Uploaded May 2012 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The term Pygmy comes form Greek mythology. It was later used to descibe an ethic group and, when used in that way, is considered pejorative. That is not the meaning intended here.
Political correctness changes with the times and it is impossible to make literature from former times fit the popular prejudices of the day. All that is necessary is to note is that no racial inference was intended and move on.
By the same token if there are any ogres who find this characterisation of their habits offensive, I'm terribly sorry. No, really, I mean it. I really respect you guys and there's no cause for a clubbing here. Drop round for a drink any time - Asses' Milk, Swamp Juice, Virgins' Blood - you name it.
Actually the last painting is not an Ogre, it's a Troll. On the internet a Troll is somebody who posts messages which run counter to the prevailing opinion of the other members. For instance, if a thread in a newsgroup is started with the intention of sticking the boot into some celebrity, then anybody who posts messages which flatter rather than denigrate that celebrity is a Troll. I mention this because I was called a Troll last week by some people who crossed the bridge I happened to be guarding.
You know who you are. And I know where you live. So lock your doors tight and shiver in your beds - as all bullies should. And here's a tip - don't go around making enemies. Enemies will attempt to do you harm. Also have nothing to do with bastards, they will only get you into trouble (Rimbaud said that - more or less - and it's good advice)
Anyway the world is divided into Ogres and Pygmies who all ought to realise how disproprtionately large and small they are and where they fit into the scheme of things.
(Okay, I'm just kidding. I couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding these days. At one time I could knock out a Billy Goat with a punch that travelled no more than four inches...)
The font is called Rumpelstiltskin and it's a free download.
The Giants were painted by Gustaf Tenggren
whose mentor was John Bauer - many charming fairy-tale pictures here:
cg.kelvinchu.com/?p=1677
Norandino and Lucina Discovered by the Ogre by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582--1647)
The Troll and the Boy by John Bauer 1912
Robert Graves did modify this poem and other versions exist. I happen to like this one. You can hear Robert Graves reading here:
homes.ukoln.ac.uk/~lispjh/graves/audio
Those famous men of old, the Ogres
They had long beards and stinking arm-pits.
They were wide-mouthed, long-yarded and great-bellied
Yet of no taller stature, Sirs, than you.
They lived on Ogre-Strand, which was no place
But the churl's terror of their proud extent.
Where every foot was three-and-thirty inches,
And every penny bought a whole sheep.
Now of their company none survive, not one,
The times being, thank God, unfavourable
To all but nightmare shadows of them.
Their images stand howling in the waste,
(The winds enforced against their wide mouths)
whose granite haunches king and priest must yearly
Buss and their cold knobbled knees.
So many feats they did to admiration:
With their enormous lips they sang louder
Than ten cathedral choirs, and with their grand yards
Stormed the most rare and obstinate maidenheads,
With their strong-gutted and capacious bellies
Digested stones and glass like ostriches.
They dug great pits and heaped great cairns,
Deflected rivers, slew whole armies,
And hammered judgments for posterity
For the sweet cupid-lipped and tassel-yarded
Delicate-stomached dwellers
In Pygmy Alley, where with brooding on them
A foot is shrunk to seven inches
And twelve-pence will not buy a spare rib.
And who would choose between Ogres and Pygmies
The thundering text, the snivelling commentary
Reading between such covers he will likely
Prove his own disproportion and not laugh.
The term Pygmy comes form Greek mythology. It was later used to descibe an ethic group and, when used in that way, is considered pejorative. That is not the meaning intended here.
Political correctness changes with the times and it is impossible to make literature from former times fit the popular prejudices of the day. All that is necessary is to note is that no racial inference was intended and move on.
By the same token if there are any ogres who find this characterisation of their habits offensive, I'm terribly sorry. No, really, I mean it. I really respect you guys and there's no cause for a clubbing here. Drop round for a drink any time - Asses' Milk, Swamp Juice, Virgins' Blood - you name it.
Actually the last painting is not an Ogre, it's a Troll. On the internet a Troll is somebody who posts messages which run counter to the prevailing opinion of the other members. For instance, if a thread in a newsgroup is started with the intention of sticking the boot into some celebrity, then anybody who posts messages which flatter rather than denigrate that celebrity is a Troll. I mention this because I was called a Troll last week by some people who crossed the bridge I happened to be guarding.
You know who you are. And I know where you live. So lock your doors tight and shiver in your beds - as all bullies should. And here's a tip - don't go around making enemies. Enemies will attempt to do you harm. Also have nothing to do with bastards, they will only get you into trouble (Rimbaud said that - more or less - and it's good advice)
Anyway the world is divided into Ogres and Pygmies who all ought to realise how disproprtionately large and small they are and where they fit into the scheme of things.
(Okay, I'm just kidding. I couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding these days. At one time I could knock out a Billy Goat with a punch that travelled no more than four inches...)
The font is called Rumpelstiltskin and it's a free download.
The Giants were painted by Gustaf Tenggren
whose mentor was John Bauer - many charming fairy-tale pictures here:
cg.kelvinchu.com/?p=1677
Norandino and Lucina Discovered by the Ogre by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582--1647)
The Troll and the Boy by John Bauer 1912
Robert Graves did modify this poem and other versions exist. I happen to like this one. You can hear Robert Graves reading here:
homes.ukoln.ac.uk/~lispjh/graves/audio
Those famous men of old, the Ogres
They had long beards and stinking arm-pits.
They were wide-mouthed, long-yarded and great-bellied
Yet of no taller stature, Sirs, than you.
They lived on Ogre-Strand, which was no place
But the churl's terror of their proud extent.
Where every foot was three-and-thirty inches,
And every penny bought a whole sheep.
Now of their company none survive, not one,
The times being, thank God, unfavourable
To all but nightmare shadows of them.
Their images stand howling in the waste,
(The winds enforced against their wide mouths)
whose granite haunches king and priest must yearly
Buss and their cold knobbled knees.
So many feats they did to admiration:
With their enormous lips they sang louder
Than ten cathedral choirs, and with their grand yards
Stormed the most rare and obstinate maidenheads,
With their strong-gutted and capacious bellies
Digested stones and glass like ostriches.
They dug great pits and heaped great cairns,
Deflected rivers, slew whole armies,
And hammered judgments for posterity
For the sweet cupid-lipped and tassel-yarded
Delicate-stomached dwellers
In Pygmy Alley, where with brooding on them
A foot is shrunk to seven inches
And twelve-pence will not buy a spare rib.
And who would choose between Ogres and Pygmies
The thundering text, the snivelling commentary
Reading between such covers he will likely
Prove his own disproportion and not laugh.
