The Cerne Abbas Giant, or Cerne Giant, is a hill figure near the village of Cerne Abbas, in Dorset, England. It is currently owned by the National Trust, and listed as a scheduled monument of England. Measuring in length, the hill figure depicts a bald, nude male with a prominent erection, holding his left hand out to the side and wielding a large club in his right hand. Like many other hill figures, the Cerne Giant is formed by shallow trenches cut into the turf and backfilled with chalk rubble.
The origin and age of the figure are unclear, and archaeological evidence suggests that parts of it have been lost, altered, or added, over time; the earliest written record dates to the late 17th century. Early antiquarians associated it, albeit on little evidence, with a Saxon deity, while other scholars sought to identify it with a Romano-British figure of Hercules (or some syncretisation of the two).Rodney Castleden, The Cerne Giant, Dorset Publishing Company, 1996, , pp. 32–33 The lack of earlier descriptions, along with information given to the 18th-century antiquarian John Hutchins, has led some scholars to conclude it dates from the 17th century. Conversely, recent optically stimulated luminescence testing has suggested an origin between the years and , possibly close to the 10th-century date of the founding of nearby Cerne Abbey.
Regardless of its age, the Cerne Giant has become an important part of local culture and folklore, which often associates it with fertility. It is one of England's best-known hill figures and is a visitor attraction in the region.
The Cerne Giant is one of two major extant human hill figures in England, the other being the Long Man of Wilmington, near Wilmington, East Sussex, which is also a scheduled monument.
Description
The giant is located just outside the small village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, about west of Bournemouth and north of Dorchester. The figure depicts a naked man and is of colossal dimensions, being about long and across. It is cut into the steep, west-facing side of a hill known as Giant Hill or Trendle Hill.Haughton, Brian, Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries, publisher ReadHowYouWant.com, 2009, , p. 258 William Holloway, "The Giant of Trendle Hill", The minor minstrel: or, Poetical pieces, chiefly familiar and descriptive, Printed for W. Suttaby, 1808, 182 pages, p. 140 Atop the hill is another landmark, the Iron Age earthwork known as the "Trendle" or "Frying Pan". The figure's outline is formed by trenches cut into the turf, about deep, and filled-in with crushed chalk. In his right hand, the giant holds a knotted club or baton-style weapon measuring in length,Hy. Colley March M.D. F.S.A., "The Giant and the Maypole of Cerne", Proceedings, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Vol. 22, 1901, p. 108 adding to the total length of the figure. A line across the waist has been suggested to represent a belt.Timothy Darvill, "Cerne Giant, Dorset, England ", in Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, publisher: Oxford University Press, 2009, , 544 pages. Writing in 1901 in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Henry Colley March noted that: "The Cerne Giant presents five characteristics: (1) It is petrographic... It is, therefore, a rock carving... (2) It is colossal... (3) It is nude.... (4) It is ithyphallic... (5) The Giant is clavigerous. It bears a weapon in its right hand."Hy. Colley March M.D. F.S.A., "The Giant and the Maypole of Cerne", Proceedings, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Vol. 22, 1901, pp. 107–08
A 1996 study found that some features have changed over time, concluding that the figure originally held a cloak over its extended left arm, and an object (possibly a severed head) beneath its left hand. The former presence of a cloak was corroborated in 2008, when a team of archaeologists (using special equipment) determined that part of the figure had been lost; the cloak might have been a depiction of an animal skin. In 1993 the National Trust gave the giant a "nose job" after years of erosion had worn it away.Chris Court, "Nose Job for Chalk Giant", Press Association, Sunday 11 April 1993, Home NewsRaphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, Publisher: Verso Books, 2012, , 508 pages, p. 172
The giant sports a notably vertical erection, some long (nearly the length of its head), along with testicles;Eugene Monick, Phallos: Sacred Image of the Masculine, Volume 27 of Studies in Jungian psychology, publisher Inner City Books, 1987, , 141 pages, p. 36 it has been called "Britain's most famous phallus". One commentator noted that postcards of the giant were the only indecent photographs "that could be sent through the English Post Office". However, this feature may also have been changed over time; based on a review of historical depictions, the giant's current large erection has been identified as the result of the merging of a circle (representing his navel) with a different, smaller penis during a 1908 re-cut, as the navel still appeared on a late-1890s picture postcard. Lidar scans, conducted as part of the 2020 survey programme, have concluded that the phallus was added much later than the bulk of the figure, which was (probably) originally clothed.
The hill figure is most commonly known as the "Cerne Abbas Giant"John Sydenham, Baal Durotrigensis. A dissertation on the antient colossal figure at Cerne, Dorsetshire, London, W. Pickering, 1842. "Section IV" (p. 43 )"Cerne Abbas Giant: Preserving an icon", BBC News Dorset, 17 March 2010, retrieved 5 October 2012"Pass notes no 2,820: The Cerne Abbas giant ", The Guardian, 27 July 2010, retrieved 5 October 2012"Visit the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset ", 6 July 2011, retrieved 5 October 2012 or the "Cerne Giant","Cerne Giant" at the National Trust, retrieved 5 October 2012 the latter being preferred by the National Trust; English Heritage and Dorset County Council call it simply "the Giant"."A background to Cerne Abbas ", Dorset County Council, retrieved 5 October 2012 It has also been referred to as the "Old Man","Notes of the Month", Antiquary, a magazine devoted to the study of the past (1905), Volume: 41, p. 365 and occasionally, in recent years, as the "Rude Man" of Cerne.Crispin Paine, Sacred Places, National Trust Books, 2006, , p. 112 Lionel Fanthorpe, Patricia Fanthorpe, The World's Most Mysterious Places, Dundurn, 1999, , p. 171
Although the best view of the giant is from the air, most tourist guides recommend a ground view from the "Giant's View" lay-by and car park off the A352.Patricia Beer, Fay Godwin, Wessex: a National Trust book, published H. Hamilton, 1985, , 224 pages, p. 132 "Giant's View Lay-By on the A532 in Cerne Abbas" on Google Maps, retrieved 1 November 2012 The surrounding area was developed in 1979 through a joint effort of the Dorset County Planning Department, the National Trust, the Nature Conservancy Council (now called Natural England), the Dorset Naturalists Trusts, the Department of the Environment, and local landowners. The information panel on-site was devised by the National Trust and Dorset County Council.Tony Haskell, Caring for our Built Heritage: Conservation in practice: a review of conservation schemes carried out by County Councils and National Park Authorities in England and Wales in association with District Councils and other agencies, Publisher Taylor & Francis, 1993, , 379 pages, pp. 20–21
History
Early accounts Like several other chalk figures carved into the English countryside, the Cerne Abbas Giant is often thought of as an ancient creation but its written history cannot be traced back further than the late 17th century. Medieval sources refer to the hill on which the giant is located as Trendle Hill, in reference to the nearby Iron Age earthwork known as the Trendle. J. H. Bettey of the University of Bristol noted that none of the earlier sources for the area, including a detailed 1540s survey of the Cerne Abbey lands and a 1617 land survey by John Norden, refer to the giant, despite noting the Trendle and other landmarks. In contrast, there are documentary references to the 3,000 year-old Uffington White Horse as far back as the late 11th century.Martin Symington, Sacred Britain: A Guide to Places that Stir the Soul, publisher: Bradt Travel Guides, 2012, , 240 pages, p. 53
The earliest known written reference is a 4November 1694 entry in the churchwarden's accounts from St Mary's Church in Cerne Abbas, which reads "for repairing ye Giant, three shillings".Katherine Barker, "Brief Encounter: The Cerne Abbas Giantess Project, Summer 1997", Proceedings – Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Volume 119, pp. 179–83, citing Vale 1992, op.. cit Vivian Vale, Patricia Vale, Book of Cerne Abbas: Abbey and After, Halsgrove Press, 2000, In 1734, the Bishop of Bristol noted and inquired about the giant during a Canonical visitation to Cerne Abbas, while in 1738 the antiquarian Francis Wise mentioned the giant in a letter.Francis Wise, A letter to Dr Mead concerning some antiquities in Berkshire, printed for Thomas Wood, 1738, p. 48 The bishop's account, as well as subsequent observations such as those of William Stukeley, were discussed at meetings of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1764.D. Morgan Evans, "Eighteenth-Century Descriptions of the Cerne Abbas Giant", The Antiquaries Journal, Volume 78, September 1998, p. 463 (−471).William Stukeley, Minute Book of the Society of Antiquaries, Vol. IX, p. 233. Thursday 15 March 1764. Reproduced in Hy. Colley March M.D. F.S.A., "The Giant and the Maypole of Cerne", Proceedings, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Vol.22, 1901', p. 116.
Beginning in 1763 descriptions of the giant also began to appear in contemporary magazines, following a general increase in interest in "antiquities". The earliest known survey was published in the Royal Magazine in September 1763. Derivative versions subsequently appeared in the October 1763 St James Chronicle, the July 1764 Gentleman's MagazineThe Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 34, July 1764, p. 336 and the 1764 edition of The Annual Register.The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 34 (August 1764). p. 335 Robert Dodsley, The Annual Register, 1764, p. 166 In the early 1770s the antiquarian John Hutchins reviewed various previous accounts in his book The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, published posthumously in 1774. Noting a local tradition that the giant had only been cut in the previous century, he described and drew it as then having three roughly-cut letters between its feet, and over them the apparent Arabic numerals "748", features since lost; Hutchins' account was copied by several early 19th-century guidebooks.
A map referred to as the "1768 Survey Map of Cerne Abbas by Benjamin Pryce" is held at the Dorset History Centre,"Maps & Survey ", Cerne Abbas Historical Society, retrieved 13 October 2012 (illustration ) though a record at the National Archives notes there is evidence the map may date to the 1790s."Pitt-Rivers Estate Archive, Cerne Abbas map D/PIT/P6?1768-1798 " at the National Archives, retrieved 13 October 2012 By the following century the phallus was invariably omitted from depictions, either in line with the prevailing views on modesty at the time or as it had become grassed over; the figure seems to have become increasingly neglected and overgrown during the 19th century until in 1868 its owner Lord Rivers arranged to have the giant restored "as near as possible to his original condition".Castleden (1996) p.25
Interpretation