Have you ever had an random encounter around a farmer and a painted cow? The one where he says he's going to give the cow to giants as a peace offering so they won't go after his live stock. Well it just so happens that this happened to me and i was VERY close to a giant camp, so i decided to follow him and see what would unfoud.

[img]http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4269/tesv2012031116120016.jpg[/img]

When he got close, the giant went territorial as usual... but when he got to close he started chasing after the farmer, and the farmer immediatly ran away. and judging from the path he was taking before trying to run away, he was actually going to go PAST the giant camp. You can imagine how that went afterwards.

[img]http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/60/tesv2012031116132326.jpg[/img]
(Yes TWO giants beat the poor farmer up)

I killed the two giants out of anger for what happened afterwards, but the cow stayed near the fire.

[img]http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7949/tesv2012031116231690.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1596/tesv2012031116233208.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/4383/tesv2012031116233770.jpg[/img]

I find it funny how he stated "I belive that keeps the giants away from my live stock, i've yet to have a giant kill one of my cows" Yeah, so remenber kids, peace offering with a giant will keep your live stock from harm, but it will end up with you dead.

Why did you kill the giants; the guy was trespassing!? He was doomed from the beginning. And yes, I meet him/them every now and then.

He was peace offering the cow (surely bethesda didn't really care about programing the giants to realise that), and yet they killed him, so i felt it was only right for me to take their lives after he simply tried to give then an offering.

I see what you mean but, frankly, do you think that the giants understand the concept of "peace offering"? I don't think so. They are like animals: you trespass on their territory, they kill you. Full stop.

No, but I did come across a giant with a painted cow in tow.

Everytime I encounter a farmer that was doing something like that I end up killing the farmer and setting the cow free.

I've run into the farmer leading his cow to the "sacrifice", but I didn't actually see him interact with any giants.
I also (much later, not sure if it was anywhere near the above encounter) found a giant camp with a painted cow laying on top of a pyre, presumably for cooking. No idea whether the farmer got away or not.
I somehow recall I also saw a painted cow carcass in a dragon lair once.

I've followed a farmer twice now, both times he gets whooped. Every time I see a farmer walking along with a painted cow, I just smile and think, "Idiot...".

I run across giants with painted cows every so often. No farmers.... just the cows. And no mammoths either.

I once saw a giant who had a goat and it wasn't near Rorikstead. I'd swear that I noticed a gleam of tenderness in the giant's eyes when he watched the goat...

There is a Giant who is clearly depressed by the death of a mammoth, because he stands there forever, staring down on it with sad eyes. I'll get a screenshot if I can't find it again.

Here

http://zassyen.net/images/ScreenShot49.png
http://zassyen.net/images/ScreenShot50.png

In the end,http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh159/esrafael/ScreenShot49.jpg... by the giant.

I did run across a farmer who had his cow killed by a sabercat:
"My wife's going to kill me when I tell her we need another cow."

LOL! Well the giant is going to try and kill him anyway, so the wife wont have to

In my game the farmer never went to the giant camp, he just stood in the place I first met him. I waited and waited, even left and then came back, but he was still standing there... Oh well, at least he didn't get killed, so that's a plus.

it was a while ago but I'm sure the farmer just walked away after leaving the cow for the giants when i followed him

but I was watching him from quite a distance.

I ran across the giant and his drowned mammoth the other day. I thought it was pretty sad....