It seems a proven thing that the various human species interacted. However, it is unlikely that any specific stories of encounters survived. Just a general memory of a time long ago when a short, stocky people who were like us but not quite the same lived in caves in the cold hills to the north, or people who were much smaller lived away to the south. It was only later that the names and the stories accreted around them. Long ago people and things are a boon to storytellers!