The Giant and The Shoemaker

Once a kingdom was threatened by a terrible and ferocious giant. His name was Megalumpus and he was ten times the height of the tallest man in the kingdom.

Each night Megalumpus would come out of the cave in the hills where he lived and, bearing his blazing torch, he would ransack the kingdom, stealing cattle from farmer’s fields and jewels and gold from the houses of rich men.

In desperation, the king offered his daughters hand in marriage to any knight brave enough to face the giant but even the bravest knight in the kingdom; Sir Lionheart the courageous was terrified of Megalumpus.

“Oh what am I to do”, said the king, one day, to his ministers as he was having his feet measured by a shoemaker for a pair of boots, “That giant will be the ruin of our kingdom and even my bravest knights are afraid to face him”.

But then the shoemaker, who had been listening, spoke up, saying, “I know a way of getting rid of the giant, your majesty, if your majesty will give me the materials and help I need to make my plan work”.

The king was doubtful that a common shoemaker could defeat a giant so terrifying that his bravest knights could not slay him but, because he had no better option, he agreed to the shoemaker’s idea.

And, the next day, outside his shop, with the help of 50 craftsmen; 100 yards of leather; a hundred tons of steel; 10 cartloads of wood; 50 gallons of polish and 300 bales of thread as thick as rope all donated to him by the king; the cobbler set about designing and building the largest pair of shoes ever made; each one as big as a church.

It took all day and night but the shoe maker and the craftsmen worked non-stop until the shoes were finished and then, the shoe maker ordering for the shoes to be placed upon two large carts,
they were transported to the cave of the giant and left outside the cave.

Then, sitting upon the toe of one of the gigantic shoes, the shoe maker waited for the giant to come out of its cave and, when darkness fell, the giant started to emerge, roaring and booming with thunderous laughter.

When Megalumpus saw the giant shoes, however, he was astounded, for each of them was far bigger than the giants own feet, and he asked the shoe maker sitting on the toe,

“Who do those giant shoes belong to?”.

“To a giant far bigger than you”, replied the shoemaker, smiling, “He has left them here and asked me to look after them until he returns”.

Megalumpus didn’t need to hear anymore, for though he was a giant he was also a gigantic coward who only ever picked on people much smaller than himself and, terrified of running into a giant larger than him, Megalumpus packed up all his possessions into a ginormous knapsack and ran off across the sea to another country.

Now, returning in triumph to see the king, the shoemaker was given the king’s daughters hand in marriage and became a wealthy prince but his giant shoes were kept on permanent, public display outside the palace and polished and buffed regularly; kept ready in case the wicked Megalumpus should ever return.