Tucked away in footnote 4 of one Ms. Seth's essays on Goldberry is what I believe is a highly significant find which deserves to be brought out into the open.
https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...17/01/16/3579/
Finally after 80+ years there appears to be a credible link to 'our world's mythology' of stone-giants and those in
The Hobbit. The source itself is:
River Legends by E. Huggessen and the tale of*
The Giant Bramble-Buffer
Ms. Seth's footnote discusses the similarities of the Stone-giants of the Alps with those in
The Hobbit in more detail. But extracted below are where she found most commonality:
From
The Hobbit:
“… the stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them … They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides. … ‘… we shall be picked up by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football.’ ”.
From
River Legends:
The giants of interest were described as ‘mountain giants’ and vocal ‘Daddyroarers’:
“Sometimes they would … fling enormous stones at each other in sport, which was pastime anything but delightful to their neighbours whose lives and property were thereby grievously imperilled.”
One particular mountain giant, Bramble-Buffer:
“… if he met a man he generally gave him a kick, which sent him off fifty yards up in the air, and in most instances proved fatal.”
There isn't an awful lot said about the Stone-giants in
The Hobbit. But what there is seems to match that in
River Legends pretty well. I don't think we are likely to get any closer.
Others of course may disagree!