Tolkien planned a Giant in LOTR? + speculations
 

I came across this comment in a footnote in
Letters (#35, Feb. 2, 1939)
Of course, he was just beginning the tale (which
clearly continued to grow in the telling) but is anyone
aware of any information about this "Giant", know
of any early writings, or have any speculation about
the giant. It hardly seems to fit Tom Bombadil. Was
he thinking of bringing back Beorn? Could it have
been an early concept of the balrog?

And for sheer speculation...How might LOTR have
evolved if Trotter the Hobbit had not been
replaced by Strider the Dunadain? After all, there
is that tantalizing observation about hobbits going
off, having adventures, and never returning.

Very early on, Tolkien envisioned explaining Gandalf's disappearance by having him held prisoner by the evil Giant Treebeard in the "topl;ess forest." There is also a scrap of narrative where Bilbo(!) meets this large person; and a somewhat later note suggests that maybe Giant Fangorn is in actuality good- and his thanes look like young trees....

In short, the early idea of a "giant" morphed into the Ents.

Sorry for nitpicking, WCH, but it's actually Frodo (then already so called) who met Treebeard in the fragment you've mentioned, not Bilbo (HoME VI, p. 382 ff). Tolkien planned for Frodo to have a 'tree adventure' after his separation from the rest of the Fellowship and rather surprised himself by having it happen to Merry and Pippin instead (probably because he'd revised the geography in the meantime).

It may be worth noting that ent is actually an Old English word for 'giant' - which is why the Ettenmoors north of Rivendell were called Entish Lands in the early drafts, as they were supposed to be populated by Trolls and/or other giantish creatures (nothing to do with the Ents as we now know them).

By the way, unless my memory deceives me The Hobbit mentions giants of a rather hostile and violent kind living in the Misty Mountains; and there may be a vague echo of that idea in the description of the Fellowship's attempt on the pass of Caradhras (LotR II, 3, The Ring Goes South):

Thanks. Both posts quite informative. Perhaps
Tolkien's toying with the use of giants in LOTR
(and hints of them on Caradhras?) was a
reflection of his later dissatisfaction with some
elements of TH and wishes that more of it had
been revised (to account for the [after LOTR
came out] rather anomalous giants tossing
game in TH?).

Thanks, pitchwife. Teach me to work from memory.....

It may also be possible that giants were scrapped, as they are often seens as of human form and therefore possibly aligned good rather than evil. Where then would they fit into Middle-Earth? I think that Tolkien's desire to include giants or a giant race, aside from Ents, were his addition of trolls to the legions of the Dark Lord, not only including beasts of size but making the Enemy army even more terrifying.