Gog (podgy clumsy giant)

Gog / Gogu

Elsie Gog: podgy clumsy giant; tumuli vorra gogs

Description

Gog (Alb. gog/gogu) is a podgy, clumsy giant of northern Albanian folk tales. Landscape fossils keep his name on tumuli called Gog Graves (vorra gogs), still encountered in various parts of the country. The word also carries lexical senses including ‘Vlach, Aromunian, bricklayer, foreigner,’ and the family name Goga. He is not the one-eyed Katallan forge-cyclops, nor the nursery bugaboo Gogol.

Features

appear as podgy / clumsy giant in folk tales (Elsie)
landscape association with tumuli called vorra gogs

Lead story

Folk tales keep a podgy clumsy giant — Gog, gogu — and the land keeps his name on mounds: vorra gogs, Gog Graves. He is not the one-eyed Katallan forge-cyclops. He is not the nursery Gogol who stops a child’s cry. He is not the Ottoman-tale Div. Elsie keeps the clumsy giant and the tumuli; Tirta lists gogë among the giant name-cloud.

Aliases

Gog · Gogu · Vorra gogs (Gog Graves tumuli)

Region

Northern Albanian mythology / folk tales; tumuli called vorra gogs in various parts of the country (Elsie)

Relations

Katallan (cyclops / one-eyed giant)not the same giant type
Baloz (epic sea-risen foe)giant field soft
Herr (dwarf)dwarf vs giant
Div (loan ogre)not the tumulus giant
Gogol (nursery bugaboo)not the tumulus giant
Jelim (Çamëria giants)not the tumulus giant

Linked stories

Gog ≠ Katallan (giant poles)Recorded
Elsie Gog is the podgy clumsy folk-tale giant with vorra gogs tumuli. Katallan is the one-eyed man-eating cyclops name-cloud. Gogol nursery bogey and Div loan-ogre stay overlay hold — kept separate.
Herr / Thopçi dwarf (≠ xhindi)Recorded
Elsie Herr is the northern dwarf (Zall-Herr). Tirta equates Herri with Thopçi — tiny, tease or benefactor. Thopërç absorbed as alias, not peer. Ottoman xhindi jinn stays overlay hold.
Gogol ≠ Gog (nursery vs tumulus giant)Recorded
Elsie keeps two headwords: Gogol the child-scare bugaboo (Arbëresh father/son) and Gog the podgy clumsy giant with vorra gogs — keep the two distinct.