Stone-giants – Finally a Credible Source

[Huinesoron]

I absolutely agree that the stone-giants are a callback to primary-world rural myths. Examples of these themes can be found in loads of stories: from the Brothers Grimm, we have The Brave Little Tailor/The Tailor and the Giant, which includes this playful contest:

"That may be," said the tailor; "but we shall see by and by who is the best man of the two."

The giant... took up a stone, and threw it up so high that it went almost out of sight. "Now then, little pigmy, do that if you can."

Earlier in the same book, Thumbling the Dwarf and Thumbling the Giant/The Young Giant features a stone-moving giant who punches the final human characters high into the air.

There's also loads of instances of giants being claimed as having built various large things (Stonehenge, for example), which also appears in Middle-earth. It's pretty clear Tolkien was playing about with primary sources, just as he did with trolls which turn to stone at dawn (Drangey Island is a Norse giant/troll's cow which did the same thing). Is 'throwing stones to each other in sport' specific enough to track back to this one story, or is it a moderately common attribute of giants? I actually have no idea. (Didn't Lewis use it, too? Or is that only in BBC Narnia?)

hS