Stolemy were ancient giants with incredible strength, thick, white hair and a taste for cruelty, who once roamed the land in Kashubia. They were so strong, they could easily pull out trees with their roots and reduce buildings to rubble with one swift movement of their hand. They often enjoyed play fights and displays of their inhuman strength, which involved throwing giant rocks left in the region to this day.

If a stolem appeared in a village, people would flee and barricade themselves at home, as they were known for their eagerness to cause trouble for humans. Luckily, they were not too difficult to outsmart. There are many legends of people tricking a stolem to get what they wanted.

One such story tells of a young fisherman who overheard a group of stolemy plotting to kill humans, angry for humans cutting down forests, building more villages, and taking over more of the land. As the giants fell asleep, the nimble fisherman climbed on the highest pine tree around, and threw a pine cone at one of the unsuspecting creatures. The stolem woke up startled, and seeing no one else around, accused a younger stolem of playing tricks on him. They calmed down and fell asleep again, only to be woken by another pine cone thrown at the younger stolem, which resulted in more threats and vulgarisms. This continued back and forth until the annoyed giants decided to put an end to these tricks by fighting. Trees were used as clubs and shattered into tiny splinters, while stones were hauled in all directions bouncing off their hardened bodies, as the fighting continued long into the night. Eventually, both stolemy collapsed in exhaustion, and with their final breaths speculating that a human bust have been involved. Stolemy everywhere heard of this, learning their lesson, and lived in peace with people thereafter.

Another legends tells of a shepherd who made a deal with the devil. He sold his soul in exchange for the devil building a dam to cut across the lake with his sheep, as the exhausted shepherd could not stand the daily trek any longer. The devil used stolemy to carry huge stones and held up his end of the bargain. As the dam was almost ready, the shepherd realised his gravely mistake. In desperation he woke all the chickens who stirred the entire village with their crows. This in turn startled the stolemy who ran off in different directions, never finishing the dam, which eventually fell to pieces.

Stolemy had families, much like people, but on occasion they fell in love with humans. One such unlucky stolem was trying to win the heart of the mayor’s beautiful daughter, who sadly did not reciprocate his feelings. In an attempt to get rid of him, she promised her hand in marriage if he succeeded with progressively more impossible tasks, such as moving an entire forest or a hill overnight, which the giant accomplished with patience and hard work. The last task she set him was to extinguish all the stars in the sky, and though the stolem blew and blew on them he only ever managed to blow out a few. In an act of desperation, he tried to cover the whole sky with thick clouds, but this caused the biggest thunderstorm the land has ever seen, and for the first time in his life the giant was scared. He knew his beloved would be mad at him, and did not dare approach her again, but lived out his days on the edge of the village, hoping one day she would forgive him.

There are also stories that paint a friendlier picture of the giants, as helpful and kind creatures. One version claims they have all been turned to stone, waiting for the day when people are kind to one another, then stolemy will be awoken again.

———

References:
Legendy kaszubskie (2017) by Janusz Mamelski.
Basnie kaszubskie (2018) by Zuzanna Rabska.