Medieval romance fused giants and Saracens into one interchangeable enemy

Evidence

Saracens are often described in medieval texts as cannibalistic giants. In some narratives this is subtle, such as the Torrent of Portyngale, where the giants are not named as Saracens but their identity is implied. In this story, the hero seamlessly “moves from killing giants to killing Saracens.” The oppositions presented in Portyngale are fundamentally religious, creating a link among all of the non-Christian creatures the Christian knight encounters. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 181

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s guiding question about the giant as a recurring figure carrying Western anxiety.