- 1Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research into the Anthropocene, Toruń, Poland (darek@geopan.torun.pl)
- 2Independent Researcher, Prenzlau, Germany
- 3Nicolaus Copernicus University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Toruń, Poland
To understand the surrounding world - for millennia man has tried to interpret natural hazards, geological processes and geomorphological forms. This attempt to understand and order the surrounding environment manifested itself in the emergence and long functioning of legends and beliefs (Juśkiewicz et al., 2025). This applied to the entire spectrum of the world that surrounded humans. One unique example of narratives specific only to Pomerania (NE Germany and NW Poland) are the legends written down by ethnographers at the turn of the 20th century relating to the so-called Hünenhacken - stone imprints of the heels of giants. Although they are indisputably the products of human hands - so far their purpose has not been clarified. They are most often considered the prehistoric and early historical grinding objects - the so-called “trough mills” or “grinding troughs.” Found in megalithic tombs and in agricultural fields among other erratic boulders, they were collected by local people, secondarily used to feed domestic animals, and even built into the walls of Christian churches as stoups - containers for holy water (Becker, 2020). The authors identified dozens of examples of such “sacred” use in Germany and Poland.
Communities that are looking back to ancient tales and legends for their own local identity and uniqueness - are paying attention to the mystery of these unusual stones. Because they were made of erratic boulders - mainly Fennoscandian granites - they have great potential to become important artifacts of Pomerania's geocultural heritage.
This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (Grant No. 2019/35/B/HS3/03933).
References:
Becker, E. (2020). Das Mahlsteinmuseum Neu-Kleinow : Von Reibplatten, Handmühlen und Hünenhacken. Norderstedt: Books on Demand.
Juśkiewicz, W., Jaszewski, J., Brykała, D., Piotrowski, R., Alexander, K.M. and Juśkiewicz, K.B. (2025). Supernatural beings of Pomerania: postmodern mapping of folkloristic sources. Journal of Maps 21 (1): 1-15, https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2024.2434015
How to cite: Brykała, D., Becker, E., and Jaszewski, J.: Stone footprints of giants in the young glacial landscape of Pomerania (NW Poland and NE Germany), EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5937, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5937, 2025.
