In Frédéric Mistral's epic poem, Mirèio, is the following short passage (Canto VIII, "La Crau", stanzas 25-28, English translation by Harriet Waters Preston):
Then was revealed La Crau, the bare, the waste,
The rough with stones, the ancient, and the vast,
Whose proud old giants, if the tale be true,
Once dreamed, poor fools, the Almighty to subdue
With but a ladder and their shoulders brave;
But He them 'whelmed in a destroying wave.
Already had the rebels dispossest
The Mount of Victory of his tall crest,
Lifted with lever from its place; and sure
They would have helped it high upon Ventour,
As they had piled the rugged escarpment
They from the Alpine range had earlier rent.
But God his hand extended o'er the plain:
The north-west wind, thunder, and hurricane
He loosed; and these arose like eagles three
From mountain clefts and caverns and the sea,
Wrapped in thick fog, with fury terrible,
And on the marble pile together fell.
Then were the rude Colossi overthrown;
And a dense covering of pudding-stone
Spread o'er La Crau, the desolate, the vast,
The mute, the bare to every stormy blast;
Who wears the hideous garment to this day.
What "tale" and what giants is this referring to? Is it from myth, folklore, or some other author's work? I'm looking for the original source, as far as that's possible, or just more detail about its origin.
Mirèio was written in 1859. La Crau refers to an area in southern France, just east of the Rhône delta. Ventour (Ventor in the original Occitan of the poem) is Mont Ventoux, which is nearby. The Mount of Victory (Santa-Ventùria in the original) refers to Sainte-Victoire, another local mountain.
I can't find anything about giants or ladders related to any of these locations, aside from this poem. The story is obviously similar to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, and somewhat reminiscent of Jacob's Ladder, but those are the only references I can think of.
