How do you imagine the giants to look?

[Angrybushpig]

I'm finding it hard to get a specific image in my mind when I'm reading about the giants.

Does anyone here have any images they think match up with the way they're described throughout the series?

I saw a pic from the PC game once and they seemed to be heading down the right path - for me at least!

 

[dragonstone]

very big

 

[C Of K]

I've wondered about this as well.
I saw a pic of them once on Google.
It looked something like this.

I haven't been able to find that picture yet. It was much better than this one. But anyway, that was how I've imagined them looking ever since.

 

[juleska]

In my mind's eye they look much more human to me. Like giant versions of cavemen. They do talk after all.

 

[C Of K]

I didn't imagine them looking that way until I saw the pic. I probably imagined them more human as well, at first. At this point, the way I see it, these guys are fourteen feet tall, and covered in hair. I haven't read about one that speaks the common tongue yet, so I'm pretty ok with them looking less human.

 

[juleska]

I didn't imagine them looking that way until I saw the pic. I probably imagined them more human as well, at first. At this point, the way I see it, these guys are fourteen feet tall, and covered in hair. I haven't read about one that speaks the common tongue yet, so I'm pretty ok with them looking less human.

You're right, the giants in ASOIAF don't speak the common tongue, but they do speak the old tongue and they bear names. They appear to be marginally domesticated (by wildling standards), insofar as they consort and cooperate with humans. So for those reasons I imagined them most like the giants of Nordic mythology (especially since the giants in this story live beyond the Wall, in the land where it's always winter). Nordic giants are often depicted as mostly human.

But that's just my opinion. Martin doesn't really give us a description so we're free to paint that portrait as we please.

 

[The Imp]

By definition, wouldn't a giant HAVE to look fairly human ?

 

[Needle]

GRRM's description via Jon:

more bear-like than human

10 or 12 feet tall, 14 maybe no more

their sloping chests may have passed for those of men, but their arms hung down to far and their lower torso seemed have again as wide as their upper

shaggy pelts covered their bodies, thick below the waist, sparser above

their legs were shorter than their arms but very thick, their feet broad, splayed things, hard and horny and black

neckless their huge heavy heads thrust forward between their shoulderblades

with faces squashed and brutal

rats eyes no larger than beads where almost lost within folds of horny flesh

So large, furry, Nordiac cavemen?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Probably not what GRRM had in mind, but I always imagined them as a sort of huge Neanderthal-like people.

 

[The Imp]

GRRM's description via Jon:

more bear-like than human

10 or 12 feet tall, 14 maybe no more

their sloping chests may have passed for those of men, but their arms hung down to far and their lower torso seemed have again as wide as their upper

shaggy pelts covered their bodies, thick below the waist, sparser above

their legs were shorter than their arms but very thick, their feet broad, splayed things, hard and horny and black

neckless their huge heavy heads thrust forward between their shoulderblades

with faces squashed and brutal

rats eyes no larger than beads where almost lost within folds of horny flesh

So large, furry, Nordiac cavemen?

Nice job Needle, not get back to crackpotting

 

[Terrible Tempest]

Like Tyrion. But taller. Much taller.

 

[juleska]

GRRM's description via Jon:

more bear-like than human

10 or 12 feet tall, 14 maybe no more

their sloping chests may have passed for those of men, but their arms hung down to far and their lower torso seemed have again as wide as their upper

shaggy pelts covered their bodies, thick below the waist, sparser above

their legs were shorter than their arms but very thick, their feet broad, splayed things, hard and horny and black

neckless their huge heavy heads thrust forward between their shoulderblades

with faces squashed and brutal

rats eyes no larger than beads where almost lost within folds of horny flesh

So large, furry, Nordiac cavemen?

Wow, I didn't remember that at all. I stand corrected. Still have a hard time seeing them that way, especially since they talk.