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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