by Brandon McGrath-Neely, Library Assistant
The holdings of the MHS often tell the authentic stories of real figures such as 革命英雄, 18th 世纪女工, 戴着头盔的空袭幸存者. A smaller group of materials deal with more mysterious subjects, like strange voices calling from the waters of Boston in 1634. 在这些情况下, it can be difficult to know what really happened, 误解了什么?, 发明了什么. A recent question of these less tangible materials has forced the staff to admit: MHS有一个大问题.
I should clarify – the problem isn’t giant in scale. 问题是 og体育平台 巨人. 几种材料描述了这些高, 神话传说中强大的生物, but they can’t agree on what 巨人 are like! A brief survey of the 巨人 of MHS will show how conflicted the archival voices are on this subject.
For some authors, 巨人 are gargantuan monsters of violence and treachery. Pulling from older British and Biblical mythology, these 巨人 are the biggest of bullies. 1817年的一个故事描述了巨人沃格洛, who kidnaps children who stay outside past sunset and tries to crack them “as one does a walnut.在这种情况下, the Giant was used to teach children a lesson: “Little boys should never loiter og体育平台 in the fields nor even in the streets after dark. […] So must all other little boys and girls, or nobody will love them.”[1] An 1809 retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” likewise depicts 巨人 as murderous evildoers who chant, “Fe, fa, 粉丝, I smell the blood of an Englishman; If he be alive, 或者他已经死了, 我要磨碎他的骨头来做面包.”[2] An 1882 version of the same tale complicates the story – in this telling, the Giant killed Jack’s father and then dies trying to kill Jack.[3]
Yet both earlier and later texts feature 巨人 who are far more caring and gentle. In Jonathan Swift’s 1726 classic political satire, 格列佛游记, Lemuel Gulliver meets a society of 巨人 after washing up on the island of Brobdingnag. Though they aren’t perfect, these 巨人 live in a rather simple, peaceful society. The King of the Brobdingnagians disdains politics and prefers agriculture: “[W]hoever could make two ears of corn, 或是两片草叶, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, 应该得到更好的人类吗, do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”[4] The men decide that the 巨人 must be from an ancient civilization of humanity, that as humans became more obsessed with political maneuvering and deadly technology, 它们变小了.
130年后, the author Christopher Pearse Cranch also depicted 巨人 as heartfelt, 温柔的动物. In 《og体育平台》 A Giant Story, the protagonist also washes up on an island inhabited by a pair of 巨人, Mr. 和夫人. 秘密的. 虽然他一开始很害怕, he quickly discovers that they are gentle, parental figures who love shellfish and their home: “The 秘密的s were not wicked and blood-thirsty. How different from the monsters one reads og体育平台 in children’s books!”[5], 侏儒(比人类大, but smaller than 巨人) arranges their 魔法al death, these two embodiments of a warm and familial past fade away, 再也不见了.
Complicating the matter even further, some authors don’t view 巨人 as ‘巨人’ at all! In Anne Thackeray’s 1867 retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk,双头巨人, Bulcox, is not a towering creature bent on destruction. 而不是, it is a married couple in charge of a Victorian-era workhouse, who malnourish and abuse their laborers. 而不是一个满是骨头的地牢, the Bulcox’s lair is the unsanitary living quarters: “Truth, 裸体, 唉! 满是污垢和害虫, 冷得发抖, 带病呻吟, 痛苦地堆着扔着, uneasy sleep at the bottom of her foul well.” This story’s 巨人 are not slayed by swords, 魔法, 或轴, 而是通过公众意识, 新闻自由, a clergyman unafraid to help the sick in the hospitals they languish at: ”[A]ll these hundreds of weary years, 所有这些疼痛的四肢, 还有从被困的家中走出的凄凉的流浪者, this afflicted multitude of past sufferings.”[6]
So what are 巨人 like, according to the materials in our collection? 嗯，它们是很多东西. They’re the reason to stay inside after dark and listen to your parents. They’re the evil in the world, encouraging bravery and heroism to defeat them. They’re embodiments of more simple, peaceful pasts of yesteryear. And they’re social problems, capable of wreaking great destruction under the surface. Like other legendary creatures throughout human history, 巨人 are imagined and reimagined by communities within distinct contexts. Considering why people in different places, 不同的时间, imagine 巨人 so differently could reveal much og体育平台 how those people viewed themselves, 他们周围的世界, 以及他们在其中的地位. But that’s much more than can be handled in a blog post—这是一个巨大的工程.
引用的作品
[1] The History of Tommy Trip, His Dog Jowler. 还有飞禽走兽. 1817. 纽黑文:悉尼出版社. 6-8.
[2] H.A.C. 1809. The History of Mother Twaddle, the Marvellous Atchievements of Her Son, Jack. 费城:Wm. 查尔斯. 14.
[3]威廉·斯温顿和乔治·R. Cathcart eds. 1882. Golden Book of Tales: Holiday Readings in the Legendary Lore of All Nations. New York: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, Company.
[4]乔纳森·斯威夫特. 1809. Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World. 费城:马修·凯里. 第二部分，第七章.
[5]克里斯多夫·皮尔斯. 1889. The Last of the 秘密的s: A Giant Story. 波士顿:李 & 谢泼德. 39.
[6]安妮·萨克雷. 1868. 巨人杀手杰克. 波士顿:洛林. 10-29.