We come up to the surface of the earth for our wedding games and dances, but then we go down again for our feasts. How do we return to the world below? Well, at midnight, one of the giants will pull up a plant by its roots, and then all the giants and giantesses will make themselves so thin that they disappear through the holes made by the uprooted plant.

Sometimes we’ll bring a human with us to the underworld. That’s what I’ve done with the herd-boy. Poor little orphan. He found me wounded, and helped me. Now he’s like a son to me.

The Wounded Giant in The Giants and the Herd-Boy, Yellow Fairy Book. Illustration by H.J. Ford.