Giant Without the Beanstalk
"The
pagan gods of Ireland [...] grew smaller and smaller in the popular
imagination, until they turned into the fairies; the pagan heroes grew bigger
and bigger, until they turned into the giants"... Finn MacCool was one of
the pagan heroes, who as a strong man turned into a giant as a result. Legend
has it that he was even responsible for the creation of the Isle of Man by
throwing large piece of earth to his rival giant. If the other famous giant
Benandonner had heard this before, he wouldn't have challanged Finn to a fight
by saying that he didn't know how to fight most probably. Upon the challange,
Finn worked day and night to create a causeway towards Scotland to reach out to
his rival by rooting the pieces of rock out. When he finished his way he went
across the sea and much to his surprise, Benandonner was bigger and stronger
than him. Realising that, he ran back to his land followed by his rival. He
didn't know what to do, but his wife had a brilliant mind. She put Finn into a
cradle and introduced him as their son to Benandonner. The rival was shocked by
the size of the baby and thought of the size of the father if this thing was
the "baby"! He ran back to his home while piece by piece destroying
the causeway so as to disable Finn to follow him.
At the end, the story gives us two
cues;
1.The causeway continues on the
other side of the sea, in Scotland.
2. Beyond every successful man there
is a woman, unless the man does not hide himself behind the woman, a rather
funny side of the tale for a "giant" :)
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