Fairy tales about giants and monsters

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is the gentlest way in. The troll under the bridge has eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker, and he threatens to gobble up each goat in turn. It takes three minutes, and the biggest goat butts him into the stream.

In Jack and the Beanstalk the ogre likes boys on toast, and his wife hides Jack in the oven. Children soon join in with “Fee-fi-fo-fum” every time he sniffs. Jack climbs up three times, for the gold, the hen and the harp, before he chops the beanstalk down.

Not every creature here is a monster. The Little Mermaid is one herself, a daughter of the Sea King with a fish’s tail, and the sea witch she goes to for help lives in a house built from the bones of drowned sailors. The price is her voice, and the story ends sadly.

In East of the Sun and West of the Moon the prince is held by trolls and must marry a princess with a nose three yards long. Three drops of tallow on his shirt decide it: no troll can wash them out, but the girl can. It is a long read, best saved for children from seven.