Landscape of Scottish Mythological Gods, Goddesses and Giants

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Macbeth by John Martin  (1789–1854) (Public Domain)

Landscape of Scottish Mythological Gods, Goddesses and Giants

Scottish mythology and folklore make a finely woven tartan (travel) rug threaded with a collection of colorful and sometimes dark tales that have emerged from the long history of Scotland; each one elaborated and bettered by successive generations of storytellers. But what if some characters among the pantheon of fairies, helpful and troublesome spirits, demons, angels, mermaids or the malevolent entity of an ancient mountain giant reported as haunting the Cairngorms mountain range, are real?

The Giant Suttung and the Dwarfs, by Louis Huard. (1900) illustration from The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology by A & E Keary. (Public Domain)

The Giant Suttung and the Dwarfs, by Louis Huard. (1900) illustration from The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology by A & E Keary. (Public Domain)

While this is an apparently extremely ‘fringe’ claim, even the most hardened skeptical reader will at the conclusion of this article be inclined to agree. However, in order to understand the nature of this real-life giant’s specter, one must begin at a time before time, when a giant goddess roamed barren lands that would much later become known as Scotland.


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