(18:17) "We all think of giants dressing a certain way because we've all seen Jack and the Beanstalk. But, is that really what they always look like? Or have to? Or should? Is that what [Lewis] had in mind?"Now that is a good question. So far in CON we have only met two Giants: Rumblebuffin and Wimbleweather, and neither of them were particularly fearsome. Both were valued allies of the good side. And now in SC we are meeting Giants whose intentions are more morally ambiguous. How does C.S.Lewis intend giants to be drawn? Big, probably, just like Gulliver's Giantish acquaintances of Brobdignang. In
Gulliver's Travels, the giants he meets are supposed to contrast with the picky Lilliputians who were the first people he met. But as intimidating as great size might be, is that the only critierion we should be looking at? Over and over, C.S.Lewis tends to depict his Giants as not really bright of intellect, whether good or bad.
In Ch 5, when meeting Puddleglum, we start to learn about these Giants. Eustace references Caspian's defeat of those Giants at the beginning of his reign, whilst Jill feels braver when she realises that Eustace also has some fear of these Giants. Yet in SC we have also a Ruined City of the Giants, Giant bridges, probably leading to that city, and the leading characters are given a recommendation to a Giantish facility which can look after their accommodation needs. So what do we make of them?
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Narnia fan 7: I do see what you mean. But I also get the impression that is the way the BBC TV production of
Silver Chair handled the giants. The Ettinsmoor giants were depicted as less human and more giantish and the Harfang Giants were more like Tudor gentlemen, like Shakespeare's Falstaff writ large. The nurse in that production was almost of human size, and was probably the same actress who also read the part of the nurse in the BBC audio drama of
Silver Chair. And yes, oversized, giantish humans are quite alarming enough. The trouble is, that really, how big do we need them to be? Too big to ride a horse comfortably? But not so big that they would terrorise a normal sized Rottweiler or Alsatian (German Shepherd)?
As David Magee mentioned in that interview, scaling the size of the giants is important in designing it. It matters not only in the size of the thimble Glumpuddle, oops, Puddleglum, drank from, but also the size and scale of how to do furniture etc. It will be necessary for consistency. And that is why we do need a rethink of what the Giants are. Are there really two different sorts of Giants? Or are they really all the same sorts of Giants depending on what sorts of people lead them to make their own moral choices?
However the giants are drawn I'd go the opposite way to what you are suggesting and what is portrayed in the BBC TV version. I'd make the Harfang Giants rather similar in size and humanity or non-humanity to the Ettinsmoor Giants. It is in individual differences that distinguish individual giants, same as with dwarves and the earthmen later on. When a Talking Stag crops up on the menu at Harfang, it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine that they have more to do with the Ettinsmoor Giants than LOTGK might let on. I, for one, would not be surprised to recognise the huntsgiant whom Puddleglum overheard at lunch, as being the same giant they met after they left Ettinsmoor, but wearing different clothes. In fact the main difference to make LOTGK 's description of both groups at the Giant's bridge at all valid, should be the way they are dressed.
My idea is to dress the Ettinsmoor Giants in military uniform, but not necessarily new, spick and span, military uniforms. I imagine a motley, untidy crew getting bored of having little to do, whilst manning the garrison at the Ettinsmoor border with Narnia. Maybe they would be camouflaged to fit into the landscape, to play down their military presence there. When they are observed by passers by, having been caught out moving against the skyline, they usually have enough time to organise themselves, by playing that game so dreadfully, with enough tantrums and fisticuffs to warn off those passers-by who might get in their way, whilst quietly dispatching one of their number to let Harfang know what is happening, maybe that messenger being able to grab a Talking Stag along the way.
The Harfang Giants, on the other hand, would be dressed in the sort of civilian clothes that mirror how the Lady of the Green Kirtle would dress, herself. Except that giantish clothes needn't necessarily be green, apart from the outfit the Queen wears when the Giants go hunting. That Puddleglum could drink from a thimble suggests they do know something about sewing and clothing repair, but the ill-made toys suggest the giants might not be all that skilled with embroidery etc., either, let alone the intricacies of dyeing material, or fashion, in general. A distinct contrast with the delicate skill Trumpkin's folk like to use in their workmanship, such as in jewellery, ornamentation, and in making weapons in other books.
I suspect the main difference between the two groups of giants should be in their differing functions rather than how human or non-human they are depicted. And that the reason why it was alarming to go to Harfang was, not that Harfang giants are really gentler than Ettinsmoor giants, as LOTGK claimed. Rather, when Jill and Eustace arrive there, on closer inspection they turn out to be much the same giants but on their home turf.
Just because CON giants, apart from being visually impressive, and useful in combat, might overall seem not very bright, doesn't mean they mightn't know a thing or two in ways nobody considers. There has to be a reason why in most of the Chronicles they are depicted in some battle or other, whichever side they happen to be on. And why is there a ruined city of the giants anyway?