Knuckle the Giant

Knuckle (Nem: Hosinbey) is a forest giant in the Faren mythology. He is best known as the villain in The Giant and the Rainbow Snake.

Naming

He got his name, because at first the local people never dared to go close enough to the giant to actually see him, but they could see the holes that his huge fists had left on the trees of the forest, when he practised boxing on them.

Appearance

He is a giant, twice as tall as men. When he travels in the forest, his voice is like thunder and his steps shake the ground like earthquakes, but fresh new moss grows whereever he leaves his footprints. His limbs are like tree trunks, his skin hairy, dry and hardened like bark, and his hair and beard grow wild like lichen. In the wild he used to wear no clothes, but he developed a taste for long, colourful silk robes, that fit on him like a ridiculously short tunic.

Personal history

(main article: The giant and the rainbow snake)
Knuckle was the guardian spirit of the forest, until the humans came, and asked his help for defeating a giant snake, who had made his nest in a well in their village, and was eating their lifestock. Knuckle agreed to beat him, but when he met the Snake, the Snake was able to convince him, that rather than fighting, they should make an alliance and rule over the humans together, because after all they were both spirits more powerful than the humans.
Knuckle agreed, and emerged from the well, and he wore the snake knotted around his belly like a belt, pretending that he had defeated him. And as the evil Snake had promissed, the humans gifted Knuckle with plenty food and beer as a thanks for taking the Snake out of the well. Knuckle stayed in the village, and before long he was corrupted by the easy life. He became a tyrant, and demanded a harsh tribute from the people to feed himself and the Snake, who grew ever larger by the day, and he had his pleasure in bloodshed and sex.

Then one day the Hero Ásinnar heard of the struggle of the people, and when he met the Giant and the Snake, she understood right away that the cunning snake was the true leader behind all the evil they had done. At night she lay with the giant, in order to talk with the Snake in secret once Knuckle was unconscious from the sleep. The Snake revealed that he was trapped in his form, and promissed to leave the giant if the Hero managed to bring him the herb of rebirth from the Garden of the Heavenly Lord. Ásinnar did as he asked, and as the Snake fled, he lead Knuckle back to the mountains and he was never seen near the humans after that.

Family ties

The number of his children are not known, but they are probably numerous, because he abused countless human women during his reign. The most famous of his descendants are Daursan and Kauteirin, that he had with the Hero Ásinnar. They had sex twice, in order for Ásinnar to negociate with the Snake who was corrupting Knuckle, and for both the times Ásinnar gave birth to one of the twins. The first of the sons Daursan was violent and warlike like their father, while the second twin Kauteirin was eloquent and cunning like their mother.

Relationships

Ásinnár

spouse

Towards Knuckle the Giant

---

Knuckle the Giant

spouse

Towards Ásinnár

---

by Ivan Bilibin

Spouses

Ásinnár (spouse)

Siblings

Children

• Kauteirin
• Daursan

Related Myths

• Songs of Daursan and Kauteirin
• The Giant and the Rainbow Snake

Giants

Giants are the guardian spirits of the forest and mountain, the protectors of all things wild. They were seen often in the times past, but their numbers have been diminishing for an unknown reason, and currently only few are thought to be left.