Page 37 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Febrary/March 2020 Edition

The Chalk Giants of Cerne Abbas 37

The Chalk Giants of

Cerne Abbas

The gigantic figure of a man has
been cut into the surface of a chalk

down in Dorset in southern
England. Who is the giant and what
does he represent? Who carved the
figure, when and why?

The largest and best preserved of England’s
hillside figures is carved into the green turf near
the village of Cerne Abbas in the county of
Dorset. He is uncompromisingly pagan: 55m
(180ft) tall, brazenly naked with an erect
phallus, his ribs and nipples delineated. In his
raised right hand he wields a knobbed club 37m
(121ft) long: his arm is outstretched and he may
once have held an object in his left hand.
Letters and numbers may have been
inscribed between the feet of the giant but none
have survived, and considerable argument have
arisen over their message. The letters may have a corruption of Hercules. personal contributions to the fertility rites. The
been the giant’s name; or they may have been Similarities between the Cerne Abbas maypole itself was a blatant phallic symbol
ANO, standing for annno, ‘in the year of’, the Giant and ancient gods suggest a much older around which the people would dance.
numbers being the date 1748 when the figure origin than the 17th century. Some English hill Significantly, The Trendle earthwork at Cerne
was recut. Alternatively, they may have been figures are very old indeed. The Uffington Abbas was, until quite recently, the location for
HIS which represented Jesus, or IAO which White Horse in Oxfordshire, for example, may such May Day festivities. A fir tree was taken up
referred to Jehovah, or JHD, Jehovah/Jesus hoc date back to the Iron Age, while the Long Mari the hill and erected during the night inside the
destruxit, meaning ‘God has overthrown this’. of Wilmington in Sussex could be Neolithic. earthwork, and the villagers would dance around
Over the centuries, may legends have These ages are uncertain for there is no sure it on May Day.
grown up around the figure.. He was said to way of dating such figures. They were The Cerne Abbas Giant himself was
represent a real giant who created havoc in the originally outlined by cutting away the turn and believed to have the power of fertility for
area by eating sheep and causing other leaving the white chalk exposed. A number f hill obvious reasons. Barren women would sit on the
destruction. One day he lay down on the hillside figures have become overgrown and lost. giant, presumably on his 9m (30ft) phallus, in
to digest his latest meal and fell asleep. The Others thought to date from the 18th and 19th the hope of becoming pregnant. Some even
local people took the opportunity to kill him and centuries may be recuttings of older figures and believed it was necessary for sexual intercourse
then carve his outline in chalk. may even be inaccurate, such as the Westbury to take place there before conception could
White Horse in Wiltshire. occur. Unmarried girls, hoping for a wedding
ANCIENT GOD OR RECENT The close proximity of several surviving and many children would sleep the night on the
FOLLY? hill figures to a prehistoric site also suggests an giant’s white outline.
ancient origin. The Uffington White Horse lies One further mystery is how the giant has
just below the Iron Age hillfort of Bratton survived for so long, especially since a religious
The first clear written reference to the Cerne
Castle; the Long Man of Wilmington is close to house was founded in the village in the 6th
Abbas Giant dates only from 1751 in a letter
a Neolithic long barrow and other burial century. Is it even possible that the monks
written by the Dorset historian John Hutchins
mounds. Above the head of the Cerne Abbas themselves were responsible for cutting the
whose History of Dorset was published in 1774.
Giant, with his club pointing directly at it, is, figure? While it sounds unlikely, it has been
Of the giant he said: ‘I have heard from the
The Trendle, a small rectangular Iron Age suggested that in the days when Christian and
steward of a manor it is a modern thing, cut out
enclosure outlined by banks and ditches pagan rituals were performed side by side, the
in Lord Holle’s time’, in other words between
figure could have been cut by the monks to
1641 and 1666. However, Holles may only have
WAS THE GIANT A FERTILITY represent the pagan god of fertility. Moreover, in
recut the figure and the absence of any earlier earlier centuries, a naked figure like the giant
reference does not prove the giant was first SYMBOL?
would not have been considered as obscene.
carved in the mid-17th century. Another suggestion is that it was cut at the time
The Cerne Abbas figure closely British folklore is full of memories of fertility of dissolution of the monasteries during Henry
resembles a depiction of Hercules, also naked rituals. Childless women would visit certain old VIII’s reign in the 16th century, as a comment on
and wielding a club, on a fragment of Romano- stones in search of fecundity, and there practise the personal habits of the monks and the abbot.
British ware found in Norfolk. The giant is also the age-old rituals, such as rubbing against the The missing letter between the giant’s
similar to a Bronze Age carving from Bohuslan stone or sitting on it. Some holy wells have the feet have been seen as an attempt by the monks
in Sweden of a naked man with erect phallus, reputations of curing barrenness. Sexual to counteract the strong influence of the giant’s
holding a spear in his right hand. Whereas the carvings of men and women displaying their pagan and virile attributes. Not having the
Swedish carving may represent Tiwaz, a genitals can be found on some Christian authority to actually destroy the figure, they
northern sky-god, war-god and fertility figure, churches, though no one knows for certain why added the letters JHD, ‘God has overthrown
Hercules was an athletic-hero from Greek they were fashioned. this’, to try to cancel its power. While the true
mythology. And there was a Hercules cult in the The agricultural cycle has always history of the giant, his ancestry and identity,
Roman Empire under Emperor Commodus, incorporated may fertility customs. A most will probably remain unknown, it is sufficient
who ruled from AD 180 to 193, which probably popular custom still practiced today, though that he has survived at all to provide and
had devotees in Britain. The giant may have lacking its original earthiness, is dancing around intriguing glimpse into the beliefs and customs
been their emblem, or the Celtic equivalent of the maypole. On the night before May Day, of ages past. []
Hercules. The name Helith, Helis or Hell was young people would go into the woods to fetch
traditionally used for the giant, and this could be the maypole tree and to make their own