Giants

Text: Yvain  

Yvain fights Harpin  (http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/han-the-legend-of-yvain)   

  

Descriptive Excerpt from the Text:      

"I have suffered much from a giant, who has insisted that I should give him my daughter, who surpasses in beauty all the maidens in the world. This evil giant, whom may God confound, is named Harpin of the Mountain. Not a day passes without his taking all of my possessions upon which he can lay his hands...I had six sons who were knights, fairer than any I knew in the world, and the giant has taken all six of them. Before my eyes he killed two of them, and to-morrow he will kill the other four, unless I find some one who will dare to fight him for the deliverance of my sons, or unless I consent to surrender my daughter to him; and he says that when he has her in his possession he will give her over to be the sport of the vilest and lewdest fellows in his house."      

"And the giant fiercely came at him, and with threatening words thus spake to him: "By my eyes, the man who sent thee here surely had no love for thee! No better way could he have taken to avenge himself on thee. He has chosen well his vengeance for whatever wrong thou hast done to him." ... Thereupon my lord Yvain, who was anxious to depart, rides at him. He goes to strike him on the breast, which was protected by a bear's skin, and the giant runs at him with his stake raised in air. ..With the next blow he ran the whole blade of his sword through his liver beneath his chest; the giant falls in death's embrace. And if a great oak tree should fall, I think it would make no greater noise than the giant made when he tumbled down."    

Literary Context:     

Obviously size and the physical prowess that comes with it sets Harpin the giant apart from humans, but a general villainy may work to this effect as well. Unlike some modern representations of giants (including the one below), Harpin doesn't seem to be below average human intelligence -he speaks as well as a typical man would, and he clothes himself.He might also lust for human women as well (we've also seen giant lust for human women in The Alliterative Morte Arthure) Furthermore, it is telling that he is privileged with a name in the way that the titular lion is not,  

Modern Representation  

Grawp from the Harry Potter series isn't evil, but temperamental and lacking reasoning capacities. Note how neither Grawp or Harpin seem to have attained human status, but both are privileged with names