CHAPTER 23
THE MIDDLE AGES
“The period in history known as the Middle Ages or medieval period was the time between the reign of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance. As the Roman Empire began to crack, the protection of an empire was no longer reliable, so local people started to pledge loyalty to a local lord who could offer local protection from invading barbarians, including the Celts, Franks, and Vikings. This period began a new system of monarchical government, and a smaller ruling system of kingdoms was born.
The Celtic giants at this time were mostly migrant people. They never rallied as a nation. Had they united, I suspect they could have been the next Roman Empire. Yet they remained tribal people with only their size, religion, and language unifying them.
Caesar saw this division as a weakness in the giant culture. When Caesar was assassinated, his successor, Augustus, organized Gaul into four zones. In doing this, it helped reduce the threat of an emerging giant empire. It also civilized the giants. They became more Romanized and accustomed to roads, buildings, government, and clothing. Eventually, when the inhabitants around them began to form solidarity and nations of their own, the giants had no choice but to do the same. A small kingdom of giants was formed.”
I had to ask Grandpa Jack, “Why is it then that giants in so many stories are portrayed as monsters and evil doers?”
Grandpa Jack answered, “It has to do with jealousy and fear. You will soon learn that when men fear something or become jealous, they will do things that they themselves think are impossible. Fear and jealousy are strong recourse for actions that most of us wish we did not take.
Through the history of the giants we’ve seen so far, we’ve seen them portrayed in some cases as both heroes and in others as villains. When both the Roman Empire and Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire fell apart, local authority became more prevalent. Power was decentralized. The economic conditions, as they related to money, were focused less on trade between the regions and more on local farming and agriculture. Farmers, or peasants, worked for the local lord in return for favor and protection. The development of feudal loyalty became the norm. The duty of the local lords was to protect their peasants from barbarians like the Huns, the Goths, and even the Vikings. As the enemies increased, local lords were willing to join forces and pledge an alliance to a strong king who could protect the lords in the kingdom against any attack. These kingdoms were the beginning of what would become the nations we know today.
Giants, much like men, once had their own lands, kingdoms, and monarchs. The giants continued to be great warriors who had done battle against the Roman Empire. However, during the Middle Ages, the giants were now more civilized. This came about as many of the European kingdoms were more willing to join forces with the giants as a means of aid from their own enemies. For a price, the European nations could call upon the king of the giants for help when the need arose. By the middle of this period in history, most kingdoms could count on the peaceful but strong giants to help them with any war that came their way.
Giants lived lives much like the humans of their day. They labored in fields, provided for their families, and enjoyed their arts, music, and religion. They also vowed allegiance to their king, like the other kingdoms did. The king’s job was to ensure that peace remained within the boundaries of the kingdom. When deemed necessary, the king would call upon the kingdom’s finest to serve as warriors. Giants remained some of the fiercest warriors any man had seen. Other kingdoms would repay the giant kingdom with precious gifts in exchange for their help. Some brought gifts of feasts. Others brought gifts of art, including paintings, textiles, and statues. Those who owed the most always paid rewards of precious metals like gold and silver, and gems like diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
The coffers of the giants were said to be greater than any other kingdom due to the generosity of those they helped protect. Time continued to civilize the giants in Europe. The giants no longer felt the need to conquer other kingdoms without cause. They kept mostly to themselves and their own lands. Giants at that time were considered good neighbors to have around.
It was the riches that the giants amassed as favors to other kingdoms that would lead to their demise as a civilized kingdom. The giants never flaunted their riches. Instead, the giants saved all their precious gifts in halls and fortresses for future generations. The greatest of all giant kings, King Gayant, rarely wore any of the precious ornaments. He was very modest by most king standards. He was known as the Great Giant King because he ruled the kingdom during a time of great peace.
It was after the death of the Twin Kings who ruled the giant kingdom through some of the bloodiest battles in Europe, that King Gayant ascended the throne. Gayant felt that enough blood had been spilled in all the previous battles. He brokered deals with the kings to the north and the south for peace. Gayant had been the toughest warrior when he served under the Twin Kings. As a monarch, he held his army as peacekeepers but knew when to use force to ensure peace for the kingdom and his neighbors. Upon the death of the Twin Kings, every giant that sat on the King’s Council voted that Gayant succeed to the throne.
The original King’s Council was made up of six giants who represented water, ice, frost, fire, earth, and air. Each sat on the council as an advisor. The king also sat on the council only to cast a deciding vote. This was once the greatest council of advisors ever assembled in the entire world. It was a council dedicated to peace during the Middle Ages and united to ensure no giant kingdom would ever face the civil unrest that was once common in the lands of the giants.
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In years prior, Gayant led the giant armies in battle against their northern cousin the Vikings. During the Battle of Blood and Ice, the Vikings were moving south into the giant kingdom, and many kingdoms feared the Vikings would march on through most of Europe if not stopped. Gayant organized his armies in an offensive move to the north to prevent the Vikings from entering the kingdom. When the Nordic barbarians saw the great giant army marching above the tree line to the battlefields, there was no second-guessing that this was going to go badly for their side. Nonetheless, the Vikings, with their stubborn nature and advanced size of their own, actually put axe and sword in hand against the first line. They were met with giant swords nearly seven feet in length that knocked every weapon out of the hands of the northern barbarians. When one Viking swung his axe at Gayant, Gayant swung his sword in one hand with a side motion that cut the head off of his enemy in one clean swoop. The headless body sank to the ground, and Gayant and the giant army marched over it. With the giants’ mighty weight, the bodies of the dead Vikings were buried completely in the snowy ground. The heads of the Vikings would go flying across the battlefield toward the Nordic fortress, spraying blood like a red rain over the barbarian masses. Viking lore tells of skies that rained blood on that cold day.
The giant armies marched through the battle with ease and defeated the northern barbarians, trampling them along the way. When they finally reached the Nordic fortress, they witnessed a white flag being raised in defeat. Nearly half of the Nordic warriors had been buried in shallow graves in the path of the giant army toward the fortress – surrender was the only choice. In mere hours, the giant army had brought the invasion to a complete stop. Gayant would become one of the greatest giant heroes of all time. He was compared to Hercules for his strength and courage.
All European kings owed a bit of gratitude to the giant kingdom for holding the Nordic barbarians at bay in the north. It was one front in Europe that the other kingdoms did not have to be concerned about. They could focus on the south and the invading Muslims in Spain, and would only have to do battle with the Vikings when they attacked from the western seas
After the Battle of Blood and Ice, Gayant continued to serve his Twin Kings with pride as the steward of peace in the kingdom. And on the day the Twin Kings died together, they nominated Gayant as their successor. Gayant was voted as the new king unanimously by the Kings Counsel. The rulers of all European nations and all other civilized creatures of the lands celebrated his nomination. King Gayant would rule a peaceful kingdom and keep the peace in the north for nearly eighty years. He declared, “Let us use all our might for peace. Let no man, giant or beast, cause any more death for the sake of death. I have fought in war and lost both friends and foe. In that, only the reaper wins, and we all lose. For the sake of that alone, we should all choose peace.”
When a neighboring human king died, it was King Gayant who nominated his human friend, Hendrick, whom he served with in the War of the Winds. Hendrick was a righteous man and a noble leader. Hendrick would rule for fifty years, and during his reign, Hendrick’s wife bore a son, Solomon, also called Solom. Solom, like his father, held a close friendship with Gayant and the neighboring giants. When his father died, Solom ascended the throne. As a gift, Gayant allowed Solom to visit the great giant hall of treasures and select his own gift. Solom was amazed at the wealth the giants held. He had no idea that such wealth existed. Solom had lived a sheltered life since he was a young boy. Threats of pirates and Vikings haunted the king and queen so much that they kept their only son sheltered in the castle. He was unaware of what life outside the castle and kingdom was like.
Upon seeing the wealth that the giants had, Solom became jealous. He also feared that the giants could easily destroy his kingdom. Growing up living most of his life in fear, Solom feared the kingdom his father left him would come under attack. King Solom built armies of men and weapons he kept secret in case he needed to defend himself against attacks from the peaceful giants.
King Gayant lived for over a hundred years. In his final months, he could not walk so his loyal constituents made him a bed filled with purest cotton that resembled a cloud. They used the finest linens and fabrics for bedding. King Gayant’s bed was eventually placed by a stream as he remembered playing by a stream as a boy giant. He was served cherries the size of golf balls, along with giant grapes, apples, and melons. The maidens in the kingdom gathered giant sunflowers and wildflowers and dipped them in the stream so the king could look on them during his dying days. Everything was made so that the king would die a pleasant death.
On King Gayant’s final day, he was happy and at peace. He had ruled his kingdom with pride and success. Upon his last breath; he laughed such a great laugh that all the kingdoms heard it like rolls of thunderous wind. The longest ruling king in the kingdom was dead. His body, like that of all great giant kings was ceremoniously burned. The black smoke from the fire carried over all the kingdoms and quickly turned into thunderous rain clouds. It rained seven days straight upon his death. The ashes of the great king with the winds of the storms had been scattered across the countryside and the fields bloomed with the greatest flowers and the first spring was born. King Gayant’s death signaled a new beginning in the kingdom.
The giants soon erected two circles of great sarsen stones on an ancient site of their countryside as a tribute to King Gayant. The stones would stand near the site of two giant bluestones that memorialized the Twin Kings who ruled before him. The stones were arranged with one circle of stones within another circle as a symbol of the circle of peace that surrounded the community during the hundred-year life of King Gayant. The stones were arranged to align with the sunrise and sunset and the telling of the seasons. The giant stones were said to be encrusted with the finest gems and jewels that the giant halls held. The stone circle garden would stand as a testament to the Great King of the Giants for years to come.
As another tribute to King Gayant, the giants vowed to live a peaceful existence without the rule of another king. No one could replace King Gayant and the success he had. He left them a legacy of peace and a civilized society of rule that no one would test.
But King Solom with the wealth and riches of the giants as his temptation and fear as his motivation hatched a plot to destroy the kingdom of the giants once and for all.
