Best Research Resources For Ancient Giants

 

With decades of research in all paranormal subjects, I built up books and equipment that helped immensely. I want to share these with you and explain why these are important.

Cabin in the Woods: A Must-See YouTube Channel!

 

You know how some YouTube channels are just a talking head the whole time? Maybe they seem too casual or too ignorate, too chatty, or completely without knowledge on the subject they are discussing?

I am extremely critical of channels that waste my time. Other channels, I can marathon all day long and stop what I'm doing to listen. Cabin in the Woods is definitely that channel!

Significant Ancient Giant Find Goes Under the Radar!

 (giant head protected inside gourd for transport)

In the 1930s, explorer Paxson Hayes, searched a cave near the canyon of Barrano de Cobre in Northern Mexico. Within the cave, he found 34 mummified men and women, all with blonde hair. All of them also had tall heights between 7 and 8 feet. 

Can Ancient Giants Still be Found in the Solomon Islands?

 

If there is a location on earth that still houses ancient giants who have retained their culture en masse, it would be the Solomon Islands. 

The Solomon Islands are in the South Pacific Northeast of Australia, east of Indonesia.  The giants here are not only spoken of, but spoken of in the present tense - as beings who still coexist. 

I'm interested in the giants of this region for several reasons. One of the reasons is that the reported footprints and bones in Australia, Indonesia, and South Pacific islands are much larger than anywhere else in the world, sometimes placing these giants in the 20+ foot range. As well, the giants reported to land in copper mining areas like Peru, the Imperial Valley, Texas coastline to head up the Mississippi region, were all very well seasoned boat builders and voyagers. If there was a birth place for launching ancient giants, the South Pacific seems a plausible location. 

From native mythology in that location -
Qat, the Great Spirit who made everything, and his twelve brothers were invited to spend the night in the house of a giant named Qasavara. The giant intended to kill them while they slept and eat them, but Qat opened a crack in one of the beams of the house and the brothers hid inside the beam. In the end, Qasavara became so frustrated that one morning he chased Qat and his brothers up a casuarina tree. Qat caused the tree to grow so long that when it bent over, the tip touched a neighboring island. The brothers jumped off and the tree, released from the extra weight, sprang back, throwing Qasavara high into the sky. When Qasavara struck the ground, he died and was transformed into a stone. This stone still existed in recent times: those who desired success and strength in battle would make sacrifices upon it.  Another lesser-known version portrays Qasavara as the gatherer of the spirits of the damned, who he then feeds to mythical monsters.

Source:  According to very numerous local reports, surviving giants live inside the rainforest jungle mountain ranges of Guadalcanal. They have vast cave systems running the length of the entire island. Australian Marius Boirayon, a retired helicopter pilot/engineer who is married to a Solomon Islander, has come across many Guadaleanal people who believe these giants can travel from cast to west through these cave systems without seeing the light of day. It is believed that their population numbers in the thousands.

map of giants from this site

One credible witness to these is a once Prime Minister and the previous Guadalcanal Premier, Ezekiel Alebua. He recalls that when he was a child his father took him to a burial cave in east Guadalcanal. Inside was a complete skeleton that must be around 15 feet in length. To the local population on Guadalcanal, giants are common knowledge. Interaction with giants has been frequent through their history. The giant’s territory is a 1,000 square kilometre area of mountains covered in tropical jungle west of Mount Popomanaseu.

Local tribes, not only in Guadalcanal, but in most parts of the Solomon Islands have recorded a tumultuous historical relationship with the giants. The area is rich in memories of such encounters.  Giants allegedly still survive on Santa Isabel Island. Although they are fewer in number than on Guadalcanal, there are two areas where they live. Any local person is able to steer you in the right direction.  Another of the Solomon Islands is Choiseul. The island of Choiseul is not small. Some 300 kilometres long by 80 kilometres wide, it numerous villages. But there is one large area of its interior where no village exists. And apparently with good reason…living giants.

SOURCE:  To my understanding, there are three different species or types of these Giants. The larger and more commonly seen are over 10 foot tall, but I have come across numerous Islander accounts with evidence that supports that they do grow much taller than that. These Giants have very long black, brown or reddish hair, or a mixture and when they want to have a good look at you, they pull it aside from their face with one hand. They have a protruding double eyebrow, bludging red eyeballs, and flat nose, wide-gapped mouth facial features, and have an unmistakable odor, which the coastal people would once use as a sign of their presence, depending on the wind. From the large hairy type, they range down in size with reducing amounts of body hair. The smaller version, although bigger than normal human beings, are like a wild man living in the jungle and are not as hairy as the big ones. This is the way the Guadalcanal Islanders describe them. Inherently, when they see these small giant half human people, they make efforts to kill them. These smaller versions are lower down in the Giant social order, living predominately outside their caves systems in the jungle, although all three (types) are found in the Island’s jungle. Incidentally, there are many newspaper reports, even recently, of these hairy Giants in Papua New Guinea, and also may I say that I know for a fact that the Vanuatu people have also had a similar past with their Giants as the Solomon Islanders have had, as those that follow up on my research will find out.

There is an incident spoken of in which miners in 1998 began to plow away areas to prospect. A bulldozer broke down and they left it for the night. When they came back, the blade was gone; a very heavy object to carry away. Not far from there, they found 3-foot long bare human footprints and about a 100 meters away, the blade was found.

Some officials headed up to see the new gold prospecting area and got stuck in the mud. They had to walk back to the village. When they came back, the car was back on the road again. Not only that, but supposedly a giant man was seen at the front of the car, another at the rear. The men ran in fear and when they came back later, the giants were gone, the car was on the road, and the footprints showed that, indeed, these giants had righted the car. 

In one village where giant bones are regularly popping up, one tent is supposedly supported by an 8-foot long femur. If proportions were similar to humans, that would make the fellow about ... 32 feet tall!  And, incidentally, that 3-foot long track mentioned above? That fella would be about the same height approximately.

Are there still giants on the Solomon Islands? Well, given the extensive amount of mountains rainforests forever in the fog and not explored, the tons of cave systems, and relative underdevelopment of the lands, it would seem the most likely place on earth. 

There are even more giants throughout Polynesia. Tahiti has a 2.5 meter-tall statue with six fingers. Marquesas Islands also house many giant statues. In Samoa, the footprints of a giant with six toes called Moso. Many islands tout ancient giants with six toes and fingers, as well as unusual ancient statues.

MORE INFO:

WEBSITE - 
Article about Solomon Island Giants in detail
Posting about it in some detail here

BOOKS -
Solomon Island Mysteries by Marius Boirayon 
The Most Mysterious Places On Earth by Nick Redfern 
The Discovery of the Solomon Islands by Alvararo De Mendana (Solomon Islands)

Native American Legends of Giants

 

When even unrelated tribes report the same encounters with an unusually "tall" tribe, one has to take note. Here's just some of the legends the Native People of America speak of in relation to a giant tribe of long ago.

Forgotten Accounts of Ancient Giants in Nevada

 

A special thanks to Dennis Guern and James Carroll for the joint research and giving their feedback on this interesting and detailed article about giant finds in the ancient Lake Lahontan/Nevada region. 

Death Valley Giants

 

There have been many interesting tales of ancient giants finds, but none so amazing as the one reported from the Grand Canyon by an explorer and the one reported from Death Valley, California.

The Stonish Giants

 

Sketch of the Stonish giants

The Stonish giants were a supposed ancient tribe of the wilderness that was giant and rolled in mud to make a crackling skin over their bodies. They went to war with the original nations and were driven back to the wilderness.

Ancient Giant Axes and Hammers

 

Source:  Apparently, these are the largest stone tools yet found and there have been many huge ones around the world. Who wielded these, do you suppose? 

The Pope Scope: Mt. Graham Observatory and Subterranean Ancient Giants?

 

Mt. Graham lies northwest of the city of Tucson, Arizona and rises to almost 11,000 feet. It contains the Mt. Graham Observatory and has seen many wildfires over the years.

The meaning of the mountain to the native people has been cloaked in intrigue. Let's take a look at its possible past.

Ancient Giant-Sized Axes and Hammers

Source: Apparently, these are the largest stone tools yet found and there have been many huge ones around the world. Who wielded these, do you suppose? 

These ones (above) were found in a lake bed in Botswana from between 10,000 to 250,000 years ago!

Father Crespi and the Cave of Ancient Giants' Archives

Located in the rainforests on the eastern coast of the Andes in Ecuador, Cuevo de los Tayos is an extensive cave system that appears to be man-made. 

Did Ancient Giants Come From Hollow Earth?

 

As I have in recent years been focusing a good deal on research of ancient giants, I tend to gather a lot of various information from sources around the globe and as I do, I begin to notice odd correlations. 

Working with researcher Dennis Guern, we have found
some unusual characteristics we will share now -  

Ipiutak: Ancient Alaskan People of Unusual Origin

Ipiutak burial mask

Northwestern Alaska had an ancient people called the Ipiutak. The state also has some islands and remote locations where many reports of ancient giants being dug up persist today. 

Who were the Ipiutak? Well, if you ask the Native People, they were highly unusual -

Inuits and Ancient Giants

 

Let's continue our journey investigating the giants of the Native People of the North. Today, we are going to talk about the Inuits of Canada and Alaska region.

Nahullo: Ancient Giants of Tennessee

Nearly every tribe in America tells of some giant race of white people with blue eyes who were settled in with cities and technology such as mining and canal work residing here when the Amerindians first came to the lands. They also speak of trying to co-exist, but finding it a difficult task.

Skinwalker Ranch Secret? Ancient Giants' Lair?

Tonight on History Channel, our favorite show "The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch" airs again and it has Dennis Guern and I thinking about yet another possible explanation for the weird goings on there.

The Vikings and the Giants

Skrymir

The People of the North knew how to do giants in their mythology and legends. The race of giants were referred to as Jotunn and in their mythology, they identified many giants with the usual David and Goliath running theme in regards to native people meeting up with the original race of powerful ones. 

In Midgard, a world within the nine worlds of Norse mythology, there were many encounters between Loki and Thor with the giants. In fact, many legends of seas, sky and mountains being formed involved the bodies of giants. In fact, the question is often asked if Thor himself might have been a giant, as the question has been posed about Moses.

Jotun:  Jotun also called a giant. This is the first living being, and the first of them was a Jotun called Ymir, and from Ymir was the world was created. A Jotun is a giant with superhuman strength; their homeland is Jotunheim, which is one of the nine worlds. Jotunheim is a mostly made of mountains, wilderness and dense forests. The giants mostly lives from the fish in the water, and the animals from the dense forests, because there is no fertile land...Bergermil - His name Bergelmir means "Mountain yeller" or "Bear Yeller". Bergelmir is a frost giant, and the son of Thrudgelmir and the grandson of Ymir, the first giant. Bergelmir and his wife are the only two survivors of all the giants after Ymir's death and the flood. They used a hollowed out tree trunk to sail on the flood, it was the first boat. Because of Bergelmir and his wife, the race of frost giants were able to survive and live in Jotunheim. (Sound a bit like Noah, hmm? Some say one of Noah's sons was a giant).

Source:  It looked to be a routine excavation of what was thought to be a burial mound. But beneath the mound, archaeologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Museum of Natural History and Archaeology found something more: unusual Bronze Age petroglyphs...But researchers suspected there might be another reason for the choice of the hilltop when they uncovered the remains of two cremations, or rather a fire layer that also contained bits of bone. Underneath they found many petroglyphs, including eight drawings showing the soles of feet, with cross hatching. There were also five shallow depressions, Haug says. Two boat drawings and several other drawings of feet soles with toes were also found just south of the burial mound. Link between burial mound and drawings unclear. "This is a very special discovery, and we are not aware of other similar findings from Trøndelag County," she says. "The tomb might have been deliberately constructed over the petroglyphs, probably as part of funeral ritual. Based on the type of characters and especially the drawings of the foot soles, we have dated the artwork to the Bronze Age, about 1800 -- 500 BC."

Source:  Dating between 960 to 1020, a mass grave was discovered in the UK that showed the massacre of a large amount of men of vital ages of 18-35. The Oxford grave, however, didn’t fit the profile of an execution cemetery, which typically contains remains of people put to death over many centuries—not all at once, as at Oxford. And execution victims tended to be various ages and body types. By contrast, the bodies buried at Oxford were those of vigorous males of fighting age, most between 16 and 35 years old. Most were unusually large; an examination of the muscle-attachment areas of their bones revealed extremely robust physiques. Some victims had suffered serious burns to their heads, backs, pelvic regions and arms.

Source:  The "Kalevala" was a published work of 1835 that is involves Finnish National Identity. It involves a giant called Antero Vipunen who lived underground.

Source: Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of unusually large wooden monuments near a pre-Viking Age burial ground.  Archaeologist Lena Beronius-Jorpeland said the colonnades were likely from the 5th century but their purpose is unclear. She called it Sweden's largest Iron Age construction and said the geometrical structure is unique. "It is a completely straight line and they have dug postholes every 20 feet (6 meters)," she said. "They have had an idea of exactly where this line is going and where to build it. It is a fairly modern way of thinking and we don't have many traces of these sorts of constructions from that time." She said the pillars are believed to have been at least 23 feet (7 meters) high (excessive, eh?). Bones found in some postholes indicate animals had been sacrificed there.

The Smoky God, or A Voyage Journey to the Inner Earth is a novel of 1908 by Willis George Emerson, which is presented as a true account of a Norwegian sailor named Olaf Jansen, and explains how Jansen's sloop sailed through an entrance to the Earth's interior at the North Pole and met with a giant race.

Two giants seize Freyja 

Source: Jǫtunn (Proto-Germanic *etunaz) might have the same root as "eat" (Proto-Germanic *etan) and accordingly had the original meaning of "glutton" or "man-eater", probably due to their enormous diet because of their size. 

Ulfberht Sword: Infamous Viking swords. No one understood how this was made by the Norse so far ahead of its time, but was the technology of an older culture, learned from them? In the Saami (Laplander-Northern Scandinavian) legends, however, we might gain insight as to who taught the science. From the book Lapland Legends (tales of the Sami People): This time she sent a horde of powerful strangers with sharp weapons to make an end of the happy people. These men were tall in stature, strong, cruel, and greedy for gold, and their weapons were like those of the Roiters, were made of a shining, biting substance which was hard and cold and gleamed like moonbeams upon ice. Against these weapons, the Kobdas' magic seemed powerless. Once more, the sun-children sought shelter in the forests and among the mountains.

Source:  Due to just the right conditions, ancient Funnel-Beaker Era (5500 years ago) pottery was found intact in Norway. In an interesting tie-in, the Funnelbeaker Era in Norway showed similar characteristics to stone structures found in New England - 

The Beaker Culture existed 2800 to 1800 BC were Neolithic folks in Western Europe. This was a copper culture with certain characteristics. There is much debate as to whether they were the origins of the Celts and conflicts with finds in America's mounds that show Beaker Culture influence. So, how did a culture exist that was into mining and using copper, had sophistication for its time and stone-building, and yet it seemed to be all over the world? This could be explained by the "Originators" (giant) culture. 

Source: The earliest surviving reference to the term "berserker" is in Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late 9th century in honour of King Harald Fairhair, as ulfheðnar ("men clad in wolf skins"). This translation from the Haraldskvæði saga describes Harald's berserkers:

I'll ask of the berserks, you tasters of blood,
Those intrepid heroes, how are they treated,
Those who wade out into battle?
Wolf-skinned they are called. In battle
They bear bloody shields.
Red with blood are their spears when they come to fight.
They form a closed group.
The prince in his wisdom puts trust in such men
Who hack through enemy shields.

And, most people of a region have legends of giants. The Norse had their trolls. Originally trolls were giant-sized. After the introduction of Christianity, these became little beings as described in their legends.

Conclusion

The Vikings had a great reverence for the giants and carried the legends of gods who were powerful, huge, and sometimes bloodthirsty. In fact, it seems that the heart of the best accounts of giant cultures in legends come from Greece, Middle East and Scandinavia. Because it is so embedded in the cultures of these regions, we may know where the heart of their civilizations were.

Interestingly, some of the newest legends of giants have reports today of tall hairy feral giants, but the places with the oldest culture of them reported seems to be lacking sightings of giants today. 

We have something similar playing out today in population-dense areas that are showing signs of collapse, disease, and adversity such as Africa, India and China and yet they were very ancient settling places for Homo sapiens. This may be comparable to what the giant culture suffered in over-tapped resources with the coming of Homo sapiens and the upheaval created by "Native" people of the the world. 

What happened to the giants? If they sent out their powerful men to find new lands, they likely ran into lack of breeding pools, mining might have polluted their waters and diseased them at early ages, and local infringing Native people might have driven them or killed them off. As well, the general scaling down of animals from the giant sloths, mastodons and such, provided more agile, less meaty creatures to stalk for protein sources, making the giants turn cannibal on the Homo sapiens. 

There are many scenarios to consider for why they are no longer coexisting with us. But, if we look closely at our woodlands, we might realize they are still among us, only understandably cautious. 

No matter how the ancient giants succumbed to Homo sapiens populations, they show very strong evidence of having settled into the Northern countries in archaic periods and left their impression on those who came to settle the lands in the name of Homo sapiens, inspiring the design of mythology and religions. 

Stalo: The Giants of Sami Legend

Ancient giants - their stories come from nearly every native culture around the globe. But, what cultures might tell us the most about these globe-trotting people? I tend to look at the Northern and Eastern European regions where we had Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans cloistered in caves. These giants appear to have been a hearty bunch, likely having evolved outside of Africa for hundreds of thousands of years before we left the continent below. To adapt to these harsh climates, one would need to be powerful, perhaps hair, certainly meat-eating, as plant matter in colder climes was not like it was in Africa where fruits and veggies abounded. 


The Sami people of Lapland (arctic circle in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia), are a culture that was almost completely obliterated by the Scandinavian countries who did not value their religion, art, culture and more. They were assimilated in a way that whitewashed their vast knowledge. Still, there are sources that give us great insight before total destruction, such as the book Lapland Legends: Tales of an Ancient Race and Its Great Gods by Leonne de Cambray (translated).

P175:  "The Stallo and Potto-Podnie" 
This time she sent a horde of powerful strangers with sharp weapons to make an end of the happy people. These men were tall in stature, strong, cruel, and greedy for gold, and their weapons were like those of the Roiters, were made of a shining, biting substance which was hard and cold and gleamed like moonbeams upon ice (Giants showed Norse how to craft swords with advanced knowledge?) Against these weapons, the Kobdas' magic seemed powerless. Once more, the sun-children sought shelter in the forests and among the mountains.

One has to wonder about the all-consuming search for how old Norse made such amazingly honed swords. Was this is a skill passed down from observation or training by the giants? 

Interestingly, this site (above) was said by the Sami to be an old settlement of the Stallo (giants). Looks familiar, hmm?  

Here's one from Sudan (above). These mounds are all over the world! 

Serpent mound (above) Ohio

Azraq Oasis (above) Middle East 

Source:  The Stallo were portrayed as big stupid giants who caused trouble, ate the people and tormented them, but through good behavior, bravery, and intelligence, the Sami could survive. 

Many think this is an archetype from time immemorial, such as David and Goliath. The question is, was this a real theme played out in the reality if the ancients' lives in dealing with giants and proudly told by the victors who obliterated the race of troublesome cannibals? 

(SOURCE LINK): According to Johan Turi, “Stallos are those folk who are half human and half troll or devil” (Turi, 1931: 173). I found it quite interesting that Turi’s explanation of the origin of the stallos parallels a story depicted in the Bible in the Book of Genesis. The biblical account states that there were giants in the land and this had occurred “when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them” (The Holy Bible, Genesis 6:4). The “sons of God” referred to in this verse are the angels that fell with Lucifer (Pember, 1876: 133). These fallen angels are then the fathers of giants the “the mighty men who were of old, men of renown” (The Holy Bible, Genesis 6:4).

When David faces Goliath we see a story unfold that sounds similar to a Sámi stallo tale. A young boy, armed only with the tools of a herdsman, outsmarts and kills the giant. By Goliath’s description we see the indicators that he is in part the devil. His armor is described as scaled, like that of a snake (The Holy Bible, 1 Samuel 17). In Lapland Legends, Potto-Podnie beheads Stallo with his own sword (Cambrey, 1926: 183). This is reminiscent of David’s act in cutting off Goliath’s head with his own sword.


Is this just an archetypal account that was utilized by man around the globe - a theme to teach a lesson? Were cannibalistic giants and villagers battling told by indigenous people around the world, just a natural evolution of man's process of storytelling? 

To dismiss these running themes and "coincidences" as unrelated but happening simultaneously is to believe in magic. 

Interestingly, Inari Lake has a peculiarly large high island with a sacrificial cave that was considered sacred to the Sami people. (source) In ancient times, animal sacrifices were performed inside the cave on the island and over 400 bones of animals have been found. In fact, the cave was used for this purpose for pagan practices by the Sami up until the 19th Century, they believe.

Conclusion

It's interesting to note that a very isolated arctic culture managed to have the same themes of giants eating their people, having advanced tools, being stupid and outsmarted by trickery, and the David and Goliath theme portrayed. For cultures with no exposure to each other in ancient times, these legends say something about a true environment of giants and the running themes of dealing with them. This is much like legends around the world of harpooning whales. Man in boats, came upon whales, and mastered them with harpoons. This was a universal experience, so they wrote of it, sometimes in epic explanations of bravery.

More info:
Stalo 
More on Stalo Giants 

Seita Stones

Iceland's Legends of Giants

Today, we move on to Iceland. Though a rather isolated island in the far north, it shared its concepts with the Norse who settled it.

Source:  Just offshore from the black sand beach in Vík, the balsalt rock formations, Reynisdrangar, stick up out of the Atlantic like fingers. As the folklore goes, these spindly rock formations are actually trolls frozen in time. You see, trolls are night dwellers. They were trying to drag three ships ashore when they were caught in the sunlight and turned to stone.

Source: Dimmuborgir, located in the north of Iceland, literally translates to “Dark Cities”. As we explored Dimmuborgir with our guide, Ólafur, he pointed at the rock formations and said “Do you see the troll faces?” A long time ago, a couple of trolls that were living in the area decided to have a big party during the dark period and invite trolls from all around. The trolls partied so much and for so long, that they forgot the sun would shine again. It is said that the unusual lava pillars are really trolls that turned to stone when the sun came up.

Source:  Skessan. The Giantess, an ogress from the mountains, moved into the Black Cave at the marina in Gróf. She’s a friendly troll that we visited, though she’s sound asleep snoring in a rocking chair in her kitchen. As the tale goes, a little girl named Siggi was sent out to the mountains to play while her mother prepared a surprise sixth birthday for her. Siggi found a giant shoe, which of course belongs to a troll! Siggi wasn’t afraid of the troll, though, and they became fast friends. The Mayor was so impressed with the troll’s friendliness, he built a home for her in the cave in 2008.

Source:  The Icelandic Trolls are human-like in form, they are still inhumanly strong, huge and ugly. The Trolls are very often thought to be fearsome and cruel creatures.

But, like the elves, trolls in Iceland often treat people as they are treated and they return favors for favors, exerting vengeance if harmed.

The Icelandic Trolls live in mountains, caves and cliffs, especially bird cliffs. Like humans, they live together socially. They fish, cultivate land and keep animals. They are very good at handicrafts and hold feasts.

Source:  Surtshellir is a cave mentioned several times in the Medieval literature and said to be a cave of a giant. The first settler in the cave was said to be a giant named Surtur. Later, an outlaw band utilized the cave. 




Interestingly, in an island up to the north of Iceland, it has never been inhabited by humans and yet there were numerous petrospheres found there only 900 km from the North Pole. Josef Franz Land Island is a very curious place. Eighty five percent of the island is glacial year-round. It has never been inhabited, yet it contains numerous unexplained perfect stone spheres, something reported around the world.

In tales of Hollow Earth, supposed witnesses to this unusual location in the arctic circle described very tall people who were strong, healthy, and very advanced, kind of like Atlantis. 

Source:  Olaf Jansen was a Norwegian who gave an account of his voyage to this Hollow Earth. This hearty Norwegian in the 1800s had a father and uncle who encouraged him into ship owning and eventually he was able to sell the business, move to the Midwest of American in 1901, he moved on to Los Angeles. He spent the rest of his life drawing maps of new lands they found.

He recounted (here) that in 1829, he and family members headed to Lofoden Islands in upper Norway in the Norwegian Sea.

They moved on to Hammerfast and heading to Spitzbergen

The sea became icy and they had to dodge icebergs. They then proceeded to lift anchor and head through Hinlopen Straits.

His father wanted to continue on to Franz Josef Land where he had found tusks that brought him good money in Stockholm.

Winds being favorable, they finally landed on the west coast of Franz Josef Land. "One could hardly believe it was the Northland. The place was green with growing vegetation, and while the area did not comprise more than one or two acres, yet the air was warm and tranquil. It seemed to be at that point where the Gulf Stream's influence is most keenly felt."

Olaf wrote in his journal; "My father was an ardent believer in Odin and Thor, and had frequently told me they were gods who came from far beyond the `North Wind.' There was a tradition, my father explained, that still farther northward was a land more beautiful than any that mortal man had ever known, and that it was inhabited by the `Chosen.'"

Olaf preceded to tell a very extremely detailed account of the most unusual world they had entered.

There was not a single man aboard who would not have measured fully twelve feet in height. They all wore full beards, not particularly long, but seemingly short-cropped. They had mild and beautiful faces, exceedingly fair, with ruddy complexions. The hair and beard of some were black, others sandy, and still others yellow. The captain, as we designated the dignitary in command of the great vessel, was fully a head taller than any of his companions. The women averaged from ten to eleven feet in height. Their features were especially regular and refined, while their complexion was of a most delicate tint heightened by a healthful glow.

I never saw such a display of gold. It was everywhere. The door-casings were inlaid and the tables were veneered with sheetings of gold. Domes of the public buildings were of gold. It was used most generously in the finishings of the great temples of music.

Vegetation grew in lavish exuberance, and fruit of all kinds possessed the most delicate flavor. Clusters of grapes four and five feet in length, each grape as large as an orange, and apples larger than a man's head typified the wonderful growth of all things on the "inside" of the earth.

The great redwood trees of California would be considered mere underbrush compared with the giant forest trees extending for miles and miles in all directions. In many directions along the foothills of the mountains vast herds of cattle were seen during the last day of our travel on the river.

Many have claimed to have happened upon this nirvana-like land in Hollow Earth where the climate is beautiful, the lands are rich, the people are tall, long-lived and happy. In fact, even in recent years a voyager got together a team and funds to make the trek to the Northern Seas, though he passed away before it happened.

It is interesting is that an isolated island could carry many legends that include giants when people weren't really inhabiting it until the Vikings landed and settled it in the 9th century. But, with the Vikings came their legends to this new land, passed on to other generations. But, did ancient giants exist in this extreme place before the Vikings showed?

Source:  The Íslendingabók of Ari Thorgilsson claims that the Norse settlers encountered Gaelic monks from a Hiberno-Scottish mission when they first arrived in Iceland. There is some archaeological evidence for a monastic settlement from the British Isles at Kverkarhellir cave, on the Seljaland farm in southern Iceland. Sediment deposits indicate people lived there around 800, and crosses consistent with the Hiberno-Scottish style were carved in the wall of a nearby cave. The oldest known source which mentions the name "Iceland" is an 11th-century Gothic rune carving, while the oldest archeological finds indicating settlement date back to the 9th century. The first written source to mention the existence of Iceland is a book by the Goidelic monk Dicuil, De mensura orbis terrae, which dates back to 825. Dicuilus claimed to have met some monks who had lived on the island of Thule.

Once seeing symbols that appear Celtic in appearance in America and Iceland, it might be that these were symbols of the earlier culture of giants and the languages such as Ogham and Runes were designed by symbols they learned from the culture of giants so it can be confusing as to who actually gets credit for what, just like ancient megaliths that might have originally been built by giants for one purpose were later used by the locals for sacrifices to those gods without understanding the original use of the building was.

When we covered the Inuit giants yesterday, you will see that the giant culture might have been in the northern hemisphere all the way up into the 1350. Many Native American tribes referred to the giants, or original occupants of North America, as the people from the North. And, many references by first explorers in the 1400s report what seem to be the remnants of giant culture still fresh in the Native Peoples' stories. It is possible that the giant culture was still in Iceland to some degree when Vikings arrived if they were still in other regions in the north. 

In fact, there appears to be some issues with the history of the island, as the Norse said there were people on the island and they believed them to be monks because they found crosses carved in the caves where they were set up for people to vent air and have fires. That does not; however, mean they were monks from the Ireland as was assumed, but to a Viking, anyone making a cross-like symbol would be Christian and yet the cross symbol appears in caves of very ancient times - it is a univeral symbol. So, there is no true proof of who was there and what happened to them, but there were definitely occupants before the Vikings arrived. (info here)

Then, there's Egil - SOURCE:  Egil, the son of Skala-Grim (famous Viking) lived in the 900s AD. He was described as a poet and a traveler, well educated man who died at 80 years of age in 990. Descriptions of him led people to believe he might have had Paget's Disease that deforms the skull. SOURCE: When a church was built at Mosfell [c. 1140], the one that Grim had built at Hrísbrú was taken down and the graveyard dug. Under the altar some human bones were found, much bigger than ordinary human bones, and people are confident that these were Egil’s bones because of stories told by old men. Skapti Thorarinsson the Priest, a man of great intelligence, was there at the time. He picked up Egil’s skull and placed it on the fence of the churchyard. The skull was an exceptionally large one and its weight was even more remarkable. It was ridged all over like a scallop shell, and Skapti wanted to find out just how thick it was, so he picked up a heavy axe, swung it in one hand and struck as hard as he was able with the reverse side of the axe, trying to break the skull. But the skull neither broke nor dented; it simply turned white where struck, and from that anybody could
guess that the skull would not have been easily cracked by small fry while it still had skin and
flesh on it. Egil’s bones were re-interred on the edge of the graveyard at Mosfell. 

Now, considering that Iceland was newly settled by the Vikings, had Skala-Grim taken up with a "Native of tall stature"? Something to consider....

Conclusion

Although the Vikings brought the first real official settlements to Iceland and the legends of the giants with them, there were previous occupants and signs of sacrifices. What did they encounter and how did they get along? Or was there a battle of domination? 

As Icelanders are not keen on revising their history, any archaeological finds there will be attributed to a stray monk afloat at sea and landing there or a Viking who helped settle the land.

It would appear that, by tales of certain rock formations being giants from legends and an island with signs of sacrifices, that there was a culture there that colored the very local stories.