Re Spenser's giants: Jim alludes to the British giants slain by Brute in
II.x. The description of these giants as having been produced by the
coupling of "Dioclesians fiftie daughters" with "feends and filthy
Sprights"-- bringing forth "Giants and such dreadfull wights, / As farre
exceeded men in their immeasurd mights" (II.x.8) -- always recalls for me
the strange story in Genesis 6.4, of the "Nephilim", "heroes of old, men
of great renown," produced by the coupling of the "sons of God" with the
"daughters of men." The allusion suggests not only Spenser's syncretism,
but his acute ear for certain biblical moments that feel oddly on the
verge of paganism or fairy tale.
And re threshold giant statues: the collapsed Orgoglio also recalls the
doubly thrown down statue of Dagon in 1 Samuel 5, first collapsed on his
face before the stolen ark in the Philistine temple, and then with his
hands and heads cut off, the latter set on the threshold of the temple to
render it taboo. Perhaps its shared the element of comedy that makes the
link between these two images of defeated gigantism and idolatry feel more
than must tenuous.
Strange that giants should be often like children, at least if you think
that giants in part represent children's earliest image of adults (well,
and their own even more gigantic egos and ids as well).
Ken Gross
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