Finlay & The Giants – Scottish Folklore
Finlay and the Giants is a traditional Scottish story of a battle between good and evil. There’s a hero, a damsel in distress, a wise old woman and some very evil villains. It’s everything that a good story needs to be a success!
There are dozens of stories about Scottish Giants, some of them are even friendly in nature. Unfortunately, most of them are incredibly violent and in Finlay & the Giants, our hero finds that out the hard way.
Finlay & The Giants
Finlay lived with his sister and hunting dogs in a woodland hut at the bottom of a hill. Every day when he went out hunting, Finlay told his sister to keep the north windows closed. He was adamant, that’s the direction evil would come from. Eventually, his sister had enough of being ordered about. One morning after Finlay left for the day, she opened the windows wide.
Returning home that evening, Finlay came across an old woman living in the woods that he had never seen before. She had a grave warning for him. His sister had fallen in love with a handsome, young giant who was waiting to ambush him once he returned home.
Finlay looked about warily when he walked through his front door. His sister pointed to a large pile of straw in the corner she had prepared for him to rest on. Instead, he grabbed a pot of boiling water from the fire and threw it on the heap. Suddenly, the young giant hiding underneath screamed in agony. The giant jumped up and was chased out the door by the dogs, followed closely by Finlay’s sister.
Finlay returned to thank the old woman for her warning, but she warned that his job wasn’t finished yet. That young giant had family who would come looking for vengeance. Finlay and the Giants would battle hard before this was over, he was going to need all of his strength. She warned that the male giants would come with violence, but the mother would come with tricks.
That night, the giant’s older brother pounded on the hunter’s door. Finlay fired his arrows, the dogs leapt to attack and he managed to strike the giant down with his sword. The next night, the father of the giants almost took the roof off before Finlay managed to defeat him. It was almost too much and Finlay was beginning to wonder if he would ever see his sister again.
Shaken from his thoughts, an old lady was knocking on his door asking for shelter. She looked fragile and innocent enough, but Finlay was wary of the wise woman’s warnings. He made the stranger swear an oath to do him no harm inside the hut.
As she sat warming herself, the hounds knew something was amiss, snarling and growling. Feigning fear, the wee lady asked if her host would tie them with ribbons from her hair. Sure now that something was wrong, he pretended to agree, but left the ribbons loose around the dog’s necks.
Then in the firelight he saw the old lady start to grow. She got bigger and bigger until the mother of the giants filled the entire room. In a rage, she screamed that her family had been murdered by Finlay and the giant’s would have their revenge!
She would not break her promise to do him no harm in the hut, so started to drag Finlay outside. Seeing the danger, the hounds leapt to action and to the giantesses surprise, the ribbons fell on the floor. The dogs latched on to her limbs and in an epic battle Finlay managed to pin her to the ground.
She offered him all the riches hidden in their cave to let her free, but Finlay wouldn’t listen. He killed the monster where she lay.
In thanks for her help, Finlay asked the wise woman to join him in climbing the hill to the Giant’s Cave. There they could split the treasure and rescue his sister. Remembering that the youngest giant was still recovering inside, they lit a fire and blew smoke into the cave. The scalded, young giant came stumbling out into the open, but the dogs couldn’t approach through the flames.
As the giant staggered, he wildly swung a magical golden sword that would cut through Finlay’s weapons like butter. He was getting closer and Finlay was beginning to panic, but his companion stayed calm. The wise woman calmly pulled out a magic wand and in one sharp flick, struck the giant dead.
Inside the cave was a fortune of riches stolen over the years, piled high around the walls. Unfortunately, Finlay was too late to save his poor sister. He wept over her body but at least now, nobody would live in fear of the ferocious family of giants.
If you enjoyed the story of Finlay and the Giants, you might enjoy the terrifying tale of the Baobhan Sith!
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