Giants

 

Giants are a non-human race considered to be a legend by the inhabitants of the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall. However, giants do actually exist in the furthest north Beyond the Wall. This is in contrast with both the Children of the Forest and the White Walkers, which even the wildlings claim to have not seen in thousands of years.

 

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, giants have a drastically different, more ape-like appearance. They tend to be about twice as large as a very tall human, about 12 to 14 feet in height, but not monstrously huge. A single giant is as strong as a dozen humans.

 

They generally resemble descriptions of the Sasquatch (Bigfoot) or Yeti. They wear no clothing, but instead are covered in shaggy fur pelts, which are thicker below the waist. The fur of older giants becomes grey and streaked with white. Their heads are thrust forward from their shoulder blades but they have very short necks. They have squashed-in faces with square teeth and tiny eyes amidst folds of flesh. Their eyesight is poor and they snuffle constantly, smelling as much as they see.

 

They have sloped chests, and their lower torsos are about half again as wide as their upper torsos. Their arms hang lower than a man's, while their legs are shorter than their arms, ending in splayed feet that need no shoes even in the coldest weather. The female giants look similar to the men.

 

Giants are generally not as intelligent as the average human, though they are sapient and capable of speech. They speak the Old Tongue of the First Men. The giants are physically capable of speaking the Common Tongue of the Andals, and can learn it after instruction, it's just that the giants live so far to the north away from the Wall that they haven't really encountered the Common Tongue before.