We obtain the giant magnon of Hofman-Maldacena and its dyonic generalisation
on R x S^3 < AdS_5 x S^5 from the general elliptic finite-gap solution by
degenerating its elliptic spectral curve into a singular curve. This alternate
description of giant magnons as finite-gap solutions associated to singular
curves is related through a symplectic transformation to their already
established description in terms of condensate cuts developed in
hep-th/0606145.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, minor change in abstrac