Tradition / Region: Czech Mythology
Alternate Names: Giants of the Frischhof
Category: Giant
The Myth
The Frischhof Giants belong to an ancient time when giants still roamed the land. They are portrayed as powerful and destructive beings who lived before the present human order was established.
One day, while the household of a farmer named Frisch was away at church, a group of giants descended upon his farm. They tore down fences and demanded his wealth. When he refused, some of the giants restrained him while others looted his home, breaking into chests and stealing everything they could.
As they prepared to leave, the farmer turned to a mysterious object kept in his house—a black book filled with powerful knowledge. Opening it, he recited a spell that instantly froze the giants in place, leaving them unable to move.
Trapped where they stood, the giants remained there forever. Over time, their bodies became part of the landscape itself, transforming into the mountains that surround the region.
The black book that enabled this act was later lost in a mundane but ironic way—mistaken for food and destroyed—ending the possibility of such power being used again.
The Frischhof Giants represent a mythic explanation for the landscape:
mountains as the remains of ancient beings, defeated not by strength, but by hidden knowledge and supernatural means.
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Das Schwarzbuch. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/tschechien/watzlik/schwarzbuch.html