The Young Giant towers above the farmer, Otto Ubbelohde,1909
Giant stands with a large staff beside a much smaller farmer and plough horses; exact named tale file.
Overview
A farmer brings his tiny son into the fields, where a passing giant lifts the child gently between two fingers and carries him away. Instead of eating him, the giant nurses him through three periods of two years, testing his strength by asking him to uproot progressively larger trees. Eventually the boy tears up a full-grown oak and is returned to his father's field.
The grown youth can pull the plough himself and carry horses, harrows and uprooted trees together. His parents barely recognise him and cannot satisfy his appetite. Successively heavier iron bars snap across his knees. Later employers hope to exploit his labour without ordinary wages, then seek dangerous ways to escape their agreements. A dropped millstone merely becomes his neck ornament. Sent to a mill where previous nighttime visitors have died, he eats at a table whose unseen guests reveal only their fingers. After the lights go out, he returns each blow he receives until dawn. The miller then declares the mill released from its spell. His strength defeats a supernatural nighttime ordeal as well as physical traps.
Origins & earliest records
This profile follows Grimm's numbered tale90, Der junge Riese, in Margaret Hunt's Household Tales translation, first published in1884. The tale's literary witness begins with a human farmer's thumb-sized child and an unnamed nursing giant. That specified transformation should not be turned into a universal giant origin or a claim about the motif's first oral appearance.
Records & interpretation
Nursing periods, tree-uprooting tests, failed iron staffs and the millstone worn around the neck supply explicit narrative measurements of strength. They are textual evidence for the transformed child in this wonder tale, not medical evidence that such growth occurred. His ordinary human parents and unnamed foster giant remain distinct figures with different roles.
In the literature
“it was the mill-stone which he was wearing round his neck”
Tale 90, The Young Giant; The youth emerges after the bailiff’s attempted well murder · Margaret Hunt
A supposedly fatal crushing weight becomes an ornament.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Household Tales, tale 90: The Young Giant
Specific numbered primary tale inspected. English translation terms and literary transmission remain distinct from oral origin.
- 02
Household Tales — The Young Giant
Margaret Hunt historical English translation (1884); Project Gutenberg5314. Exact numbered tale and observed HTML anchor used; no inferred printed page or earliest oral date.
Family, evolution & connections
The countryman in The Young Giant
The boy is explicitly the countryman’s son before a giant carries him away. Giant suckling changes his size and strength, but the story does not replace his named parental relationship with biological descent from the giant.
The suckling giant in The Young Giant
The giant carries away the small boy and suckles him over successive years until he is exceptionally strong. This is a narrated caregiving relationship; the countryman remains his father.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Household Tales, tale 90: The Young Giant
Margaret Hunt historical English translation (1884); Project Gutenberg5314. Exact numbered tale and observed HTML anchor used; no inferred printed page or earliest oral date.
- A giant carries away a thumb-sized boy and suckles him through three two-year periods, testing his strength on increasingly large trees. Returned to his parents, the youth ploughs without horses and carries trees, harrows and horses home, but his strength and appetite exceed their household.
Tale 90, The Young Giant; Thumbling’s six-year growth through giant rearing
- He bargains for blows instead of wages with a smith, then a bailiff. A hammer blow sinks the anvil; he later carries horses and wagon through a blocked ravine. Trying to avoid the contracted blows, the bailiff drops a millstone onto him in a well, but it becomes his neck ornament.
Tale 90, The Young Giant; Employment bargains, excessive strength and murderous well scheme
- Sent to a mill where previous nighttime visitors died, he eats with unseen beings whose fingers alone appear. He returns their blows until dawn, releasing the mill’s spell, and refuses its reward. Returning for his wages, he kicks the bailiff and wife through windows; the narrator leaves their fate uncertain.
Tale 90, The Young Giant; Haunted mill survives retaliation and wage blows follow
Complete named tale read. Original narrative curse causes and modern species identities are not inferred; prose only, no song or ritual-formula excerpts.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textHunt's Household Tales — 90 The Young GiantResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationThe Young Giant towers above the farmer, Otto Ubbelohde,1909
Giant stands with a large staff beside a much smaller farmer and plough horses; exact named tale file.
