In many cultures, before there were humans, giants roamed the earth. These giants created the spectacular structures dotting the landscape that surely no human could ever have made. In Euskal Herria, there are a couple of these beings that roam the Basque imagination. They come from a time before Christianity and are often defined by their non-Christian origins. The most well known are the Jentilak but there is another group of giants, the Mairu, that built so many of the cromlechs, dolmens, and baserriak of the Basque Country.

• Mairu, as a word, refers to any non-Christian. Usually, it means people – pagans – of another time and those Mairu are often reflected in the names of megalithic monuments in the Basque Country. Thus, we have Mairubide “road of Mairu” (cromlechs of Oiartzun), Mairuilarri “grave of Mairu” (cromlechs of Zugarramurdi), Mailarreta or Mairuilarrieta “place of cromlechs” (on the Otsondo-Mondarrain mountain), Mairuetxe “house of Mairu” (erected stones from Mount Buluntsa, dolmen of Mendibe and in the region of Okabe), Mairu-arhan “plum of Mairu”, and Mairu-ilhar “pea of Mairu.” The word Mairukeri, again referring to the ancient pagans, means “wild conduct.”
• Often, the Mairu are associated with feats of great strength, hence why these massive ancient monuments are named for them. Some giant must have made the dolmens, harrespil, and the sturdiest of baserriak that dot the Basque landscape. They often play the same role in stories as the Jentilak.
• However, the term Mairu is not only associated with these ancient pagan giants. It is also used to identify any non-Christian. Anyone not baptized is a Mairu. The arm of a child that is either not baptized or died before baptism is called mairubeso – the arm of mairu. These arms – the bones of the arm – of these non-Christian children play their own role in Basque legend. In some stories, the protagonist uses the mairubeso – the arm bone of the unbaptized child – as a light to navigate the night and sometimes to subdue the inhabitants of the house where such a torch is found lit.
• Unbaptized children, Mairu, are buried near the house or garden rather than in the church plots and cemeteries.
• The word Mairu often more directly means Moor as well. There is some evidence that other areas of Europe believed that peoples from the south came with the technology to build such massive structures. Thus, the Mairu might originally have been North Africans.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Barandiaran Ayerbe, José Miguel de. Mairu. Auñamendi Encyclopedia, 2024. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/mairu/ar-77761/; Mairu, Wikipedia