THE STRONG MAN AND THE DWARF
A story from Georgia.

(From F&F#49 May 2004)

Georgia is at the eastern end of the Black Sea sandwiched between Turkey and Russia, and bordering onto Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is an ancient country with a unique language and culture. Much of the land is mountainous but the western coastal region, Kolkhida, is low lying marshland. It is known to storytellers as Colchis and is where Jason sought for the Golden Fleece. (Fleeces were laid in the streams ro collect gold dust.)

This traditional Georgian story contains some very familiar motifs. It seems that Finn Macool or Jack the Giant Killer must have visited as well as Jason!

There came from far-off lands a strong man, a giant, who had nowhere met his match. He challenged anyone in the whole kingdom to wrestle with him. The king gathered his folk together but, to his chagrin, could not find anybody ready to face the strong man until, at last, there stood forth a weak insignificant-looking dwarf, who offered to wrestle with the giant. Haughtily looking down on his adversary the giant carelessly turned away, thinking that he was befooled. But the dwarf asked that his strength should be put to the proof before the struggle began.

The giant angrily seized a stone and, clasping it in his fingers, squeezed moisture out of it.

The dwarf cunningly replaced the stone by a sponge of the same appearance and squeezed still more moisture out of it.

The giant then took another stone and threw it so violently onto the ground that it became dust.

The dwarf took a stone, hid it under the grass, and threw onto the ground a handful of flour, to the great astonishment of the giant.

Stretching forth his hand to the dwarf the giant said: "I never expected to find so much strength in such a little man, I will not wrestle with you but, instead, give me your hand in token of friendship and brotherhood."

Afraid of the giant’s grip the dwarf refused. The giant was angry and asked the dwarf why he would not press his hand in a brotherly manner. The dwarf replied that he was unable to moderate the force of his grip and that more than one man had already died from the fearful force of his hand. After hearing this reply the giant invited the dwarf to go home with him.

The new brothers set out together. On their way to the giant's house they came to a stream which had to be forded. The dwarf, fearing to be carried away by the current, told the strong man that he was suffering from stomach-ache and did not wish to go into the cold water, so he asked to be carried over.

In the midst of the stream the strong man, with the dwarf on his shoulders, suddenly stopped and said: "I have always believed that strong people are heavy, but I cannot feel you on my shoulders. Tell me how this is, for God's sake."

"Since we have become brothers," replied the dwarf, "I have no right to press with all my weight upon you. If I did not support myself by holding onto the sky with one hand you could never carry me."

The strong man, wishing to test his strength, asked the dwarf to drop his hand for a moment, whereupon the dwarf took from his pocket two nails and stuck the sharp points of them into the shoulders of the giant. The giant could not endure the pain, and begged the dwarf to lighten his burden at once, i.e., to lay hold of heaven again with one hand.

When they had reached the other side the two friends soon came to the strong man's house. The giant, wishing to give a dinner to the dwarf, proposed that they should share the work of getting it ready and that one of them should take the bread out of the oven while the other went to the cellar for wine.

The dwarf saw in the oven an immense loaf which be could never have lifted so he chose to go to the cellar for wine. But when he had descended the steps he was unable even to lift the weights from the tops of the jars, so, thinking that by this time the giant would have taken the loaf out of the oven, he cried: "Shall I bring up all the jars?"

The giant, alarmed lest the dwarf should spoil his whole year's stock of wine by digging the jars out of the ground where they were buried, rushed into the cellar and the dwarf went upstairs. But great was the astonishment of the dwarf when he found that the bread was still in the oven and that he must take it out, willy-nilly. He succeeded with difficulty in dragging a loaf to the edge of the oven shelf but he could not support the weight and fell with the hot bread on top of him. Being unable to free himself he was almost smothered.

Just then the giant came in and asked what had happened. The dwarf replied:

"As I told you this morning, I am suffering from a stomach-ache so, in order to sooth the pain, I applied the hot loaf as a plaster." The giant said: "Poor fellow! How do you feel now, after your plaster?" "Better, thank God," replied the dwarf, " In fact I feel so much better that you can take the loaf off my stomach now"

The giant lifted the loaf and the two then sat down to dinner.

Suddenly the giant sneezed so hard that the dwarf was blown up to the roof and seized a beam so that he should not fall down again. The giant looked up with astonishment and asked: "What are you doing now?" The dwarf angrily replied: "If you do such a vulgar thing again I shall pull this beam out and break it over your stupid head." The giant made humble excuses and promised that he would never sneeze again during dinner time. Then he brought a ladder by which the dwarf came down and they finished their meal in peace.

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