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Old 02-01-2013, 12:51 PM   #17
Galin
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,031
Galin is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Galin is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
In addition to what WCH noted, in the sequel to The Hobbit Tolkien described a Big Folk, seemingly mannish giants, but as The Lord of the Rings took shape these beings got revised away. Also Treebeard was notably huge in early drafts, and even he 'shrunk' considerably.

'Fangorn is an evergreen (oak holly?) forest. Trees of vast height. (…) If Treebeard comes in at all -- let him be kindly and rather good? About 50 feet high with barky skin. Hair and beard rather like twigs. Clothed in dark green like a mail of short shining leaves. He has a castle in the black mountains and many thanes and followers. They look like young trees [?when] they stand. (…) The tree-giants assail the besiegers and rescue Trotter &c. and raise siege.'

In The Lord of the Rings Hobbits certainly seem to think giants might exist at least: 'But what about these Tree-men, these giants as you might call them? They do say that one bigger than a tree was seen...'

'He [Sam] had imagined himself meeting giants taller than trees, and other creatures even more terrifying, some time or other in the course of his journey, but at the moment he was finding his first sight of Men and their tall houses quite enough, indeed too much for the dark end of a tiring day.'

But neither of these are, in my opinion, like Gandalf actually saying he's going to ask a giant for help, and Gandalf will later explain: 'Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came.'

Which of course makes one wonder is 'some' are right or wrong about the giants
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