Numenorean height

[Lomelindo]

So gigantism among Numenoreans. They received the gift of increased stature, longevity, and wisdom.

This is interesting because in the primary world is usually a result of growth hormone being released throughout ones life.

The height of Numenoreans is between 6’4” and 7’
There are also circulation issues that come with gigantism and people usually die fairly young.

So far I have not seen any archaeological remains of hominids that are even close to 7 feet tall.

What do you think about this?

[Tess]

Hello Lomelindo,
this is an interesting topic, thank you for sharing, I didn't know this about the Numenoreans.

I made a short film about giants and mention about some of the folklore in UK and Ireland here - there were stories about giants being the original peoples of the land of the UK:

In France in 1890, three large human bones were discovered which were estimated to have belonged to a human measuring 11 feet, 6 inches tall, known as the Giant of Castelnau, I mention it briefly in the film.
Tess

[Meneldur Olvarion]

I think it would be best to consider theoretical maximums - which even so are surprisingly difficult to get information on in my recent Google searches.

The main limit has to do with what's called the square-cube law. Using this, 9 feet seems to be about the limit[1], but since we are using squares and cubes, there is a huge difference in "biological burden" between 7 and 9 feet. I think a 7 foot average is easily doable with some biological tweaking at the cellular level.[2]

1: https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/tall- ... %20miracle.
2: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com ... ke-c/52961

[Lomelindo]

Tess,
Good point and these giant stories are alleged to be of Middle Eastern (maybe Biblical) origin.

Dave,
I had not thought about the square cube law. I love this kind of stuff.

[Lomelindo]

You can find mytho-histories on giants all around the world. Here are a couple of examples:

Middle East: the Watchers were angelic beings who cohabited with the Daughters of Men. This resulted in the children of fallen angel and human who were huge were giants.

These Watchers taught the humans skills needed to start civilizations.

Scandinavian: Jotun, frost giants, fire giants, but it is said that the Aesir led by Odin who himself had the blood of giants via Ymir.

[Tess]

Hello Lomelindo,
it's interesting that giants are found in mythology all across the world -the Watchers - this sounds like a very revealing name and I like the idea of them sharing skills in starting civilisations, there seems to be a theme of them as builders i.e. Giant's Causeway.

It is my sense that they are real energies - I had an experience of a giant once while camping in a yew grove, during the hypnagogic state - it was perhaps nine feet tall and walked past my tent - I was frightened yet remained as the 'observer' and it walked past seemingly without noticing the tent as if it was in another dimension.

In researching the film I wrote a bit about giants in relation to Tolkien and Lewis but I didn't include this in the end because there was already so much to focus on - I wrote this:
The Ents of The Lord of the Rings were shepherds of the forest and guardians of the trees – Treebeard was described as being like a large man yet “troll-like,” fourteen feet tall and it wasn’t clear whether the green and grey bark was his skin or a covering. The word ‘ent’ was Anglo-Saxon in origin, meaning giant.
The Ettenmoors or troll-fells were wild landscapes outside of Rivendell in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and the word was taken from the Old English word ‘eoten’ which was a giant in Old English literature. Ettinsmoor was the giant-inhabited land to the north of the Kingdom of Narnia in the tales of C.S. Lewis which was also a moor, full of stones and traversed by rivers. On this land, by the ruined bridge and city was the palace of Harfang where the Gentle Giants lived. In the tales of Lewis, giants also battled with each other and threw stones – and the so-called gentle giants were not necessarily as kind as they first appeared. The word Ettin is a reconstructed cognate of the Old Norse Jötunn (an entity often referred to as a troll and sometimes giant, yet they could sometimes be beautiful) and the Old English Eoten; Ettin was also the name of the giants in Lewis’s books.
Tess