Petite Histoire de Géants: Lydéric et Phinaert

A small history of giants in Lille: Lydéric and Phinaert

I've always had a soft spot for myths and legends surrounding cities or countries; their founders, how they came about, and more.

I know the history of how Singapura received its name by heart: Sang Nila Utama and his crew sailed from Bintan across the archipelago, got stuck in a storm, threw his crown overboard as a sacrifice to the gods, got to the island, saw a creature, asked one of his dudes "What the heck is that?" and his dude said "oh, it's a Singa (Sanskrit for "Lion")" so he was like, SICK, let's call this place Singapura (Lion city) even though it was already named Temasek (and even before, Pulau Ujong).

Sometimes, these stories can be historically questionable (like the lineage of Sang Nila Utama to Parameswara/Iskandar Shah) or downright absurd (Sang Nila Utama saw a lion dance, not a lion). But they are still stories that shape our view of our countries and cities, and how we celebrate them later on. The lion is the official emblem of Singapore, appearing everywhere on our coat of arms and more.

(I can't believe I ended up going down the rabbit hole of Sang Nila Utama and the Sejarah Melayu just to write the introduction for this post. I thought it was going to be straightforward. It was not.)

AAAAAANYWAY

I finally had some free time to visit the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Lille on a Sunday. As a resident of Lille, I applied for the Lille&Moi card, which gives me access to some museums in the city for free on every Sunday (as opposed to the nationwide free entry on the first Sunday of every month).

So yes, I will be visiting Palais des Beaux-Arts again.

We visited the Petite Histoire de Géants (Little history of giants - ha, I know, fun name) exhibition which was running from 17 September 2025 and extended to 2 March 2026.

The giants are emblematic in parts of North of France and Belgium. Known by different names such as Reuze ("giant" in flemish) in Dunkirk or Cassel, Gayant ("giant" in picard) in Douai, or also Jehan, the old form of the name Jean¹, they have been embraced for 500 years or more and was entered into the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2005².

While the exhibition talks at lengths about the history of the giants and their place in the culture of the north of France, the main story that caught my attention was the story of Lydéric and Phinaert. According to the legend³, Prince Salvaert of Dijon was traversing a forest with his pregnant wife, Ermengaert, towards the Kindom of England. He then came across the giant Phinaert who proceeded to kill the Prince. Ermengaert escaped, gave birth to Lydéric, and died. She handed Lydéric to a hermite, who raised Lydéric by letting a doe sustain him.

When Lydéric became an adult, he confronted Phinaert and challenged him to a duel to avenge the death of his parents. Lydéric killed the giant. To congratulate him, the king entrusted Phinaert's lands to Lydéric, which became the foundation of the city of Lille.

Pretty neat, huh?

There was also a display of works by author and illustrator François Boucq⁴, who was commissioned by the city of Lille to tell the story of Lydéric and Phinaert in 2004, to celebrate Lille's status as the European capital of culture. He created a comic, and was involved with creating a short animated film which was set to be shown at the Grand Place de Lille in the same year, but it was cancelled due to a storm (typical North of France weather...) Thankfully, the short film was part of the exhibition - 21 years later!