Description
Loan ogre of Albanian folk tales. Elsie 2001 s.v. Div: Alb. div, def. divi, from Turk. dev/div ‘ogre, giant, fiend’; ~ Serbo-Croat div. Huge body, supernatural powers, feeds on human flesh; long moustache; skin covered with huge repulsive lice; farts powerful enough to blow away armies (Elsie). He is not the one-eyed Katallan cyclops, nor the podgy Gog of the tumuli, nor nursery Gogol.
Features
- huge body + supernatural powers; eat human flesh (Elsie)
- long moustache; lice-covered skin
- farts can blow away armies (Elsie)
Lead story
Cave-tale stock keeps a huge flesh-eater with a long moustache and a skin crawling with lice — Div, from the Turkish ogre name. Elsie even keeps the grotesque weapon of his farts scattering armies. He is not the one-eyed Katallan of the forge songs, nor the clumsy Gog of the Gog Graves.
Aliases
Div · Divi · Dif (orthographic)
Region
Märchen / cave-ogre stock via Ottoman–Persian tale traffic (pan-folk)
Relations
- Katallan (cyclops / one-eyed giant)not the cyclops
- Gog (podgy clumsy giant)not the tumulus giant
- Jelim (Çamëria giants)not the loan ogre
Linked stories
Elsie Div is the Turkish-loan märchen ogre (moustache, lice, flesh). Katallan owns the one-eyed cyclops name-cloud — keep the two distinct.