The Giants from the West

The ethnologist James Mooney (1861–1921) wrote of ancient giants in his 1902 book, Myths of the Cherokee. The section titled "The Giants from the West" is an intriguing account. I have reprinted it below:

THE GIANTS FROM THE WEST

James Wafford, of the western Cherokee, who was born in Georgia in 1806, says that his grandmother, who must have been born about the middle of the last century, told him that she had heard from the old people that long before her time a party of giants had come once to visit the Cherokee. They were nearly twice as tall as common men, and had their eyes set slanting in their heads, so that the Cherokee called them Tsunil' kalu', "The Slant-eyed people," because they looked like the giant hunter Tsul'kalu' (see the story). They said that these giants lived very far away in the direction in which the sun goes down. The Cherokee received them as friends, and they stayed some time, and then returned to their home in the west. The story may be a distorted historical tradition. 

Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1902.

You can find a ton of stories about ancient giants in my book Giants: Men of Renown. Hope you'll head over to Adventures Unlimited Press and order your copy!



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