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Angers' Giant
A skeleton found in 1692 in a tomb near Angers, France, measured seventeen feet four inches (534.63cm). (See Graveyards of the Giants)
Austrian Giants (See Potsdam Giants)
Aymon
Aymon, a member of the Archduke Ferdinand's bodyguard, reportedly stood eleven feet tall. For many years a carved wooden likeness of this giant was preserved in the Castle of Ambras in the Tyrol Alpines.2
Bordeaux Giant
In his De Gigantibus, Joh. Cassanio relates that while in Bordeaux, Francis I of France (1494-1547) saw a giant of such height that he immediately enlisted him as one of his guards. It is said that the giant, who subsequently became an archer, stood so tall that a man of ordinary size could walk between his legs.
Brice, Joseph
Because the country around his hometown of Ramonchamp, in the Gosges on the Rhine, was hilly, Joseph Brice styled himself "The Giant of the Mountains." At the age of sixteen he toured France and afterward exhibited himself in England and Ireland. In an 1862 advertisement he claimed to be eight feet tall, but Frank Buchland challenged him to a measurement, and in his third series of Curiosities of Natural History, he reported the French giant's actual height as seven feet six and one-half inches. But that was still tall enough, declared Buchland, to frighten the troop-horses at Regent's Park Barracks and cause them to snort and shy away when he and the giant, as his invited guest, visited that place.
While touring Ireland, Brice married a young lass, who accompanied him to London. While there, in October of 1865, Anderson the Wizard engaged him to exhibit at St. James Hall, Piccadilly, where he appeared as "Anak, King of the Anakims, or the Giant of Giants."3
Brunswick-Hanover Giant
According to Schreber, in his History of Quadrupeds, 1775, the Duke of Brunswick-Hanover had in his service a guard eight feet six inches tall.
Cajanus, Daniel
Standing "above eight feet high," the Swedish giant Daniel Cajanus billed himself as the "Wonderful Giant." It was, his pro-moter states in a handbill, "humbly presumed that of all the natural curiosities which have been exhibited to the publick, nothing has appeared for many ages so extraordinary in its way as this surprising gentleman."
To promote himself on the giants' tour, Cajanus wrote and published an autobiography. He had indeed served in Frederick II’s Prussian guard, and a few feats he described in his life's story may have happened, but most were unbelievable. Because he allowed himself to be seen only by those of the upper society, Cajanus aroused the common public's curiosity to such an extent that when they chanced to catch only a glimpse of him they became greatly excited.
This announcement in the September 27, 1742, issue of London's Daily Advertiser relates a crisis he survived: "This is to acquaint all gentlemen and ladies, that the Living Colossus, or wonderful giant (who has been these five weeks very dangerously ill of a fever, which has occasioned a report of his death) is now so well recovered as to be able to shew himself to all gentlemen and ladies, who will be pleased to honour him with their company. . . . This is really the same giant as has been shown to great numbers of the nobility and gentry, notwithstanding the petty insinuations of some people (upon hearing of his recovery) to the contrary."4 (See Potsdam Giants)
Damman, Jacob
Platerus, a noted seventeenth century physician who took a great interest in giants, reported seeing "a young man at Luneuburg called Jacob Damman, who for his extraordinary stature was carried through Germany to be seen. Anno 1613 he was brought to us at Basil; he was then twenty-three years and a half of age; beardless as yet, strong of body and limbs, save that at that time he was rather sick and lean; he was nine feet high complete; the length of his hand was one foot six inches."26
De Vallemont, Chevalier Ricon
An ancient tomb that some ditch diggers uncovered in Rouen, France, in 1509, contained the skeleton of a man over seventeen feet tall, in his armor. Affixed to the tomb was this engraved identification: "In this tomb lies the noble and puissant lord, the Chevalier Ricon de Vallemont, and his bones." (See Graveyards of the Giants)
D'lndreville, Charles Gruel
His seven feet six inches made Charles Gruel d'lndreville, of Nesle, in Normandy, the tallest Frenchman of his day. As a young man he enlisted as a private in the imperial army, but quickly rose to the rank of sub-lieutenant. He fought in the battles of Wagram and Moscow. When he returned to France he set up a glassworks that became famous, even drawing several visits from King Louis Philippe himself. He belonged to the Legion of Honor. In 1860, at the age of seventy-one, he died near Rouen.27
Dutch Giant
In 1837, a young giant left the service of the King of the Nether-lands and exhibited himself for money at Parma. He reportedly stood eight feet ten and three-quarters inches, and weighed four hun-dred and one pounds.28
Fitzgerald
In its August 1, 1732, issue, the Daily Post thought it worth a paragraph to let its readers know that "about the middle of July, an Irishman named Fitzgerald who was seven feet high and a lieutenant in the King of Prussia's Guards, came to London." (See Potsdam Giants)
Flanders' Giants
In his Origines Antwerpianoe, 1569, and De Gigantomachia, royal physician Johannes Goropius Becanus reports that a youth almost nine feet tall and a woman about ten feet tall lived near his home in Flanders.
Frederick William's Giants (See Potsdam Giants)
Frenz, Louis
In 1829, Louis Frenz, a seven-foot-four-inch Frenchman, came to London seeking his fortune. During his tour, his portrait was engraved and a cast of his giant hand was made for the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Frenz reportedly had a brother taller than himself and two sisters almost as tall.29
German Prodigy
The "German Giant" claimed a height of nine feet six inches. On August 15,1664, Pepys went to Charing Cross, "and there saw the great Dutchman that is come over, under whose arm I went with my hat on, and could not reach higher than his eyebrows with the tip of my fingers. He is a comely and well-made man, and his wife a very little but pretty comely Dutch woman." Pepys then adds: "It is true, he wears pretty high-heeled shoes, but not very high, and do generally wear a turban, which makes him show yet taller than he really is." One of his handbills reads: "The true Effigies of the German Giant, now to be seen at the Swan, near Charing Cross, whose stature is nine foot and a half in height, and the span of his hand a cubit compleat. He goes from place to place with his wife, who is but of an ordinary stature, and takes money for the show of her husband."48
Gigli, Bernardo
By his nineteenth year, when he came to England, Bernardo Gigli already stood to a height of eight feet. "His equal," proclaimed a 1755 handbill, "has never been seen, nor any come higher than his armpit." The following year a newspaper carried this ad: "The Italian giant, a giant indeed! who tho' but nineteen years of age, is eight feet high, and of admirable symmetry, is to be seen from ten in the morning till eight at night, at a commodious apartment, the bottom of Pall-mall, near the Haymarket. Price 1s. each person."83
Hugo, Antoine
For several years, Antoine Hugo proclaimed himself the world's tallest man. He stood about eight feet and four inches tall. Hugo amassed a fortune touring America. But his brother, shorter by only a couple of inches and eclipsed by Antoine's fame, was never in much demand in the United States—where only champions mean anything. Antoine died in 1917.88
Isoret
John Riolan, the naturalist, relates that at the close of the sixteenth century the tomb of the giant Isoret, who towered twenty feet high, could be seen near St. Germain.89 (See Graveyards of the Giants)
Leyden's Giant Man
Dr. Thomas Molyneux examined the osfrontis or forehead bone of a giant man preserved in the school of medicine at Leyden that measured about twenty-one inches from orbit to orbit, or "twice as large as a common bone of this sort in a full-grown man."
"Arguing from the proportion that the same bone in other men bears to their height," Dr. Molyneux wrote in the Philosophical Transactions for 1685-86 and 1700, "it must follow that the man to whom this os frontis belonged was more than twice the height that men usually are, according to the common course of nature. And setting down, as the most modest computation, but five and a half feet for the height of a man, he to whom this bone belonged must have been more than eleven or twelve feet in height."
Lodoiska, Countess
The Countess Lodoiska, the Polish giantess, also showed great strength. Seven feet tall and weighing two hundred and seventy, she could with only one hand and without much strain lift one hundred and seventy pounds. In 1863, at the age of twenty, she exhibited at Saville House, Leicester-square. Writers described the Warsaw woman as "remarkably well formed," with a pleasing appearance.100
Frederick III
Frederick III, a descendant of the Cimbri and father of the giant Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, also awed his viewers, for he was, declares Friedrich Heer, "physically ... a giant, of immense corpulence." (See Maximilian)
Maximilian
Those who profess the Aryan theory hold that the Celtic race, particularly its Germanic branch, is vastly superior to all others. "Only white peoples, especially the Celtic, possess true courage, love of liberty and the other passions and virtues which distinguish great souls," proclaimed the German historian Christoph Meiners (1745-1810). Meiners is generally regarded as a founder of this racial theory.101 Julien-Joseph Virey (1775-1846), a disciple of Meiners, asks: "What would our world be without the Europeans? Powerful nations, a proud and indomitable race, immortal geniuses in the arts and the sciences, a happy civilization. The European, called by his high destiny to rule the world, which he knows how to illumine with his intelligence and subdue with his courage, is the highest expression of man and at the head of the human race. The others, wretched horde of barbarians, are, so to say, no more than its embryo."102 In other words, the true Aryans see themselves as "supermen," and they regard "all the other species of men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to the whites."103 All these peoples who are not light of skin and blond they classify as "subhumans."
Where did such an idea come from?
In its earliest written form, the Aryan concept predates both Meiners and Virey. The historian S. H. Steinberg traced it back to the humanistic historiographers who lived during the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519). "It was these fore-fathers of our contemporary journalists who supplied the copy for Maximilian's anti-French propaganda," he writes. 'The French and, in fact, every other nation were, so they argued, inferior to the Germans because of the latter's pride of place in the pedigree of the Western nations: had they not for ancestors the Cimbri who made Rome tremble? ... Were the Germans of Maximilian not the sons and heirs of the Lombards who gave their name to Upper Italy, the Franks who established their rule over Gaul, the Angles and Saxons who made themselves masters of Britain?"104
Steinberg thus found the Aryan idea embedded in the most ancient customs and culture of the German people. So, long before Aryanism came to be expressed on the written page, the Germans harbored the conviction that they were a superior people. This opinion apparently originated with the early German Cimbri people. We can easily see how such an idea caught on. For the gigantic Cimbri were supermen. They regarded themselves as supermen. They taught their children they were supermen, and their children taught their children they were descended from supermen, and so on and on.
Maximilian not only claimed direct descent from this ancient race of supermen, he was himself a bona fide superman. According to Henry Wysham Larder, he stood above eight feet tall,105 and was similarly endowed with the might of a giant. His father, the Emperor Frederick HI, also awed his viewers, for, declares Friedrich Heer, he was "physically ... a giant, of immense corpulence."106
While Frederick sat on the emperor's throne, his eldest son Maximilian reigned as "King of the Romans." When Frederick died in 1493, Maximilian began to exercise full imperial powers without going through the formality of an election, as had the other Habsburg rulers before him. The new, highly popular, thirty-four-year-old emperor "had all the qualities of a great ruler, except prudence and foresight," writes Bayard Taylor. "He was tall, finely-formed, with remarkably handsome features, clear blue eyes, and blond hair falling in ringlets upon his shoulders; he possessed great muscular strength, his body was developed by constant exercise and he was one of the boldest, bravest and most skilful knights of his day."107
But the giant's daring sometimes bordered on rashness—some described it as almost a madness—as when, for some examples, he "followed a bear to his den, and fought him there; when he entered the lion's cage, and cowed him down; and, above all, when he chased the chamois and the wild-goat up to the highest peaks of the Tyrolese Alps."108 In battle, Maximilian fought courageously. On many occasions, he proved himself to be a resourceful commander, too, with a mind "fertile in new devices and cunning modes of attack." He also asked nothing of his men he himself would not do. Historians say that he even forged his own armor and tempered his own sword. Perhaps to give his horse a rest, the giant emperor often marched at the head of his men on foot, carrying an oversized lance on his shoulder. He further won the admiration of his soldiers for his ability "not to be overcome by exertion and privation."109
Although Maximilian fought in many battles, he preferred, like all the Habsburgs, to make his territorial gains through marriages and treaties. He himself took Mary, the heiress of Charles, the duke of Burgundy, for his bride. Her dowry alone included the Netherlands and two provinces of France. This was such a tremendous acquisition that historians declare that from the year of this marriage, which took place in 1477, "the history of Habsburg was the history of Europe."110 In 1496, Maximilian prepared the way for the association of Spain with his empire by marrying his son Philip to Joanna. They became the parents of his grandson, the great Emperor Charles V.
Maximilian did much more than establish the House of Habs-burg as the major world power. Among his many other accomplishments was an effective system for law and order. A well-educated, well-read man, who became something of a poet in his later years, he also encouraged his subjects in the study of science, literature, and the arts.
Those who knew the emperor personally described him as an amiable man "of noble disposition and fine culture." But that said, Maximilian also believed the Aryan people possessed superior capabilities for government, social organization, and civilization, and he actively promoted that belief. It finally bore fruit in this century when the Aryan theory became the rage of Germany. The concept, after its long incubation, now commanded such a following that its adherents concluded the time had come to impose their "super race" on all the "subhumans" worldwide. It took World War II, and the tragic loss of millions of lives, to disprove the Aryan myth and check its advance. (See Jovian; Maximinus; also see Charlemagne)
Mazara Giants
In July, 1812, an Italian journal reported that in the valley of Mazara in Sicily the skeleton of a man ten feet and three inches in length was dug up. It was noted that several other human skeletons of gigantic size had previously been found in the same area.119
Michael
In the sixteenth century, a giant named Michael, who measured eight feet tall, served in the Court of Joachim, the Elector of Brandenburgh, a province in northeastern Germany.120
Miller, Maximilian Christopher
Maximilian Christopher Miller, born in 1674 at Leipzig, in Saxony, not only grew to a remarkable height but exhibited amazing strength. After touring several countries on the continent, he came to England about 1728, during the reign of George II. According to James Paris' manuscript at the British Museum, Miller appeared in November, 1732, at the Blue Post, as announced in the following handbill:
"This is to give notice to all gentlemen, ladies, and others. That there is just arrived from France, and is to be seen at the Two Blue Posts and Rummer, near Charing-cross, a giant, born in Saxony, almost eight foot in height, and every way proportionable; the like has not been seen in any part of the world for many years: he has had the honour to shew himself to most princes in Europe, particularly to his late majesty the King of France, who presented him with a noble scymiter, and a silver mace."
MAXIMILIAN CHRISTOPHER MILLER appears in this etching wearing his cap topped with a plume of feathers and the curved sword that Louis XIV presented to him.
Miller actually stood seven feet eight inches tall, but his velvet cap, with its large plume, made him seem taller. He usually wore a Hungarian tunic, and always at his side swung the curved, single-edged sword that Louis XIV gave him. Dressed thus, he would appear dramatically in a draped doorway, strut briefly among his patrons, then suddenly vanish, leaving them "clamoring to see him again."
In England, Miller became such a popular attraction that L. Boitard engraved his portrait in folio. Another engraving by R. Grave appeared in Caulfield's Remarkable Persons, 1819, and in the Curiosities of Biography, 1845. In 1734, at the age of sixty, Miller died in London.121
Munster, Christopher
A record of the great height of Christopher Munster, who served many years as yeoman of the Guard at the Court of Duke John Frederic at Hanover, appears on his tomb in the new town church-yard in Hanover. His epitaph states he stood four Flemish ells and six inches, or eight and one-half English feet. He died in 1676 in his forty-fourth year.122
Potsdam Giants
Almost everything that King Frederick I liked his son Frederick William hated. In his father's court the French language and graces prevailed. But the prince loathed the French, their language, their graces, their clothes, and even their food. Just mentioning the French in his presence could, at times, trigger in him fits of uncontrollable rage. After he began his own reign, Frederick William—in his attempts to low-rate the French—went so far as to require that all criminals who faced death by hanging be dressed up in French clothes. By this contrivance he hoped to give his people an abhorrence of such fashions.
Frederick William had other eccentricities. His passion for soldiering caused the royal courts of other countries to complain that he had "little knowledge of anything but the barracks, and knows no other form of social intercourse but giving and obeying orders."123
The king also kept himself excessively clean with compulsive washings, often bathing a dozen times a day. And to the wonderment of his hosts, he could stuff himself with a hundred oysters at one sitting. These and many other foibles made the Prussian ruler a most interesting character study for both contemporary and later historians. But what really set Frederick William I apart from all others was his dedication to his favorite pursuit. His hobby, you see, was collecting giants.
Frederick William's indoctrination in military matters began in childhood. He not only excelled in these studies but quickly developed an extraordinary love for that kind of life. So when he reached manhood Frederick I gave him a regiment to command. No present under heaven could have made the young prince happier. The regiment became his life. He spent long hours drilling it and improving it until he molded it into perhaps the finest precision unit in the world. Now since his regiment contained some exceptionally tall men, Frederick William one day hit upon the idea of forming a special Crown Prince's Guard out of the giants. These afterward became widely known as the Grand Grenadiers of Potsdam, although most called them the Potsdam Grenadiers or Potsdam Giants. Of course, the prince's proud first unit stood on the parade field taller than all other units. But not as tall as Frederick William wanted it. So he started recruiting taller and taller men, never being really satisfied even when giants and near-giants filled most of his ranks.
When Frederick William I ascended the Prussian throne in 1713, at the age of twenty-five, he brought with him many excellent qualities that enabled him to do much for his country. But his three battalions of giants were what most people talked about. His obsession with the Grenadiers tickled them. Even Thomas Carlyle could not restrain himself. Frederick William's twenty-four hundred "sons of Anak" greatly amused him. "A Potsdam Giant Regiment, such as the world never saw, before or since," he chuckles. ". . . Sublime enough, hugely perfect to the royal eye, such a mass of shining giants, in their long-drawn regularities and mathematical maneuverings—like some streak of Promethean lightning, realized here at last, in the vulgar dusk of things! Truly they are men supreme in discipline, in beauty of equipment; and the shortest man of them rises, I think, towards seven feet, some are nearly nine feet high. Men from all countries; a hundred and odd come annually, as we saw, from Russia. . . . The rest have been collected, crimped, purchased out of every European country, at enormous expense, not to speak of other trouble to his majesty."124
The expense indeed became enormous. King Frederick William had agents everywhere on the lookout for giants. And he offered large sums of money to these prospective new recruits. Should a giant refuse his offer, the king—even at the risk of war—would order him kidnapped and smuggled out of his country. In one such clandestine operation, for instance, he paid one thousand pounds to agents to kidnap and deliver to him the Irish giant Kirkman.125 Some kidnappings did not work out. For example, having heard of a young shepherd in Mecklenburg who then stood at least six feet four inches tall, Prince Frederick asked the king for permission to abduct him. Frederick William granted his permission, the prince hired the kidnappers, the attempt was made, but the shepherd objected and was shot to death.126 Another failed kidnapping caused something of a diplomatic stir. On this occasion, the king's men attempted to shanghai an exceptionally tall Austrian they saw climbing into a cab in Hanover. But the Austrian fought his way free. The would-be kidnappers later learned—to their great embarrassment—that their intended victim was an Austrian diplomat. For a long time afterward the foiled attempt provided a topic to talk and laugh about over every royal dining table in Europe.127
Normal attrition in the ranks of the giants, caused by sickness and age, required that a few hundred new recruits be found each year. For these replacements Frederick William looked to all his regimental and company commanders. Well aware what the king expected of them, they "vied with each other in recruiting at home and abroad," explains historian Robert B. Asprey. "If commanders were to gain royal favor, at least some of the recruits had to be 'big men,' bought abroad or kidnapped with considerable difficulty and risk.... When the king inspected individual regiments at a general review, he took his pick of these men for the Potsdam Grenadiers, and he usually paid the commander for them. It was vital, however, for a commander to produce such recruits, and many a promising career had been summarily ended by failure to do so."128
In an attempt to cut down on the expenses of recruiting or kidnapping the giants, Frederick William once conceived a bold plan of raising his own giants. And he actually put such a plan into effect. No matter what may have been their individual desires and inclinations, every exceptionally tall man in his realm was forced to marry a tall woman. By these matches the king obviously hoped to produce exceptionally tall children. Unfortunately, it took years for the children of these unions to grow up, and often as not they reached only normal height. But the plan was apparently a sound one. At least it worked in Potsdam, for that city, in time, began to produce an un-usual number of giants. Dr. J. R. Foster, in his Observations on a Voyage around the World, confirms this. "A great number of the present inhabitants of that place," he says, "are of very high stature, which is more especially striking in the numerous gigantic figures of women. This certainly is owing to the connexions and inter-marriages of those tall men with the females of that town."129
Frederick William's giants even played a substantial role in Prussia's diplomatic relations with other countries. He let it be known to the diplomats of those nations who hoped to curry his favor that the fastest and surest way to the king's heart was a present of giants. This ploy had the desired effect. Several countries sought to strengthen their relations with the Prussian monarch by furnishing him with their tallest sons. Foremost among these was Peter the Great, a near-giant himself, who stood six feet seven inches tall. To keep on the good side of Frederick William, the czar every year sent him fifty giants.130 For some reason Peter once recalled some of his Russian giants, replacing them with others only a few inches shorter. The move hurt Frederick William so much that for a long time he found himself unable to speak politely to the Russian ambassador, the wound in him still being so raw.131
The Austrians also obliged their Prussian neighbor with an annual allotment of their hugest subjects. But something once came up that soured, for a short while, the relations between the two countries. As a result, Vienna refused to pay the king for troops quartered on Prussian soil and withheld twenty Bohemian giants from the Potsdam Guard. We are told that on this occasion tears brimmed in Frederick William's slightly bulbous blue eyes, but we do not know for which woe.132
When a giant was at stake, Frederick William was not above forgetting diplomatic channels and negotiating for the tall fellow himself. A news dispatch from Paris, dated August 26, 1733, reported that the king of Prussia, having been informed that there was a soldier of an extraordinary stature in the service of the king of France, in the regiment of Dragoons of Baufremont, "caused an application to be made to the captain of the company in which the soldier was, desiring him to send the giant for enlistment in the Prus-sian regiment of Grand Grenadiers. The captain, having obtained the necessary permission from the King of France, caused the soldier to be handsomely clothed and equipped, and sent him to Berlin, where he was very kindly received" by Frederick William, who gave him a handsome pension.133
Frederick William himself was a short man, but all five feet five inches of him moved about with a soldierly bearing. And being "armed with a huge sergeant's cane," says Voltaire, he "marched forth every day to review his regiment of giants. These giants were his greatest delight, and the things for which he went to the heaviest expense."134 A part of that expense was for costly uniforms and weapons. He dressed them in bluejackets with gold trim and scarlet lapels, scarlet trousers, white stockings, black shoes, and tall red hats. He armed them with muskets, white bandoleers, and small daggers, "and he played with them as a child would with enormous living toys."135
Frederick William liked to impress officials of foreign governments with his giants, so when he reviewed the guard, he frequently asked some of them to come along. One day he invited a French minister and an English ambassador to accompany him on his review. As the ranks of giants marched before them, Frederick William asked the French minister if he thought an equal number of French soldiers would venture to engage with his Potsdam giants. The minister, with a politeness characterized by his nation, answered that it was impossible that men of ordinary stature would even consider such an attempt. Turning to the English ambassador, the king put the same question to him. To which the staid ambassador gave this measured reply: "I can not affirm that an equal number of my countrymen would beat them, but I think that I may safely say that half the number would try."136
A hereditary disease known today as porphyria afflicted the king. Because of this derangement of his metabolism, he often suffered terrible pangs and awful depressions. But he found a therapeutic medicine in his beloved giants. The joy they gave him acted like a tonic. So, when he became sick or melancholy, two or three hundred of them, "preceded by tall, turbaned Moors with cymbals and trumpets and the grenadiers' mascot, an enormous bear, would march in a long line through the King's chamber to cheer him up."137
No doubt Frederick William viewed the Potsdam Giants as an institution that would last for some time. He therefore made preparations for his heir apparent, Crown Prince Frederick, to one day take them over. "He was a delicate, polite little boy who loved everything French—the language, clothes, even hair styles—and whose tongue was so quick he could run circles around his father in an argument," writes Robert K. Massie. "Despite his sensitive nature, he was brought up as a warrior prince, the heir to a military state. His father gave him his own toy regiment, the Crown Prince Cadets, made up of 131 little boys whom the Prince could command and play with as he liked. At fourteen, the small boy (he never grew to be more than five feet seven inches) was made a major of the giant Potsdam Grenadiers, and on the parade ground he commanded these titans, who towered over him."138
Russian Giants (See Potsdam Giants)
Saxony's Prodigy
A seven-foot-five-inch giant from Saxony was born with such strength that he could hold at arm's length a ten-pound weight for twelve minutes. James Paris, who saw him in London in May, 1716, included him in his book of drawings, which the British Museum later acquired. The Saxony giant, during his travels in Europe, was presented with a suit of armor custom-made to his great size by the King of the Romans. In England he appeared before George I, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and Court of Windsor.163
Swedish Giant
Frederick I of Prussia (d. 1713), father of King Frederick William I, had in his guard a Swede who had a height advantage of eight feet six inches.164 (See Potsdam Giants)
Swiss Giant
In 1784, a Swiss man standing nine feet high exhibited himself to astonished patrons at Vienna, says the Gentleman's Magazine for that year.
Swiss Giantess
According to an 1824 promotion, "upwards of three hundred persons" daily besieged the house at number 63 Piccadilly to get a peep at the "Swiss Giantess," who touted herself as "the finest and most beautifully proportioned giantess in Europe." An April 16, 1824, advertisement in the Morning Herald indicates her great success brought forth an imitator. The notice reads: "The public are most respectfully cautioned against the imposition of a person now travelling about London in a caravan, calling him or herself the Swiss Giantess, as the real Swiss Giantess is exhibiting at No. 63, Piccadilly, opposite St. James-street, and continues to be the leading object of attraction among the fashionable amusements of the day. ...Open from 11 till 5."
Tates, John
Isbrand Diemerbroeck, in his Anatomy, relates that in 1665, at Utrecht, Holland, he saw a man eight and a half feet tall, well-proportioned, and of great strength. The giant's name was John Tates, born at Schoonhoven in Holland. Tates is also mentioned by Ray in his topographical Observations, by Dr. Robert Plot in his Staffordshire, 1686, and by Dr. Thomas Molyneux in the Philosophical Transactions of 1700.
Wierski, Martin
Dr. Browne reports in his Travels through Germany that one Martin Wierski, a Polander who stood a full eight feet tall, was on account of his great height invited to appear at the Court of Maximilian II, emperor of Germany, during the second half of the sixteenth century.
Winkelmaier, Josef
An Austrian named Josef Winkelmaier exhibited in London on January 10,1887. He claimed a height of eight feet nine inches—or one foot shorter than was Goliath.171
Wonderful Giant (See Cajanus, Daniel)
Wurttemberg's Giant
Schreber, in his History of Quadrupeds, 1775, reports that the Duke of Wiirttemberg in Germany employed a porter with a stature of seven and a half feet.
References
1 The Geography of Strabo, 13.2.
2 Thompson, Mystery and Lore of Monsters, p. 142.
3 Ibid., pp. 226-228.
4 Lee, Giant: The Pictorial History, p. 65.
5 Norvill, Giants: The Vanished Race, p. 12.
6 And thus became known as the Celtiberians. "Pausanias, 1.35.
7 No reference cited.
8 "The tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed warriors described by classical writers," says Celtic prehistory professor Jan Filip, "were probably a ruling caste spread thinly over indigenous populations." The tribe's biggest men no doubt were chosen as warriors. The tallest, like King Teutobokh, stood to tremendous heights. But, by comparison, some were short. The skeleton of a warrior recently dug up near the Celt-founded city of Milan, for example, measured only six feet five inches. National Geographic, May 1977, pp. 600-601.
9 "The whole race," Strabo adds, "... is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle." Quoted by Frank Delaney, The Celts (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1986), p. 32.
10 Henri Hubert, The Greatness and Decline of the Celts (London: Bracken Books, 1992), pp. 66-67.
11 Ammianus Marcellinus, 15.12.1-2. Marcellinus was a Latin historian of Greek origin.
12 Although Alexander thought so, the Celts were not being sarcastic, for, like many ancient peoples, they believed that the sky once collapsed. For documentation, see Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision (New York: Macmillan Co., 1950), pp. 70, 89-90.
13 Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander (New York: Dorset Press, 1986), pp. 48-49.
14 Diodorus, 5.28, 31.
15 And so it is explained by the ancient rabbis. See The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 552.
16 Virgil, Mneid, 8.658-660, emphasis mine.
17 Diodorus, 5.25
18 Caesar, Commentary, 6.16.
19 Diodorus, 5.31.
20 The Scots sprang from the Celts.
21 Henri Hubert, The Rise of the Celts (London: Bracken Books, 1992), p. 28.
22 Diodorus, 5.32. Athenaeus also states that the Celts were accustomed to sleep with two boys.
23 H. W. Carless Davis, Charlemagne (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1899), p. 233.
24 Ibid., p. 58. Quoted from Zeller, Histoire d'Allemagne, ii.,32.
25 Ibid., pp. 57-58.
26 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, pp. 103-104.
27 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 225.
28 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 221
29 Ibid., p. 210.
30 Herm, The Celts, p. 67.
31 The Geography of Strabo, 7.1.2.
32 Quoted by Herm, The Celts, p. 19.
33 Caesar, Commentary, 1.39.
34 Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (New York: The Modern Library, 1864), p. 500. "The Germans," declares Hegesippus, "are superior to other nations by the largeness of their bodies and their contempt of death." Concerning their exceeding height, Columella says: "Nature has made Germany remarkable for armies of very tall men." Vegetius moans: "What could our undersized men have done against the tall Germans?"
35Caesar, Commentary, 6.19.
36 Victor Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. n (Boston: Dana Estes and Charles E. Lauriat, publishers, 1884), Sec. Two, p. 526.
37 Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, p. 499.
38 This is Plutarch's estimate. Some historians put the number of warriors as high as 600,000. Writes Henri Hubert: "We hear of 300,000 Teutones at Aquae Sextiae and as many Cimbri. This is the fighting strength, not the whole people, including women, children, and a great many other non-combatants" [emphasis mine]. The Greatness and Decline of the Celts, p. 110.
39 Herm, The Celts, p. 63.
40 Ibid., p. 64.
41 Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, pp. 502-503.
42 Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. II, Sec. Two, p. 536.
43 Florus, 1.38.3.
44 Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. II, Sec. Two, p. 537.
45 Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, p. 508.
46 Actually thirty furlongs.
47 "Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, pp. 509-510.
48 Thompson, Mystery and Lore of Monsters, pp. 152-153.
49 Paul Pezron, The Antiquities of Nations; More Particularly of the Celtce or Gauls, Mr. D. Jones, translator (London: R. Janeway, publisher, 1706), p. 48.
50 Ibid., p. 276. Gigas, another word the Celts used to describe people of their great size, offers some indication of how they saw themselves.
51 Ibid., p. 41.
52 i.e., strait.
53 Ibid., pp. 41-42.
54 Ibid., pp. 42-43. "The Danes," he adds, "may boast, that they are the progeny of these Cimbri, at least in part, for their origin is Teutonick or German; and hence it is that we meet to this day with a great many Celtick or Gaulish words in Danish language. It's very probable that an ancient colony of these Cimbri from the Palus Maeotitis came and gave name to the Cimbrick Kersonesus, now called Jutland and subject to the Danes" (p. 43).
55 i.e., Asia Minor; Ibid., p. 36.
56 Strabo, Geography, 11.8.6.
57 i.e., the Halys; Pezron, Antiquities of Nations, p. 44.
58 Ibid., pp. 39-40.
59 Ibid., pp. 44-45.
60 Ibid., 45.
61 Esteemed for his Antiquity and his History of Phoenicia before the Trojan War.
62 Sanchoniathon apud Eusebius, Free. Evang., 1.10.
63 Pezron, Antiquities of Nations, p. 47.
64 Phornutus, De Natura Deorum, c.l.
65 Pezron, Antiquities of Nations, p. 50.
66 Ibid., p. 51.
67 Ibid., p. 53; Sanchoniathon apud Eusebius 1.10.
68 Ibid., pp. 56-57.
69 From Kroone, which signifies Crowned.
70 "And we find even to this very time in the Celtick or Breton language, which is the same as that of the Titans, that Di Sadorne is Saturday; from which the Romans made Dies Saturni, as of Di Lun, Di Mers, &c. they made Dies Lunce, Monday; Dies Mortis, Tuesday, and so of the rest of the planets, the Latin words for all which are certainly taken from the Celtick tongue, as I shall show in another place." Pezron, Antiquities of Nations, p. 61.
71 As related by Lactantius.
72 Ennius apud Lactantius.
73 Julius Firmicus lib. de Errore Profan. Religion.
74 Pezron, Antiquities of Nations, pp. 68-69.
75 Ibid., pp. 70-71.
76 Ibid., pp. 72-73.
77 Ibid., pp. 74-75.
78 Sophocles, in Oedipus at Colonus, 55, calls him "the fire-bearing Titan god."
79 Pezron, Antiquities of Nations, pp. 93-94. Caesar, in his Commentary, writes that all Gauls claimed descent from Dis.
80 Ibid., pp. 95-96.
81 Ibid., pp. 97-99.
82 Caesar, Commentary, 6.
83 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 151.
84 When Harald came to the throne of Norway, he introduced an autocratic rule over its unruly, independent Viking noblemen, some of whom lost their heads to his "thin-lipped axe." This wielding of absolute power earned the new king the nickname Hardraada, which means ruthless.
85 By some accounts, Harald measured three ells tall (or just over eleven feet), but Harold Godwinson's statement just before the Stamford Bridge battle would seem to place his height somewhere between seven and eight feet.
86 Howard LaFay, The Vikings (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1972), p. 189.
87 Ibid., pp. 189-190.
88 Lanier, A Book of Giants, p. 306.
89 Thompson, Mystery and Lore of Monsters, p. 133.
90 Modern Belgrade in Serbia.
91 Lanier, A Book of Giants, p. 305.
92 Guglielmo Ferrero and Corrado Barbagallo, A Short History of Rome (New York: Capricorn Books, 1964), pp. 448-449.
93 Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1960), p. 378.
94 Some think that the chant for Jovian, who professed being a Christian, was begun by a small group of Christians gathered near the command tent.
95 Encyclopaedia Britannica, llth edition, Vols. 15-16, p. 526.
96 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, p. 378.
97 Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. VIII, p. 224.
98 Ferrero and Barbagallo, Short History of Rome, p. 451.
99 Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. VIII, p. 226.
100 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, pp. 228-229.
101 Leon Poliakov, The Aryan Myth (New York: Basic Books, 1977), pp. 178-179.
102 Ibid., pp. 180-181.
103 Ibid., p. 176.
104 S. H. Steinberg, A Short History of Germany (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1945), p. 1.
105 Lanier, A Book of Giants, p. 304.
106 Friedrich Heer, The Holy Roman Empire (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, publishers, 1967), p. 123.
107 Bayard Taylor, History of Germany (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1892), pp. 318-319.
108 Charlton T. Lewis, A History of Germany (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881), p. 301.
109 Ibid.
110 Edward Crankshaw, The Fall of the House of Habsburg (New York: The Viking Press, 1963), p. 7.
184
111 Herodian, History of the Roman Empire, 6.8.2-3.
112 Ibid., 6.7.10.
113 Ibid., 6.9.1-3.
114 Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. VII, p. 149.
115 Michael Grant, The Roman Emperors (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985), p. 137.
116 The Cyclopes in Homer's Odyssey were one-eyed cannibal giants.
117 A mythical king of Egypt not found either on the monuments or in the chronological lists, but mentioned by later Greek writers. During Busiris' reign, so the story goes, Egypt was afflicted nine years with famine. Phrasius, a seer from Cyprus, arrived in Egypt and announced that the famine would not cease until the king sacrificed a foreigner every year to Zeus. Busiris commenced by sacrificing the prophet and afterward continued the custom.
118 Ivar Lissner, The Caesars (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1958), pp. 268-269.
119 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 39.
120 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 132.
121 Ibid.,pp. 150-151.
122 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 117.
123 Robert B. Asprey, Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1986), p. 11.
124 Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Vol. II (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1901), p. 10. The king apparently was unable to fill all his ranks with giants. But he organized his three battalions so that all who stood near seven feet tall and above were assigned to the first ranks. Some of the Potsdam giants actually towered above eight feet. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (llth edition, 1910), for instance, reports the "authentically recorded" height of a Scottish member of the Grenadiers at eight feet three inches. A Prussian giant must also have been about this height, for it was said of him that no ordinary man could reach the top of his head. Concerning the hugeness of some of the men, Voltaire writes: "I remember that they accompanied the old state coach which preceded the Marquis de Beauvau, who came to compliment the king, in the month of November 1740. The late king, Frederick William, who had formerly sold all the magnificent furniture left by his father, never could find a pur-chaser for that enormous engilded coach. The Heiduques, who walked on each side to support it in case it should fall, shook hands with each other over the roof." Lanier, Mystery and Lore of Monsters, p. 313.
125 Nancy Mitford, Frederick the Great (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), p. 21. Massie writes that another Irishman, a seven-foot-two-inch giant, reportedly cost over 6,000 pounds.
126 Asprey, Frederick the Great, p. 94.
127 Mitford, Frederick the Great, p. 21.
128 Asprey, Frederick the Great, p. 94.
129 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, pp. 132-133.
130 Carlyle, as we saw earlier, puts the number at one hundred, and perhaps in some years Peter delivered that many.
131 Robert K. Massie, Peter the Great (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), p. 577.
132 Constance Wright, A Royal Affinity (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965), p. 182.
133 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 133.
134 Lanier, A Book of Giants, pp. 312-313.
135 Massie, Peter the Great, p. 576.
136 John S. C. Abbott, History of Frederick the Great (New York: Harper & Bros., 1871), footnote, p. 192.
137 Massie, Peter the Great, p. 577.
138 Ibid.
139 Polybius, The Histories, 2.17.
140 Livy, 5.36.
141 Ibid.
142 Diodorus, V.30. A cubit measures about eighteen inches.
143 Ibid. The ancient javelin was a long-shafted combat weapon tipped with metal and used for thrusting.
144 Hubert, The Rise of the Celts, pp. 89-90. Hubert notes that between Valence and Avignon, tumuli cemeteries on both banks of the Rhone have yielded large bronze swords. "In the Cote-d'Or," he says, "the great iron sword was used" (pp. 135-136).
145 Diodorus, 5.29.
146 Gerhard Herm, The Celts, p. 1 1.
147 Herodotus, The Histories, 4.65. In the same place, the Greek historian reports that after a battle it was the custom, at least among the Scythian Celts, "for every man to drink the blood of the first man he kills."
148 Ibid.
149 Livy, 23.24.
150 A maniple was a subdivision of the Roman legion and usually consisted of one hundred and twenty men.
151 Livy, 5.43.
152 Ibid., 5.47.
153 Ferrero and Barbagallo, Short History of Rome, pp. 50-54. Instead of a "bushel," some historians say a thousand pounds of gold.
154 Livy, 5.58.
155 Herm, The Celts, p. 13.
156 Donald R. Dudley, The Romans: 850 B.C.-337 A.D. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970), p. 23.
157 Caesar, Commentary, 2.30.
158 Dudley, The Romans, p. 23.
159 Herm, The Celts, p. 25.
160 Caesar, Commentary, 1.50.
161 Polybius, The Histories, 2.30.
162 In his report on an invasion of Greece by another, later Brennus, the Greek historian Pausanias wondered at the Celts' great show of fury once the battle turned against them. When their shields failed to protect them from a rain of Greek javelins and arrows, he writes, they "rushed at their adversaries like wild beasts, full of rage and temperament, with no kind of reasoning at all; they were chopped down with axes and swords but the blind fury never left them while there was breath in their bodies; even with arrows and javelins sticking through them they were carried on by sheer spirit while their life lasted. Some of them even pulled the spears they were hit by out of their wounds and threw them or stabbed with them." Pausanias 10.4.
163 Thompson, Mystery and Lore of Monsters, p. 158.
164 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 132.
165 Floras, 1.38.3.
166 Hubert, Greatness and Decline of the Celts, pp. 110, 112, 115.
167 Ibid., p. 119.
168 Ibid., pp. 155-156.
169 Durant, Caesar and Christ, p. 473.
170 Hubert, Greatness and Decline of the Celts, pp. 165-166, 180-184.
171 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XI, 11th edition, p. 926.
Wyobrazmy sobie teraz, jak wysocy i jak wielkich rozmiarow musieli byc co poniektorzy z gigantow zamieszkujacych Europe po wygnaniu z Bliskiego Wschodu!
Mam przekazy historykow rzymskich, ale podobnie jak te powyzej - jeszcze nie po polsku.
To byl prawdziwy postrach np. takiego Rzymu przez cala jego historie az do pierwszego wieku pne. Tylko dlatego nie upubliczniany przez historykow, by ludzi nie straszyc, a przez co Rzym nia mialby zbyt wielu "dumnych i nieustraszonych" zolnierzy
Prawda jaka znamy dzis jest owocem pracy pokolen fachowcow od propagandy cesarstwa rzymskiego! Jak widzimy, Rzym nie tylko potrafil budowac imponujace obiekty architektury, byla ta cywilizacja mistrzem w stosowaniu real-politik! Do dzis nie jestesmy w stanie przyjac za pewnik istnienie plemion gigantow na swiecie, a juz zwlaszcza w Europie
No trudno - musimy przysiasc faldow, zaczac googlowac i uzupelniac stracona informacje. Nawet nie chce mi sie specjalnie myslec jakie to luki mamy w temacie "tereny Polski przed rokiem 966"...
To nic! Lepiej pozno niz wcale
A przy tym - wszyscy mamy rowne szanse, kazdy jest po prostu swiezy w tym temacie i to nie jest na prawde nasza wina, ze w naszych szkolach takich ciekawych lekcji nie bylo - wazne, by sie one pojawily od tej pory za nasza sprawa!
Jestem pewien, ze takich lekcji o gigantach wszyscy uczyliby sie z prawdziwym entuzjazmem!
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