Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno, Part B

For the second half of the Dante's Inferno unit, I found "The Giants" story to be the most interesting. This one stood out because of the mention of Nimrod. He was responsible for the construction of the tower of Babel. I learned more about the tower of Babel than I have before, so I thought that was cool. I did not realize Nimrod was giant sized which was why he was with the other giants. In the second half of this unit, I found it odd that mythical creatures were included in the nine circles of Hell. Examples of the mythical creatures found are centaurs, minotaurs, and, of course, giants.

I think the description of Nimrod was pretty fascinating. First off, we are informed he is a giant which is not clear at first because of the dark conditions. He was compared to a tower which I think is ironic since he decided to build a the tower of Babel. In addition to this sin, he only speaks gibberish. His head is also compared to the size of a pine cone which would not have made much since if there was not an explanation in the author's note. Since the note had a link to a picture of the pine cone, it was much easier to visualize how big Nimrod's head actually was in the story.

Bringing in mythical creatures like giants is such a cool way to make stories larger than life, literally. In my writing, I would really like to be able to bring in magical creatures. This would take some planning because a world has to be created where a creature like this makes sense. Otherwise, the magical creature would stick out like a sore thumb. Descriptions like in this story really help the reader truly imagine and see the immense scope of the creature. The more descriptive I can be in my writing, the easier it will be for my readers to understand how my creatures look like in terms of the story.

Bibliography

The Giants, Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

Image Information: Giants by Gustave Dore, Wikimedia