Feb
Troublesome Giants
It matters little if you call them Jotuns, Etins, Trolls or Thurses. By any name, giants are portrayed as powerful, lumbering, large and stupid beings. Many a myth and legend tells of a person outsmarting a hostile giant. The person can range from a God like Odin to a common lad named Jack. As for the giants, their very stupidity contributes to the danger they present.
I have noticed that the folks who do the most harm tend to be stupid. They do not think so much as they react. Their reactions are short-sighted and impulsive. While one might infrequently hear of a dastardly crime committed by a person of intelligence, the usual perpetrators are as dumb as a post. Perhaps that is why we react with horror when a murderer is a doctor rather than a hood rat. It is bizarre for an intelligent, capable person to engage in violent crime.
Back in the bad old days, the fellows who did most of the brawling were accomplished dum-dums. As we used to say, their brains went right to their fists at the slightest provocation. If two such clods had an argument, the first one who ran out of words threw the first punch. The trick to handling these types was to outsmart them before they ran out of words. A large part of it was manipulating them while being careful not the bruise their frail egos. If it was done right, they walked away wondering why they had gotten so upset in the first place.
You may get the impression that the stupidly dangerous ones can be manipulated all the time. Not so! Their capacity to be stupid outweighs reason. The wise thing to do is not be in a situation where you have to manipulate a dunce. As we said in the Army, “Don’t play with the duds.” That applied to misfired ammunition and to clods with misfiring mentalities.
Avoiding dangerous dummies is like avoiding giants. You can see and hear them long before they see you, so it is easy to get out of their way.
The Havamal had much to say about the foolishness of bantering with dullards.
It is said elsewhere that if you argue with a fool, it soon becomes hard to tell who is who.
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A very few myths and legends have a smart giant. The Norse tale of Utgard Loki is one of these. Others involve trolls or giants who have magickal powers. Stories like that have an unusual message because they rely on the unusual concept of a giant who is smarter than a man or a God.
