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Named by cryptozoologist Mark A. Hall, the "true giant" is a variety of Bigfoot or hairy humanoid that is sometimes found in the same area that normal Bigfoots are reported from, but it is supposed to be much bigger than most researchers would accept, more like a fairy-tale giant than a possible undiscovered primate.
Despite this creature's ridiculous, biologically implausible size, plenty of documented tracks and eyewitness reports depict a Bigfoot of up to twenty feet tall, or perhaps even larger. Usually lean and lanky, it leaves footprints longer than twenty inches. This creature is heavily shrouded in folklore. The North American variety of true giant is often shown as related to or identical to the windigo (a cannibal giant that is sometimes also a shapeshifter) and the misabe (a human shapeshifter whose only purpose is to fight the evil windigo).
Outside of America, there are other reports of hairy humanoids way bigger that most cryptozoologists would accept. To make the situation even worse, many of these creatures have characteristics associated more with folklore giants or ogres than with biological entities. Scotland's Big Gray Man is one example.
Ghana also has a legendary man-ape of extraordinary size, called the Tano giant. Louis Bowler described the creature in a 1911 book called Gold Coast Palaver as looking like a giant combination of ape and man, with arms as thick as a normal human's torso. The Tano giant is supposed to have pale skin, black fur, a monkey's head that is flat on top, and, like ogres worldwide, is blamed for devouring humans and carrying off women. The Tano giant fears fire, is reputed to be impervious to bullets, and sometimes carries a leather blanket. Some researchers think that the Tano giant is a mythologized version of the gorilla or is a new, undiscovered ape.
Another true giant is the Australian rexbeast, a variety of yowie said to leave 35-inch-long footprints. The rexbeast has been popularized in cryptozoology circles by Rex Gilroy, who says the creature also exists in Aboriginal folklore, yet he was strangely unable to find a native name for it. The rexbeast might be identical to another extra-large yowie, the quinkin of Queensland.
Reports of true giants from southeast Asia also sound much like fairy-tale ogres. The Nyalmo of Bangladesh reportedly can be 20 feet tall. This big hairy monster is associated with the yeti by some researchers, but it also has connections to werewolf-like monsters from Burma and Thailand. The curinquean of Brazil and Paraguay is typical of South American orges. It is blamed for cattle mutilation deaths where the tongue has been removed but nothing else has been touched.
| You can find out more about the True Giant from the following sources: |
Clark, Jerome and Coleman, Loren. Cryptozoology A-Z. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Pages 241
Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. New York: Paraview Press, 2001. Page 190
Hall, Mark A. The Yeti, Bigfoot & True Giants.
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Keel, John A. The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings. New York: Doubleday, 1994. Pages 3, 125
Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Pages 124, 169-171, 198, 237-238, 313-314, 345, 375, 395, 450, 503
Weidensaul, Scott. The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species. New York: North Point Press, 2002. Pages 173, 176
Wikipedia, The. Giant
The text on this page is copyright 2006 by Jamie Hall. Please use proper citation if you are using this website for research.