This thesis is the first study to examine the interaction between gods and giants in Old Norse mythology from the perspective of Iron Age halls. Its central aim is to contextualise Old Norse mythological narratives that describe the interactions between gods and giants in a hall environment, and to show how the mythological depictions can be compared to the norms and rules found in Iron Age hall culture, especially in connection with its warrior ideology. The relationships observed also apply to the Iron Age’s aristocratic sovereigns and their dynamic dealings – both peaceful and martial – found in the connection and rivalry between different halls and hall owners. The giants are related to the concept of “the Other”, and as hall-owners can thus be contextualised with real social relations in Iron Age society. The investigation centers arounds key topics from the perspective of a hall setting, departing from mythic traditions regarding Óðinn and Þórr as guests in the halls of giants. These topics include grið within the hall; the good and generous host; the dangerous and hostile guest; the hall as an arena for knowledge and mead; and finally the destruction of halls as an attack on the hall owner’s fame and honour. Similarities and differences between myths about Óðinn’s and Þórr’s interaction with hall-owning giants are examined in depth, and it is argued that Óðinn embodies wisdom and extracts knowledge or valuables from the giants by cunning tricks or manipulation, having (usually) travelled there alone and in disguise. Þórr, on the other hand, is argued to embody physical strength, honour, glory and courage, and his dealings with the giants revolve around these issues. He seldom seems to travel alone or under cover, and when his courage or honour is threatened, his response is to kill his host (and his retinue) and to destroy the giant’s hall. It is argued that the Old Norse conception of the world is to be understood as neither dualistic or monistic. Instead, it is proposed that the myths can be understood from a perspective of conflicts that are temporal and not permanent in nature.

Les nématodes à galles du genre Meloidogyne sont des parasites obligatoires des plantes capables d’infecter un large panel de plantes d’intérêt agronomique. Ces parasites ont la capacité d’induire la différenciation de cinq à sept cellules racinaires en cellules géantes, hypertrophiées, métaboliquement actives et multinucléées. Ces cellules géantes constituent le site nourricier indispensable au nématode, et sur lequel il va s’alimenter jusqu’à sa reproduction. Le développement de ces cellules entraine une déformation racinaire appelée « galle » qui va perturber l’absorption de nutriments de la plante et l’affaiblir. Des études transcriptomiques ont montré qu’une vaste reprogrammation transcriptionnelle a lieu lors de la formation de la galle. Cette thèse vise à caractériser le rôle des petits ARN, des ARN non codants, au cours de la formation des galles induites par M. incognita. Les petits ARN non codants sont des régulateurs clés de l’expression génique et comprennent deux grandes familles : les microARN (miARN) et les petits ARN interférents (siARN). Pour cela, les petits ARN de racines de la plante modèle Arabidopsis thaliana saines et infectées par le nématode à galle M. incognita ont été caractérisés par séquençage haut débit à 7 et 14 jours après infection, deux stades importants du développement des cellules géantes. Cette étude a permis d’identifier 24 miARN d’Arabidopsis différentiellement exprimés dans les galles en comparaison aux racines non infectées. L’analyse fonctionnelle de ces miARN a permis de valider le profil d’expression dans les galles de cinq miARN et de démontrer le rôle de miR159 dans la réponse de la plante à M. incognita. De plus, une approche pangénomique a été réalisée afin d’identifier les gènes susceptibles d’être régulés par les siARN lors de l’interaction. En conclusion, ce travail a contribué à démontrer d’une part l’implication des miARN dans l’interaction plante - nématode à galles et a permis l’identification des gènes potentiellement régulés par les siARN lors de l’interaction et impliqués dans la formation des cellules géantes induites par les nématodes à galles. / Root-Knot-Nematodes are obligate plant parasites able to infect a large panel of cultivated plants. These parasites have the ability to induce redifferentiation of five to seven root cells into specialized giant cells, hypertrophied, multinucleated and metabolically overactive. These giant cells form the feeding site upon which nematodes feed continuously until reproduction. Giant cells development leads to a root deformation, named gall, which disturbs plant nutrients absorption causing its weakening. Transcriptomic studies showed that a huge transcriptional reprogramming occurs during gall development. This project aims to characterize the role of small RNAs, non-coding RNAs, during gall development induced by M. incognita. Small non-coding RNAs are key regulators of gene expression and include two major families: microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Thus, small RNAs from roots of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana healthy or infected by M. incognita were characterized by Next Generation Sequencing at 7 and 14 days after infection, two important stages of gall development. This study led to the identification of 24 plant microRNAs differentially expressed in galls compared to uninfected roots. Functional analysis of these miRNAs validated the expression pattern in galls of five miRNAs and demonstrated the role of miR159 in the plant response to M. incognita. In addition, a genome-wide approach was used to identify genes that could be regulated by siRNAs during the interaction. In conclusion, this work contributed todemonstrate, on one hand, the involvement of microRNAs in the plant - RKN interaction and allowed the identification of genes potentially regulated by small interfering and involved in the formation of giant cells induced by root-knot nematodes.

In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement brought with it a great deal of attention and initiatives to construct and increase intergroup contact and shared spaces in an effort to reconcile divided nationalist/Catholic and unionist/Protestant communities. In the time following this peace agreement, the Belfast Giants ice hockey team was established, and in their 16 years as a team they have become one of the most attended spectator activities in Belfast, trending away from the tribalism, single-space, single-class, and single-gender dynamics of modern sport in Northern Ireland. This thesis research followed the supporters of the Belfast Giants throughout the 2015-2016 ice hockey season to better understand the encounters across historical divisions that are occurring in the Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) Arena. The research of this PhD thesis is directed by the concepts of social capital, intergroup contact, and civility. These concepts, when placed within the context of divided society, contribute to the thesis' guiding analytical framework, which offers thematic guideposts in areas of prejudice and anxiety, tolerance and trust, space and identity. Influenced by in-depth qualitative research that seeks to access local voices, this research takes the conceptual and analytical guidance into the stands of the SSE Arena. In this way, the unique 'side-by-side' methodology, which involved conducting interviews with the person in the seat to my left or right at Belfast Giants ice hockey games while immersing myself in the supporter community, emerged as not only a contribution to unearthing new voices in this oft-studied region, but also as an innovative contribution to qualitative methodological literatures. Beyond the methodological contribution, this thesis makes two further contributions to existing academic literatures on post-peace agreement relationships. The first of these is through the clear relationship between identity and space that are evident in its findings. Between the poles of conflict and reconciliation are the complex and simple interactions, which when placed in the SSE Arena at a Belfast Giants game illustrate the multi-layered and fluid nature of identity. The thesis finds the hockey arena is a space where a shared identity, 'the hockey family', materialises and includes nationalist and unionist populations. This shared identity is deeply connected to a physical place and activity that are situated outside the all-encompassing nature of division in present-day Belfast. However, within the unusual setting of an ice hockey arena in Northern Ireland there emerges ordinariness in encounter across historical cleavage, and from these mundane interactions comes the final contribution 'side-by-sidedness'. Influenced by supporters' willingness to sit side-by-side those on the opposite side of a historical division who they may not be willing to live beside, this theme is framed as a lightened encounter that challenges assumptions inherent in post-peace agreement settings. The research findings frame the SSE Arena as a site of sanctuary from polarised sectarian identities and activities, as well as a site of resistance from overarching peace agendas that push shared space and seek reconciliation. Side-by-sidedness exists in the everyday between these two poles. In highlighting this space between, this theme challenges the assumptions of 'face-to-faceness' that are inherent across the three concepts informing this thesis and through utilising notions of everyday peace and everyday division to include the relational, the spatial and the metaphorical, this thesis' meta-theme frames a new way of 'getting on with it' in the shadows of conflict.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:15:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunoLM_DISSERT.pdf: 7166646 bytes, checksum: f3020f244ae15650c85072127bcd05e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-24 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Lithium (Li) is a chemical element with atomic number 3 and it is among the lightest known elements in the universe. In general, the Lithium is found in the nature under the form of two stable isotopes, the 6Li and 7Li. This last one is the most dominant and responds for about 93% of the Li found in the Universe. Due to its fragileness this element is largely used in the astrophysics, especially in what refers to the understanding of the physical process that has occurred since the Big Bang going through the evolution of the galaxies and stars. In the primordial nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang moment (BBN), the theoretical calculation forecasts a Li production along with all the light elements such as Deuterium and Beryllium. To the Li the BNB theory reviews a primordial abundance of Log log ǫ(Li) =2.72 dex in a logarithmic scale related to the H. The abundance of Li found on the poor metal stars, or pop II stars type, is called as being the abundance of Li primordial and is the measure as being log ǫ(Li) =2.27 dex. In the ISM (Interstellar medium), that reflects the current value, the abundance of Lithium is log ǫ(Li) = 3.2 dex. This value has great importance for our comprehension on the chemical evolution of the galaxy. The process responsible for the increasing of the primordial value present in the Li is not clearly understood until nowadays. In fact there is a real contribution of Li from the giant stars of little mass and this contribution needs to be well streamed if we want to understand our galaxy. The main objection in this logical sequence is the appearing of some giant stars with little mass of G and K spectral types which atmosphere is highly enriched with Li. Such elevated values are exactly the opposite of what could happen with the typical abundance of giant low mass stars, where convective envelops pass through a mass deepening in which all the Li should be diluted and present abundances around log ǫ(Li) ∼1.4 dex following the model of stellar evolution. In the Literature three suggestions are found that try to reconcile the values of the abundance of Li theoretical and observed in these rich in Li giants, but any of them bring conclusive answers. In the present work, we propose a qualitative study of the evolutionary state of the rich in Li stars in the literature along with the recent discovery of the first star rich in Li observed by the Kepler Satellite. The main objective of this work is to promote a solid discussion about the evolutionary state based on the characteristic obtained from the seismic analysis of the object observed by Kepler. We used evolutionary traces and simulation done with the population synthesis code TRILEGAL intending to evaluate as precisely as possible the evolutionary state of the internal structure of these groups of stars. The results indicate a very short characteristic time when compared to the evolutionary scale related to the enrichment of these stars / O L?tio (Li) ? um elemento qu?mico com n??mero at?mico 3 e est? entre os elementos mais leves conhecidos no Universo. De forma geral, o L?tio ? encontrado na natureza sob a forma de dois is?topos est?veis, o 6Li e o 7Li. Este ?ltimo ? o mais dominante e responde por cerca de 93% do Li encontrado no Universo. Devido a sua caracter?stica de fragilidade, esse elemento ? largamente utilizado na astrof?sica, sobretudo no que diz respeito ao entendimento dos processos f?sicos que ocorrem desde o Big Bang, passando pela evolu??o de gal?xias e estrelas. Na nucleoss?ntese primordial no momento do Big Bang (BBN), os c?lculos te?ricos preveem uma produ??o de Li juntamente com outros elementos leves tais como o Deut?rio e o Ber?lio. Para o Li, a teoria do BBN rev? uma abund?ncia primordial de log ǫ(Li) = 2.72 dex, numa escala logar?tmica relativa ao H. A abund?ncia de Li encontrada nas estrelas pobres em metal ou estrelas de Popula??o II, ? assim clamado como sendo a abund?ncia de Li primordial e ? medida como sendo log ǫ(Li) = 2.27 dex. J? no ISM (interestellar medium), que reflete o valor atual, a abund?ncia de L?tio ? de log ǫ(Li) = 3.2 dex. Este valor ? de grande import?ncia para a nossa compreens?o da evolu??o qu?mica da Gal?xia. Os processos respons?veis pelo aumento do valor primordial para o valor presente do Li n?o s?o claramente compreendidos nos dias de hoje. O fato ? que existe uma contribui??o real de Li provenientes das estrelas gigantes de pouca massa, e esta contribui??o precisa ser bem estimada se quisermos entender a evolu??o qu?mica da nossa Gal?xia. O principal entrave desta sequ?ncia l?gica, ? o aparecimento de algumas estrelas gigantes de baixa massa, de tipos espectrais G e K, cuja atmosfera ? altamente enriquecida com Li. Tais valores elevados s?o exatamente ao contr?rio do que se poderia esperar como abund?ncia t?pica para as estrelas gigantes de baixa massa, onde envelopes convectivos passam por um aprofundamento em massa (dredge-up) nos quais todo o Li deveria ser dilu?do e apresentar abund?ncias em torno de log ǫ(Li) ∼ 1.4 dex, seguindo o modelo padr?o de evolu??o estelar. Na literatura, encontram-se tr?s sugest?es que tentam reconciliar os valores da abund?ncia de Li de forma te?rica e observada nessas gigantes ricas em Li; no entanto, nenhuma dessas traz respostas conclusivas. No presente trabalho, propomos um estudo qualitativo do estado evolutivo das estrelas ricas em Li presentes na literatura. Neste sentido, foi coletado uma amostra de estrelas ricas em Li juntamente com a recente descoberta da primeira estrela rica em Li observada pelo sat?lite Kepler. O objetivo principal deste trabalho ? de promover uma s?lida discuss?o sobre o estado evolutivo baseado nas caracter?sticas obtidas a partir da an?lise s?smica do objeto observado pelo sat?lite Kepler. Utilizamos tra?ados evolutivos e simula??es feitas com o c?digo de s?ntese de popula??o TRILEGAL com o intuito de avaliar t?o preciso quanto poss?vel o estado evolutivo e a estrutura interna deste grupo de estrelas. Os resultados apontam para um tempo caracter?stico muito curto, quando comparado com a escala evolutiva, referente ao enriquecimento destas estrelas

No description available.

Context. Theoretical studies predict that the length scale of convection in stellar atmospheres isproportional to the pressure scale height, which implies that giant and supergiant stars should have convection granules of sizes comparable to their radii. Numerical simulations and the observation of anisotropies on stellar discs agree well with this prediction. Aims. To measure the characteristic sizes of convection structures of models simulated with the CO5BOLD code, to look at how they vary between models and to study their limitations due to numerical resolution. Methods. Fourier analyses are performed to frames from the models to achieve spatial spectral power distributions which are averaged over time. The position of the main peak and the averagevalue of the wavevector are taken as indicators of these sizes. The general shape of the intensity map of the disc in the frame is fitted and subtracted so that it does not contaminate the Fourier analysis. Results. A general relationship of the convection granule size being more or less ten times larger than the pressure length scale is found. The expected wavevector value of the time-averaged spectral power distributions is higher than the position of the main peak. Loose increasing trends with the characteristic sizes by the pressure scale height increasing against stellar mass, radius, luminosity,temperature and gravity are found, while a decreasing trends are found with the radius and modelresolution. Bad resolution subtracts signals on the slope at the side of the main peak towards larger wavevector values and in extreme cases it creates spurious signal towards the end of the spectrum due to artifacts appearing on the frames. Conclusions. The wavevector position of the absolute maximum in the time-averaged spectral power distribution is the best measure of the most prominent sizes in the stellar surfaces. The proportionality constant between granule size and pressure length scale is of the same order ofmagnitude as the one in the literature, however, models present sizes larger than the ones expected, likely because the of prominent features do not correspond to convection granules but to larger features hovering above them. Further studies on models with higher resolution will help in drawing more conclusive results. Appendix. The SIA pipeline takes a set of time-dependent pictures of stellar disks and uses a Fourier Analysis to measure the characteristic sizes of their features and other useful quantities, such as standard deviations or the spatial power distributions of features. The main core of the pipeline consists in identifying the stellar disc in the frames and subtracting their signal from the spatial power distributions through a general fit of the disc intensity. To analyze a time sequence, the SIA pipeline requires at least two commands from the user. The first commandorders the SIA pipeline to read the .sav IDL data structure file where the frame sequence is stored and to produce another .sav file with information on the spectral power distributions, the second command orders the reading of such file to produce two more .sav files, one containing time-averaged size measurements and their deviations while the other breaking down time-dependant information and other arrays used for the calculations. The SIA pipeline has been entirely written in Interactive Data Language (IDL). Most of the procedures used here are original from the SIA pipeline, but a small handfull like ima3_distancetransform.pro, power2d1d.pro, extremum.pro and smooth2d.pro from Bernd Freytag and peaks.pro and compile opt.pro amongst others are actually external. / <p>The report consists in two parts:</p><p>1.- The main project, where we apply our pipeline and get scientific results.</p><p>2.- The appendix, where a technical description of the pipeline is given.</p>

L'obésité est une maladie définie par une accumulation de masse grasse dans le tissu adipeux ayant des conséquences néfastes pour la santé. Les causes de l’obésité sont multiples. Dans un travail récent, il y a été démontré le rôle de la pollution environnementale dans la prise de poids. Dans ce travail, les hypothèses selon lesquelles les récepteurs adrénergiques situés à la surface des cellules adipeuses seraient le siège de l’action des polluants aromatiques polycycliques ont été vérifiées par le dosage de plusieurs agonistes et antagonistes spécifiques et non spécifiques en présence ou non du benzo[a]pyrène sur des récepteurs humains et de cellules d’hamster chinois (CHO). Les quantités d’AMPc obtenues montrent que les HAP ne se déposent pas sur les récepteurs β1, β2, β3 adrénergiques.Cette accumulation se fait au niveau des phospholipides de la membrane cytoplasmique des cellules. Ce qui cause une rigidité des membranes.Cette observation tend à renforcer l'hypothèse selon laquelle le benzo[a]pyrène induirait une inhibition de la lipolyse par l'accumulation au niveau de la bicouche de phospholipides et des changements de conformation de la bicouche de phospholipides dans les environs des récepteurs à sept domaines transmembranaires qui sont β-adrénergiques.La liaison de la bicouche phospholipidique avec les HAP utilisés est une réaction exothermi-que avec un faible dégagement de chaleur / Obesity is a disease defined by an accumulation of fat in adipose tissue with adverse consequences for health. The causes of obesity are many.In recent work, there was demonstrated the role of environmental pollution in weight gain.In this work, the assumptions that the adrenergic receptors on the surface of fat cells would home to the accumulation of polycyclic aromatic pollutants have been verified by measurement of several agonists and antagonists specific and non-specific in the presence or absence of benzo[a]pyrene receptors on human cells and Chinese hamster (CHO). The amounts of cAMP obtained showed that PAHs are not deposited on β-receptors, β1, β2, β3 adrenergic receptors.This accumulation occurs at the cytoplasmic membrane phospholipids of the cells. What cau-ses stiffness of the membranes. This observation tends to reinforce the hypothesis that benzo [a]pyrene induce an inhibition of lipolysis by the accumulation in the phospholipid bilayer and conformational changes of the bilayer phospholipids in the vicinity of receptors seven transmembrane domains which are β-adrenergic receptors

Bodies, Saracen Giants, and the Medieval Romance: Transgression, Difference, and Assimilation explore le traitement des corps de trois géants Sarasins dans les romances de Roland and Vernagu (c. 1330), Sir Beues of Hamtoun (c. 1330), et The Taill of Rauf Coilyear (c. 1513-42).Grâce à une étude de la représentation de ces trois géants Sarasin, la signification du corps humain au Moyen Age, et des pratiques de la Chrétienté an accord avec les discours et idéologies envers le Proche-Orient qui existaient dans l’Occident médiéval, ce mémoire de maîtrise juxtapose le géant Sarasin et le héros de la romance pour indiquer une similarité apparente entre leur deux corps et leur religion respective. La romance démontre avec hésitation un désir d’assimiler le géants Sarasin dans le code héroïque ainsi que dans la religion chrétienne, mais souvent rejette avec suspicion le corps du géant par sa mort sur le champ de bataille. Malgré sa mort ou son assimilation dans le code héroïque et la Chrétienté, le corps du géant Sarasin demeure toujours important dans le contexte de la Romance, puisqu’il contribue à la construction de l’identité du héros, de sa foi, et de sa société. / Bodies, Saracen Giants, and the Medieval Romance: Transgression, Difference, and Assimilation explores the treatment of the bodies of three Saracen giants in the romances of Roland and Vernagu (c. 1330), Sir Beues of Hamtoun (c. 1330), and The Taill of Rauf Coilyear (c. 1513-42). Through a study of the characterization of the three Saracen giants, the significance of the human body in the Middle Ages, and the practices of Christianity in accordance with the discourses and ideologies regarding the near East that existed in the medieval West, this thesis addresses how and why the romance constructs the giant as a physical marker of excess, deviance and evil. Using theories and criticisms of subjectivity and embodiment, this thesis juxtaposes the Saracen giant with the romance hero to underline an obvious similarity between the two bodies and their respective religions. The romance hesitantly demonstrates a desire to assimilate Saracen giants into the heroic code as well as the Christian religion, but it often distrustfully chooses to remove the giant body through its death in battle. Regardless of its death or assimilation into the heroic code and Christianity, the Saracen giant's body forever remains meaningful for the romance, as it always contributes to the construction of the romance hero's identity, faith and society.

L’astérosismologie consiste à sonder les intérieurs stellaires en détectant les ondes sismiques qui s’y propagent. Les géantes rouges, des étoiles évoluées peu massives dont l’hydrogène du cœur est épuisé, sont des pulsateurs de type solaire présentant des modes mixtes qui nous permettent d’accéder directement aux propriétés physiques de leur cœur. Les mesures sismiques disponibles indiquent qu’un ou plusieurs mécanismes physiques encore mal compris contrebalancent l’accélération de la rotation du cœur sous l’effet de sa contraction, en transportant du moment cinétique. La majeure partie de cette thèse a été consacrée au développement d’une méthode permettant une mesure aussi automatisée que possible de la rotation moyenne du cœur des étoiles de la branche des géantes rouges observées par le satellite Kepler (NASA). Les mesures obtenues pour environ 900 étoiles mettent en évidence que la rotation du cœur est à peu près constante le long de la branche des géantes rouges,avec des valeurs indépendantes de la masse des étoiles. Le deuxième volet de cette thèse est consacré à l’interprétation de ces résultats basée sur la modélisation stellaire. L’enjeu consiste à utiliser les mesures à grande échelle obtenues durant la première partie pour caractériser la quantité de moment cinétique qui doit être extraite localement de chaque région du cœur, à différents instants sur la branche des géantes rouges, pour différentes masses stellaires. / Asteroseismology consists in probing stellar interiors through the detection of seismic waves. Red giants are evolved low-mass stars that have exhausted hydrogen in their core. These stars are solar-type pulsators presenting mixed modes that allow us to have a direct access to the physical properties of their core. The available seismic measurements indicate that one or several mechanisms that remain poorly understood counterbalance the acceleration ofthe core rotation, resulting from its contraction, by transporting angularmomentum. The greatest part of this PhD thesis was devoted to the development of a method allowing a measurement as automated as possible of the mean core rotation of stars on the red giant branch that were observed by the Kepler satellite (NASA). The measurements that were derived for almost 900 stars highlight that the core rotation is almost constant along the red giant branch, with values largely independent of the stellar mass. The second part of this PhD thesis is devoted to the interpretation of these results based on stellar modelling. The challenge consists in using the large-scale measurements obtainedin the first part to characterise the quantity of angular momentum that has to be extracted from each layer of the core, at different timesteps on the red giant branch, for different stellar masses.

Bodies, Saracen Giants, and the Medieval Romance: Transgression, Difference, and Assimilation explore le traitement des corps de trois géants Sarasins dans les romances de Roland and Vernagu (c. 1330), Sir Beues of Hamtoun (c. 1330), et The Taill of Rauf Coilyear (c. 1513-42).Grâce à une étude de la représentation de ces trois géants Sarasin, la signification du corps humain au Moyen Age, et des pratiques de la Chrétienté an accord avec les discours et idéologies envers le Proche-Orient qui existaient dans l’Occident médiéval, ce mémoire de maîtrise juxtapose le géant Sarasin et le héros de la romance pour indiquer une similarité apparente entre leur deux corps et leur religion respective. La romance démontre avec hésitation un désir d’assimiler le géants Sarasin dans le code héroïque ainsi que dans la religion chrétienne, mais souvent rejette avec suspicion le corps du géant par sa mort sur le champ de bataille. Malgré sa mort ou son assimilation dans le code héroïque et la Chrétienté, le corps du géant Sarasin demeure toujours important dans le contexte de la Romance, puisqu’il contribue à la construction de l’identité du héros, de sa foi, et de sa société. / Bodies, Saracen Giants, and the Medieval Romance: Transgression, Difference, and Assimilation explores the treatment of the bodies of three Saracen giants in the romances of Roland and Vernagu (c. 1330), Sir Beues of Hamtoun (c. 1330), and The Taill of Rauf Coilyear (c. 1513-42). Through a study of the characterization of the three Saracen giants, the significance of the human body in the Middle Ages, and the practices of Christianity in accordance with the discourses and ideologies regarding the near East that existed in the medieval West, this thesis addresses how and why the romance constructs the giant as a physical marker of excess, deviance and evil. Using theories and criticisms of subjectivity and embodiment, this thesis juxtaposes the Saracen giant with the romance hero to underline an obvious similarity between the two bodies and their respective religions. The romance hesitantly demonstrates a desire to assimilate Saracen giants into the heroic code as well as the Christian religion, but it often distrustfully chooses to remove the giant body through its death in battle. Regardless of its death or assimilation into the heroic code and Christianity, the Saracen giant's body forever remains meaningful for the romance, as it always contributes to the construction of the romance hero's identity, faith and society.