. Folklore says the giant will awaken only if a specific musical instrument is played near the hill. [[Giants (Welse folklore)|Giants]] are also prominent in [[Welsh folklore]].

Many giants in [[English folklore]] were noted for their stupidity.{{sfn|Briggs|1967|p=63}}  A giant who had quarrelled with the [[Mayor of Shrewsbury]] went to bury the city with dirt; however, he met a shoemaker, carrying shoes to repair, and the shoemaker convinced the giant that he had worn out all the shoes coming from [[Shrewsbury]], and so it was too far to travel.{{sfn|Briggs|1967|p=64}} Other English stories told of how giants threw stones at each other, which was used to explain many great stones on the landscape.{{sfn|Briggs|1967|p=65}}

Giants figure in folklore and fairy tales, such as ''[[Jack the Giant Killer]]'', ''[[The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body]]'', ''[[Nix Nought Nothing]]'', ''[[Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon]]'', ''[[Young Ronald]]'', and [[Paul Bunyan]]. [[Ogre]]s are humanoid creatures, sometimes of gigantic stature, that occur in various sorts of European folklore.

[[Rübezahl]], is a kind giant from [[German folklore]] who lived in the [[Giant Mountains]], along with the [[Bergmönch]], a giant mountain spirit.<ref>Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Grimm: ''Deutsche Sagen''. Hamburg 2014, p. 34.</ref>

[[Antero Vipunen]] is a giant shaman that appears in the ''[[Kalevala]]'', meeting the epic hero [[Väinämöinen]] to teach him creation spells.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parkkinen.org/vipunen.html|title=Väinämöinen ja Antero Vipunen|work=parkkinen.org}}</ref>