The Giant

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The Giant is a song by Canadian folk singer-songwriter Stan Rogers. The Giant referred to is Fingal, an Irish-Scottish mythical giant. The song is set in Nova Scotia's rugged Cape Breton Island, and the lyrics contain enchanting imagery describing the island's landscape. The song also contains quasi-pagan imagery, including the suggestion of worshipping the new moon by dancing around a bonfire, although it may be that characters in the song are using the full moon to have a party. In the album Home in Halifax, Stan Rogers claimed that the song was about wiskey.

[edit] Lyrics

Cold wind on the harbour and rain on the road,

Wet promise of winter brings recourse to coal,

There's fire in the blood and a fog on Bras d'Or,

The Giant will rise with the moon.

'Twas the same ancient fever in the Isles of the Blest

That our fathers brought with them when they went west

It's the blood of the Druids that never will rest

The Giant will rise with the moon.

So crash the glass down, move with the tide,

Good friends and old whiskey are burning inside,

Crash the glass down, Fingal will rise,

With the moon.

In inclement weather the people are fey,

Three thousand year stories as the night slips away.

Remembering Fingal feels not far away,

The giant will rise with the moon

The wind's in the north, there'll be new moon tonight,

And we have no circle to dance in her sight.

Light a torch, bring a bottle and build the fire bright,

The Giant will rise with the moon.

So crash the glass down, move with the tide,

Good friends and old whiskey are burning inside.

Crash the glass down, Fingal will rise,

With the moon.

Cold wind on the harbour and rain on the road,

Wet promise of winter brings recourse to coal,

There's fire in the blood and a fog on Bras d'Or,

The Giant will rise with the moon.