Origin, Description, Cultures

One website I visited (Malcolm South, citations and whatnot to come later) basically said that the "origin and concept of giants is too remote even to theorize intelligently over." Some stories may come from poorly understood medical gigantism and in some medieval artwork there are normal men with enlarged heads or feet which do seem to come from misunderstood medical abnormalities.

However, generally giants often are mythological creatures of great size and strength with brutish habits ranging from basic uncouth behavior to cannibalism. They are often subdued by a "hero" whose virtue, humility, and faith prevail in the end.

Giants can be encompassed as any of the following: raw natural force that opposes reason, metaphysical evil that besets mankind, deviant eroticism, rebellious pride, violence, frivolity, lack of civilization.

Carl Jung saw them as "proving themselves to be progressive elements who, like Cain, broadened and developed man's consciousness far more than the stay-at-home Abel."

Giants are seen in lore from all over the globe: Greek, Norse, English, Indian, Mongolian, Siamese, Chinese, and later in America we get Paul Bunyan and the Jack Tales of the Appalachia which can be easily traced back to all the previous cultures.

There were instances of good giants in medieval literature, but far less prevalent than the evil giants.

More to come.

First off...

Well the point of this blog is to lay out some information for my final paper and presentation in my Folklore class. The subject is giant lore. More specifically I'm looking for general origins, how widespread and overlapping the mythology is amongst various cultures, and I'm very interested in the psychology behind giants.

So. If anyone who happens to stumble across this would like to help, PLEASE feel free to do so as long as your information is credible and creditable.