In Celtic mythology, there is such a character - the Ogre, who became the prototype of the Orcs, popular in modern fantasy. They were described as humanoid, terrible and eternally hungry creatures of enormous growth and great strength, and they performed a role somewhat reminiscent of our "babayka": the main evil they do is kidnapping and eating children.
However, in Western fairy tales, many giants were portrayed precisely as ogres, and even now the culture spins the image of stupid clumsy giants who cannot even speak, but only growl.
Where did this image come from?
Officially, the word "Ogre" comes from the French "ogre", which supposedly goes back to the Etruscan god Orc. But this is not very convincing, especially since the word "Orcus" itself is not explained in any way.
Although a possible answer is stored in the very description of the Ogres: scary, wild, not speaking "humanly". The last aspect is exactly the same thing that the Russian people called "Germans", that is, they did not speak "Russian." And in history, a representative of a foreign culture was always perceived as a savage and dumb, the society of antiquity was very intolerant of “not ours”, each tribe had a “noble” designation for its own (among the Germans, by the way, there are several tribes whose names are translated - "our", that is, "not strangers").
In Sanskrit there is a word उग्र - ugra, meaning "furious, wrathful, fierce, furious, ferocious, wild, furious, passionate, violent, terrible, tough, sharp, huge, tall, powerful, strict, formidable, stern, angry." That is, the Indian word "Ugra" exactly reflects the European Ogres.
And after all, in the Russian language there is a word that fully corresponds to both Ogres and "eel". This is the word "Gloomy", which Dahl's explanatory dictionary defines as "stern-looking, gloomy, silent, sulky; inhospitable, dry. Sullen look - stern, menacing. Gloomy sky - cloudy, rainy."
That's all, and there is no need to bind any Etruscan gods. Ogres are sullen savages, that is, all those peoples who did not share the faith of the Celts and later Christians. They were feared, they were not understood, they frightened children. And “to kill a giant” is a favorite feat of a knight from romantic ballads, just as among the Russian heroes it was considered obligatory to fill up a few “gloomy” busurman or “a filthy idol” (pagan - pagan), just as among Greek heroes it was customary to kill some monster from foreign lands. In Russian history, the territories of the present Khanty and Mansi were called “Ugra”, apparently for the same reasons. And in the European tradition, the Ugrians were compared with the northeastern tribes: Danes, Huns, Slavs, Scythians:
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