Legend of Ireland - Giant's Road. It smells like a fairy tale here! Giants lived on Earth ... Horse under the arm

Arnold Genrikhovich Neggo

Isle of giants (illustrated)

Chapter 1. THE MAN IN THE BLUE ZUIDWEST

A man in a blue southwest came to Tormiküla. People did not know who he was, where he came from, why. Old Pill's motor boat went missing at night. The chain was pulled right with a stake. A person who has turned the stake out of the ground welded by frost must have a terrible power. A boat, broken to pieces, was found on the shore of the bay a kilometer from the Pill estate. The crumpled, distorted motor was thrown for some unknown reason on the top of a rock sticking out by the sea.

Vyalisky Madis's cow fell ill. Maret, Madis's wife, had before clearly seen how a man in a blue southwest coat, wobbling and swaying badly from side to side, staggered near the farm. Noticing the fisherwoman, he quickly disappeared into the forest. And by the barn in the snow, the prints of other people's boots looped.

Madis himself, having risen in the morning to talk to Endel's son-in-law on blacksmithing, met this man on a deserted shore near the Humming Stone. The unknown was kneeling in the snow and praying. He is wearing the same eye-cutting Southwest and a short fur coat turned out with fur, like the skin of a bald bear. And there is something bearish in the figure itself ...

"What a miracle!" Madis said to himself, peering with curiosity at the frantically praying man. "Overgrown with hair - the eyes cannot be distinguished, and the muzzle bloomed blue. Like a drowned man, the devil is his brothers!"

He came closer. The unknown man puffed up, got nervous, but remained where he was, only more hastily shaking his beard with a fiery whisk, making an incomprehensible prayer.

When asked who that was, he jumped up with incomprehensible agility, muttered something and suddenly began to dance and throw out various tricks. The fisherman, without thinking for a long time, grabbed the dancer by the lapel of his fur coat and tried to calm him down - and then something incomprehensible happened: the giant Madis has more than enough strength, enough for four stalwart men, but the stranger's hand turned out to be iron, as if he had enough with a hammer. Madis did not have time to be surprised when he darted as an eel, leaving in his hand a hefty shred of fur coat.

Other fishermen met the man in the blue Southwest. Usually in the hours when a pale dawn began to smoke over the blackened cold sea. Hunched over, waving his knee-long arms, he, like a wounded bird, jumped and danced on the shore, avoiding people and distrustful farm dogs. A disturbing rumor ran along the winding paths of Tormiküla.

They said that the madman came from the forest. Few criminals hid in the Tormiküla forests after the war. Only a fierce frost and hunger could drive them, wild, utterly exhausted, to human habitation, to warmth, to people.

The old women christened the newcomer "Swede" and talked about it all nonsense. We recalled the case. Last autumn, border patrol ships detained at Cape White Rocks an extraordinary-looking high-speed speedboat, specially adapted for sailing off the shallow shores of the island. They hunted him for a long time. They knew that someone was crossing the sea border on black stormy nights. Whether it was a Swede, whether there was a local resident, an islander, it was not possible to establish - when the border guards approached, the violator threw himself into the sea. The glisser turned out to be of Swedish origin.

Great was the surprise of the glorious men of Tormikül when they learned that the madman in the blue southwest was disappearing all day in the neighboring Kiviranna church, and that Pastor Willem, for his zealous service to God, favored him.

A new startling news was brought by the omnipresent Vialiskaya Maret, a kind, simple woman, distinguished not only by her enormous growth, but also by excessive curiosity.

A few kilometers from Tormiküla, in a coastal pine forest near Ludwig Bay, the Meltsi farm is buried in the snow. The small, slanting windows and the black ribs of the half-rotted logs were ominous. Bad fame went about this farm. Its former owner, the fisherman Surnaste, hanged himself in his house when the Nazis drove his son Gustav to the Russian front.

After the Germans left, the bandits set up a bunker on the Meltsi farm. It was said that an elusive gang of "forest wolves" hid here with their famous leader, the Scary Kurt, popularly nicknamed for unheard-of cruelty.

In Tormiküla, they knew for certain that Gustav Surnaste, who served in the Estonian SS Legion, went to Kurt's gang when the Soviet troops attacked and became his fifth adjutant.

Once, returning from her friend in the forest, Vyaliskaya Maret came to these places. In one of the windows of the Meltsi farm she saw a streak of light breaking through the shutters. The evening was late. Not a soul around. However, curiosity prevailed over fear. Stumbling and hiccuping with excitement, Maret carefully made her way to the illuminated window and ... almost sat down in amazement. The fisherwoman saw a man in a blue Southwest! He stood with a knife in the middle of the room and, according to Maret, he was stripping a cat suspended from the ceiling alive. Not a hare, but a cat. Maret swore that she saw a long tail in the unfortunate victim, which, as you know, is not observed in hares. The fishermen laughed, and in the evening - it was on Sunday - an event happened that made them worry in earnest. The opening this time belonged to a boy from the farm Peetri, the son of the widow Teresa Tammeorg - Ilmar.

Late in the evening, mother and son were sitting in the upper room. Teresa knitted, surreptitiously admiring the courageous face of her son, his not-for-years tall, strong figure. Ilmar, having recently returned from a hunt, was diligently cleaning his father's gun.

As on previous evenings, he told his mother about the school, about the news from the mainland, which reached the school earlier than to distant fishing farms.

The grandfather's kerosene lamp gleamed dimly in the upper room, and the silver arrows of the spokes flickered dimly in Teresa's pensive hands. Close by, behind the wall of the house, the waves ran onto the shore with a dull, grumbling spanking. Iron clanged dully somewhere nearby. Teresa felt as if the barn door crackled. A large Finnish husky dozing in the entryway suddenly growled angrily. Someone's cautious footsteps were heard outside the window. The fisherwoman mechanically drew back the window curtain and froze. She saw a man in a blue Southwest jacket hurrying past the window with some kind of burden.

The madman noticed Teresa. They stared at each other for a short split minute. When the fisherwoman woke up, there was no one behind the black glass.

What are you, mom?

There ... - Choking, she could not answer.

A door slammed in the hallway. It was Poyta who ran out. The barking of a dog and the cry of a man rang out simultaneously. Trembling all over, Teresa hugged her son to her.

Crazy over there! ..

The Peetri farm is on the outskirts. Vyalisky Madis lives half a kilometer from here. Another neighbor, the rich unsociable captain Karm, nicknamed the Black Captain by the Pomorians, lives closer. His two-story mansion with tightly boarded shutters is hiding in a dense spruce forest at the foot of the Black Mountain. But Captain Karm rarely leaves his home even during the day.

Thoughts, one more disturbing than the other, rushed through Teresa's head.

Frenzied barking and harsh cursing burst into the open door of the vestibule, drowning out the sound of the sea. There was a struggle between the dog and the man.

Escaping from his mother's hands, Ilmar grabbed a lantern and ran out of the house.

A cold gust of wind washed over him with water dust. In the blinding darkness, he did not immediately discern what had happened.

In the courtyard at the gates of the farm, a laika tore up a desperately struggling man.

Sing! Sing! Get out, damn it! - guttural cries were heard.

Once upon a time, a giant lived on the South Island. One day he went to visit the North Island. Having reached the Raukava Strait, he jumped from the South Island to the North Island in one fell swoop. A whale was swimming in the strait at that time. The giant noticed streams of steam swaying in the wind and snatched the whale out of the water. Putting the whale under his arm, the giant walked along the coast and soon saw a small river. On the bank of the river, he sat down and ate the whale, whole, together with the skin, only the skeleton was too tough for him. After eating, the giant stretched out on a soft mat from the treetops and fell asleep.

The Maori who lived in these places were not at all happy to see the giant. The giant's leg crushed all the kumara they planted, and the hand blocked the path to their steps. The tops of the trees swayed rhythmically from the breath of the giant, and people decided to catch the giant in a trap. Not far from Tokomaru, they chopped off all the branches from one tall tree and tied its top to the ground. People hoped that the giant would step on the rope and fall into their hands. The giant woke up, took a few steps and saw a trap. He kicked her in disdain as he passed. The tree straightened up and hit the hill with such force that it split into three pieces. The next step took the giant to Cape Vostochny, from where he dived into the sea. No one ever saw him again.

Do people tell the truth? Who knows? On Cape Vostochny, a giant's footprint was left. An ancient whale skeleton was found on the river near Turanga. Near Tokomaru Bay, there are three small hills, similar to the tops of a triangle.

Interestingly, everything is arranged in the world ... Not so long ago, just in 2016, scientific information spread around the world that the mummies of the Giants were discovered in the Canary Islands, namely in Tenerife. It would seem a sensation, but only a few years have passed and this is already a secret of history, since no more information about these mummies and the results of research has been published.

It was reported that Spanish scientists are 3D scanning a giant mummy of one of the ancient representatives of the Guanche people - the aborigines who lived in the Canary Islands. The mummy itself was provided for research by the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

Using scanning technology, experts hope to learn more about how people lived, what killed them, and the funeral rituals they went through when they were buried. The mummies were carefully transported to the University Hospital Quironsalud Madrid (HUQSM), the only facility with the latest in scanning technology.

As part of this process, the mummies were scanned and ready to be examined by a team of doctors that included Vicente Martinez de Vega, Javier Carrascoso and Silvia Badillo Rodriguez, Carmen Perez Di, Teresa Gomez Espinosa and Esther Pons.

The group was accompanied during the investigation of the mummies by the film crew of the national channel RTVE. The scanner, which has a low level of radiation but very high resolution, allows X-rays to penetrate an object and extracts a huge amount of information in one go.

More than 2,000 cross-sectional images are acquired, which are then used to create a volumetric and 3D image that can be studied by the team.

So, what is next? Where are the research results? Where is the answer to the question why the aborigines of the island of Tenerife were Giants? Just look at the hands of this "native"! People of this height lived on the Canary Islands ?!

Guanches from Homera Island. Drawing from "Description and history of the remote kingdom of the Canary Islands" by Leonardo Torriani (1592) Judging by the drawings of contemporaries who still found the Guanches alive, they somehow do not look very much like the usual image of "natives and aborigines".

The origin of the Guanches is unknown to scientists. In the north of Tenerife there lived people with dark blond hair, and to the south - brunettes. According to Spanish and other conquerors, in the 15th century, the island of Tenerife was inhabited by fair-skinned people of the Caucasian type, among whom there were people with gray and blue eyes and with brown or reddish hair. French Norman (Norman) Jean de Bettencourt described in detail the strange language of the Guanches, who supposedly could understand the speech of their fellow tribesmen, without uttering a sound and only moving their lips, and also whistling to talk at a distance of up to 15 kilometers.

They existed in the past and are now hypothesized about their connection with the ancient myth of Atlantis. Maybe the "Guanches" are the representatives of the disappeared Atlantis?

Guests will certainly be interested in the playful Tõll and Piret sculpture by the sculptor Town Kangro, which is located on the shores of Tori Bay. The 3.5 m high sculpture appeared in this place relatively recently - in the spring of 2002. Its heroes are the giant spouses sung in Estonian legends - Tõll and his wife Piret. Since they were reputed to be great gluttons, the sculptor depicted them returning from fishing with a rich catch. The tails of a rather large fish stick out from the boat they are carrying. They even accidentally dropped one fish on the coastal stone. In all appearance of the heroes of the composition, it is guessed that they are in high spirits and dream of a rich meal.

According to Estonian mythology, Bolshoy Tõll is a giant who lived with his half Piret in the village of Tõlluste. He was the ruler of his village, and became famous for the fact that in difficult times for his native land, he fought with its enemies. But his high position did not prevent him from cultivating the land on his own manor and being an avid fisherman.

On weekends, Tyll went to visit another giant, his brother Leiger, who lived on the island of Hiiumaa. Yes, it was "walked", since a person with such height could do without a boat. Töll moved along the bottom of the sea, checking the depth with the help of a 10-meter staff made from the trunk of a huge spruce.

The giant was very fond of beer and a bathhouse, and from the dishes he preferred those in the recipe of which cabbage was present. Tõll's cabbage garden was located on. When Piret started lighting the hearth under the cauldron, her husband had time to quickly go for cabbage. He came back every time exactly at the moment when the water boiled in the boiler.

Despite his hot temper, Töll was a very kind person, and always took the side of good people. But he had one enemy - the demon Vanapagan, who sought to harm the giant. Once, during the absence of Tyll, he destroyed his home. Piret left this world without experiencing such grief, after which Tyll drowned his enemy in the sea.

Tõll also had to fight with the invading knights who attacked the island. In one battle, the number of enemies was so large that they managed to outwit the giant and behead him. Taking his head under his armpit, Tyll went to die.

Many historians adhere to the version that in the distant past an elder lived on the island, a noble tall man named Tõll, whose features were endowed with the image of a mythical giant. Most likely, the stories about the confrontation between Tõll and Vanapagan were formed after Christianization, since the characteristics of the trait are present in the image of the latter.

ABOUT the Giant once lived on the Island. He lived completely alone: \u200b\u200bthere were no people or other giants nearby. Only Akchinuk will sometimes run up, sniff - has the Giant prepared something tasty? But he will immediately remember that he does not eat anything but earth and fog, snort with annoyance and run on to himself.
Then the Giant decided to call people from another - small - island.
- I will help you build houses, - he told them, - I will find you a tree for kayaks, I will protect you from the wind, just come and live with me.
People thought about it and decided to keep the Giant company - after all, he will build a whole village for them! House after house appeared on the ocean shore, and people came and occupied houses, and started a household.
The giant was glad that there was so much pleasant bustle around him. People were glad that they had their own Giant.
So the Giant lived with people for many, many years. He slept at night, and at dawn he chased sleepy gulls from his eyelashes and began his gigantic day: he ate the earth and fog, watched people and composed songs.
His hands were such that he easily reached the clouds, tickled them so that they shivered, laughed, sneezed - and at once splashed out all their rain. And the Giant needed that: most of all he loved to drink fresh, straight from the cloud, rain.
His legs were such that he could easily have stepped over the entire Island - from north to south, but he did not step over: what would he do there, on the other side of the Island, alone, without people?
The village built by the Giant has grown: now wherever you look, there is bustle, and only in the evening are the nets removed, the birds are hiding in the nests, the voices become quieter. But as soon as the Giant takes a step, everyone looks at him with displeasure: they say, can't you see that there are people around? But as soon as the Giant starts talking about something, everyone starts to swear: why are you shouting - scaring children? New people were born in the village, grew old, died, others were born. And the more time passed since the day the Giant called people, the stronger their discontent became: "Look, the Giant! He lives here, in our village, it gets in the way: such a huge one - you can't grab a hundred girths, you can't get around it in a day!"
People in the village often arranged games: they made a ladder from inflated fish bubbles - the most dexterous had to go along it, then they competed in accuracy, shooting from a bow, then they measured strength. But they never took the Giant into their games.
Once, at a winter festival, when everyone was singing and beating tambourines, the Giant could not resist and began to dance. And then the earth trembled, and the people fled, and no longer wanted to see the Giant in their village.

Go, - they say, - pick up, hello,

The giant did not want to live alone, and he thought that at the bottom of the ocean he would probably be calm, and he would begin to coexist in amicable terms - not with people, but with fish.
At first, the fish liked that they had such a Giant - in his long hair you can make a house and raise small fish, you can hide from the big ones behind his back.
But one day the Giant wanted to roll over on the other side. And he, unwillingly, made a real commotion.
- Why make waves for no reason? - the fish pounced on him. - Lie to yourself with a stone and lie!
But one day the Giant wanted to look at the sun. He emerged, took in the sun's rays and released them at the bottom. The ocean lit up, and the half-blind deep-sea fish narrowed their eyes and gurgled in displeasure:
- Who invented this so that the sun would shine at the very bottom of the ocean!
But one day the Giant wanted to eat the land. And he - handful by handful - began to eat the bottom, and stirred up the water, and the water became cloudy. And the motley fish swear:
- Who will see our outfits now? Who can see us in such troubled waters?
And the fish gathered for the all-ocean council, and decided to drive the Giant - back to land. They chose an ambassador, the prince of all salmon, Chinook, to inform the Giant about their decision.

Swim, - muttered, - pick up, hello,
Yes, so that we do not see you again!

The giant did not believe the words of the salmon prince.
- Let those fish, which really want me to leave, be pulled out by a hair from my head.
The fish rushed about, huddled in flocks, but little by little, one after the other, they began to swim up to the Giant and pull out a hair as a sign that it was time for him to leave them, fish, ocean. And they pulled on so many giant hairs that not a single one remained.
The Giant realized that he would not be able to have a friendly neighborhood with the fish, returned to the shore, sat on the black sand. He sat down and thought: "I didn't need to go to the fish without asking." He ran his palm over his bald head and composed a new song:

How can I be now? Day and night
A gray loneliness walks behind me everywhere.
I tell him: "Listen, where are you from here?"
And it blinks in response - gray and deaf.
I told him: "Go away," I say, "over the mountain, over the river, into the field!"
And it is still silent, silent, gray and blind.

Then the joyful Ara flew past him:
- What, Giant, are you sad? Come to our Aryan island - we are always noisy and fun!
- Well, - said the Giant to himself, - maybe the birds will accept me - and went to the noisy and restless bird island.
At first, the birds were happy that they had a rock-man on their island: you can make nests on it, hide from the weather, and, unlike a real rock, it is always warm!
But one day the Giant wanted to drink rain. He stood under a large black cloud - and the birds did not like it.
- On the real rock, maybe cooler, but drier!
But one day the Giant wanted to stretch his legs - and the birds liked it even less.
- Nothing shakes in a real rock!
But one day the Giant wanted to sing a song - and the birds ran out of patience.
- Here's another! Not a single rock will allow itself to cry louder than we birds!
And the birds decided to drive away the Giant.

They chirp: - Fly to pick up, hello,
Yes, so that we do not see you again!

They pecked him in the right palm, then in the left, and blood began to flow, and the Giant was in pain. Carefully, so that not a single chick fell, he took off the bird's nests from his head and shoulders and went back to his Island. And as he walked, drops of blood fell to the ground and became berries.
The Giant went out to the river bank, sniffed: Akchinuk had recently run here. The giant didn't want to go anywhere else. He looked at the footprints of Akchinuk: they trotted through the snow, paw after paw. A little further away, others joined them, still others, and even further away an entire trampled clearing could be seen - and go and figure out where is whose.
From the village came the voices of fishermen: they were arguing about something. Soon other voices joined them - and they all merged in the Giant's ears into one voice.
The talker cormorant flew past and disappeared into a cloud that looked like a big slow fish. Another cormorant followed.
- Hey Big Eyes! he shouted into the giant's ear. - Did you see where my brother flew?
The giant said nothing, only pointed in the direction of the cloud-fish. The cloud-fish floated across the sky with its reflection in the ocean. "I would also like to have brothers and sisters," thought the Giant.
He took a sip of the fog, washed it down with rain and began to dig a deep hole. And when the deed was done, he lay down in it and covered himself with earth and snow.
Many months later, rejoicing in the sun, his body sprouted into huge, beautiful mushrooms - which do not grow anywhere except on the Island. And there are so many of them that, no matter how much you collect, it does not decrease. Come and see for yourself.