Folk-lore is a term signifying a scientific study of popular tales, traditions, primitive beliefs and superstitions, popular customs, usages, festivals, games, etc. Folklore, though it takes cognizance of many apparently trivial matters, is of great importance in the science of comparative mythology, and helps to throw much light on the relationships between races, and on the origin and development of religious beliefs and ceremonies. It is, therefore, of great assistance to the ethnologist, the sociologist, and the historian, as well as to the student of comparative mythology and of the science of religion. Research Folk-Lore
A merry thought (or wish-bone) is the forked bone of a fowl's breast which is used in sport by unmarried persons, each taking hold of and pulling at one of the forks, the possession of the longest piece being an omen of an early marriage to the one who gets it. In other folk-lore, the holder of the longest piece gets to make a wish. Research Merry thought
The Bogomili were an ascetic and mystical sect of the Greek Church founded in the 12th century. They held that God had two sons, Sathaniel and Logos, the former of whom rebelled and created the material world, but was finally subdued by the Logos or Christ. The sect was powerful in Bulgaria for about five centuries, and by its method of teaching did much to preserve and circulate old legends and folk-lore, including many early versions of Oriental myths and legends. Research Bogomili
Janos Arany was a Hungarian poet. He was born in 1819 and died in 1882. He was for some time a strolling player, but became professor of Latin at the Normal School of Szalonta, professor of Hungarian literature at Nagy Koros, and secretary of the Hungarian Academy. He was the author of The Lost Constitution; Katalin; and a series of three connected narrative poems on the fortunes of Toldi, the Samson of Hungarian folk-lore etc. Research Janos Arany
The brownie is a spirit popular in Scottish folk-lore. Brownies haunt houses, and if treated well will help with the drudgery of the housework while the occupants sleep. Research Brownie
In English folk-lore, the Chichevache was a monster that fed on obedient wives. It was reported to be a thin and emancipated creature, unlike it's fat and well fed rival the Bicorn that fed on men bullied and commanded by their wives. Research Chichevache
Giants are people of extraordinary stature. History, both sacred and profane, makes mention of giants, and even of races of giants, but this in general occurs only at an early stage of civilization when the national mind is apt to exaggerate anything unusual. Hence the Cyclopes and Laestrygones of the ancients and the Cornish and Welsh giants of English folk-lore.
The first mention of giants in Jewish mythology is in the Bible in GenesisVI 4, where the Hebrew word used is nephilim, a word which occurs in only one other passage, where it is applied to the sons of Anab, who dwelt about Hebron, and who were described by the terrified spies as of such size that compared with them they appeared in their own sight as grasshoppers. A race of giants called the Rephaim is frequently mentioned in the Bible, and in Genesis XIV and XV appear as a distinct tribe, of whom Og, king of Bashan, is said to have been the last. Other races of giants are mentioned, such as the Emim, the Zuzim, and the Zamzummim.
The giants of old Greek or of Norse mythology similarly of course, have merely a symbolic existence, representing benignant or adverse forces of nature on which man might count in his struggle to reduce the world around him into some kind of order.
The tales of old writers regarding gigantic human skeletons have no importance, it being known from the late 19th century that these bones do not belong to giants, but to animals of the primitive world which, from ignorance of anatomy, were formerly taken for human bones.
Notable deviations from average height are not at all uncommon, especially among the Teutonic peoples. The following are amongst some celebrated authentic instances, ancient and modern, of persons who attained to the stature of giants: The Toman Emperor Maximin, a Thracian, nearly 9 feet high; Queen Elizabeth's Flemishporter, 7 feet 6 inches; C. Munster, a yeoman of the guard in Hanover, who died in 1676, 8 feet 6 inches high; Cajanus, a Swedish giant, about 9 feet high, exhibited in London in 1742; Byrne, who died in 1783, attained the height of 8 feet 4 inches; PatrickCotterO'Brien, who lived about the same time, was 8 feet 7.75 inches; a Swede in the celebrated grenadier guard of FrederickWilliam I of Prussia stood 8.5 feet. In 1884 died Pauline Wedde (called Marian), over 8 feet 2 inches at the age of eighteen. AnnaSwan, a native of Nova Scotia, stood above 8 feet high; her husband, CaptainBates, a native of Kentucky, of the same height; Chang-wu-gon, the Chinese giant, 7 feet 9 inches high, Zeng Jinlian, a Chinese woman who was 8 feet 1 inch tall when she died in 1982, Jane Bunford, an English woman who was 7 feet 7 inches tall when she died, despite having curvature of the spine, Robert Wadlow who stood 8 feet 11.1 inches in 1940. Until the 20th century very tall people were frequently displayed in freak shows. Research Giant
Abbreviations
Research Folk-Lore
