[Story] The Mighty Giant

[Jubal]

The Mighty Giant

Introduction
This is the story of two giants, one good and one evil, each of whom rules part of the land, and their struggle for supremacy.

Story
Abridged and paraphrased from Hanghe: details such as the attributes of characters are in their respective threads, and what is preserved here is the essentials of the plot.^{1, 2}

Gannaje was a giant who looked after his father's herd of camels. Every time he took them to water, he would kill the fattest and make a bag from its skin to put the well-water into - and then eat the meat, which he could do at a single sitting. His father, realising that he could not afford to feed Gannaje any more, told him to take the last camel in the herd and leave.

Having done so, Gannaje settled in the lands of  the famous leader Wiil-Waal. He was given a bride and livestock, and settled there with his in-laws. His appetite remained, however. He told his wife to prepare dinner for a hundred men one day, then told her to wait outside for the guests whilst he had a nap - in fact there were no guests, and he ate all the food. Realising that her husband was more than human, the bride fled, though the men of the village advised her to return and let Gannaje eat all the food he needed.

It was decided not long after to move the village, and the men decided to test Gannaje's strength by giving the job of moving entirely to him and the women of the camp. The women set to making their huts in places Gannaje had set out, and the giant went to sleep under a tree. The women woke him up late in the afternoon - for there was still no stockade around the huts - but he simply went back to sleep.

At last, just before sundown, Gannaje awoke. Pulling up entire trees, he laid a stockade made out of whole tree-trunks around the village, so quickly that it was done before sunset. The men of the village returned at sunset; but Gannaje's wife had to fetch him to let them in, for the great trunk he had left across the gate was so heavy that all the other men together could not lift it to get in! The men realised, grudgingly, how great the value of Gannaje's labour was.

The men prepared another test for Gannaje though; they told him they could feed him no longer, and sent him off with his wife and camels. Then, they sent mounted warriors after him to kill him and retrieve the camels. They caught up with him and threw their sharp spears, but Gannaje simply caught them in the air and broke them. He caught a great spear and used it to kill the chieftain, and seized all the men's horses. The remaining men begged Gannaje's mercy and said he had proven himself a very brave man; he returned to the village and was given a gift of many livestock, and lived there happily ever after.

Variants
~Nothing as yet~

Links
[Character] Gannaje (Protagonist)



REFERENCES/NOTES

• Paraphrased/abridged by James Baillie
• Folk Tales from Somalia, pp.145-7

BIBLIOGRAPHY/FURTHER MATERIAL

• Hanghe, Ahmed A. - Folk Tales from Somalia (1988)

Analysis
~None as Yet~