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Cerne Abbas Giant
While at Milton Abbas yesterday, I bought a small booklet on the Chalk Figures of Wessex. I must admit that I was seduced into buying it by the writer having the same theory as myself, namely that the 'Frying pan' (a roughly rectangular earthwork encloure) just above the giant is named for Bealzebub's frying pan in mumming plays.
You can see the Trendle aka the Frying Pan clearly in this photo. (Trendle is an old word that means 'ring') and the hill is called Trendle Hill.
However, the writer also mentioned something else about the giant that I hadn't previously come across. Namely that he might have been carved by the Dorset Clubmen. Who?, I hear you ask.
They were a third force in the English Civil War, almost totally forgotten now. They were bands of farmers who came together to try and stop both Royalist and Parliamentarian forces looting their way through the county. There were a couple of thousand of them, mostly armed with clubs and pitchforks, and they were known to have mustered at Badbury Rings (a very impressive Dorset hill fort) before the battle of Hambledon Hill, but they left very little historical record.
The Trendle is not an impressive hill fort. It was probably an old village enclosure or army encampment - I can't find enough information to gain a good idea. Can't even tell how high the earthworks are. However, it does seem at least possible that the Clubmen might have gathered at the Trendle on some occasion.
I can just imagine a group of Clubmen waiting to be called to a fight (this is how the Fovant badges that I mentioned recently came to be carved) and also wanting to make a clear statement that they were willing to defend their land against all comers. What better symbol for them to carve into the chalk than the god Hercules with his club? What better way to say "Fuck, Cromwell and the King" than to carve that giant erect phallus?
It also helps explain why no one remembers who carved the giant (in spite of him being carefully maintained...). The Clubmen were defeated by Cromwell. I can just imagine villagers saying to the writer of the 1751 guide: "Who carved it? No idea. Been here hundreds of years. Why, they do say it be a image of the old abbot of the monastery who annoyed the villagers. Then again, stories do tell of a giant who fell asleep and was killed by villagers on that very spot. Or it might be the old god Helis (note similarity of name to Hercules - try saying 'Hercules' with a Dorset accent and you're not far off...), but definitely nothing to do with my great grandfather back in 1644."
In fact, it was probably 'forgotten' almost as soon as it was made (probably a very bad idea to be remembered as having fought against both sides in the Civil War) - except by those who cleaned it regularly. If a chalk carving isn't scoured at least every 7 years, it will vanish totally. Many chalk carvings have vanished because they weren't maintained. There were clearly people who wanted that giant to remain - it meant something to them.
You can see the Trendle aka the Frying Pan clearly in this photo. (Trendle is an old word that means 'ring') and the hill is called Trendle Hill.
However, the writer also mentioned something else about the giant that I hadn't previously come across. Namely that he might have been carved by the Dorset Clubmen. Who?, I hear you ask.
They were a third force in the English Civil War, almost totally forgotten now. They were bands of farmers who came together to try and stop both Royalist and Parliamentarian forces looting their way through the county. There were a couple of thousand of them, mostly armed with clubs and pitchforks, and they were known to have mustered at Badbury Rings (a very impressive Dorset hill fort) before the battle of Hambledon Hill, but they left very little historical record.
The Trendle is not an impressive hill fort. It was probably an old village enclosure or army encampment - I can't find enough information to gain a good idea. Can't even tell how high the earthworks are. However, it does seem at least possible that the Clubmen might have gathered at the Trendle on some occasion.
I can just imagine a group of Clubmen waiting to be called to a fight (this is how the Fovant badges that I mentioned recently came to be carved) and also wanting to make a clear statement that they were willing to defend their land against all comers. What better symbol for them to carve into the chalk than the god Hercules with his club? What better way to say "Fuck, Cromwell and the King" than to carve that giant erect phallus?
It also helps explain why no one remembers who carved the giant (in spite of him being carefully maintained...). The Clubmen were defeated by Cromwell. I can just imagine villagers saying to the writer of the 1751 guide: "Who carved it? No idea. Been here hundreds of years. Why, they do say it be a image of the old abbot of the monastery who annoyed the villagers. Then again, stories do tell of a giant who fell asleep and was killed by villagers on that very spot. Or it might be the old god Helis (note similarity of name to Hercules - try saying 'Hercules' with a Dorset accent and you're not far off...), but definitely nothing to do with my great grandfather back in 1644."
In fact, it was probably 'forgotten' almost as soon as it was made (probably a very bad idea to be remembered as having fought against both sides in the Civil War) - except by those who cleaned it regularly. If a chalk carving isn't scoured at least every 7 years, it will vanish totally. Many chalk carvings have vanished because they weren't maintained. There were clearly people who wanted that giant to remain - it meant something to them.
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Back in the 1980s there was a TV series called Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World and it featured a scientist who had done a geophysics survey of the Giant and found that there was a missing part underneath its left arm which made it look identical to a statuette of Hercules.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l7mL--5iQk
It also has a bit about the Uffington White Horse and shows how the image of a horse on coins had become debased over time as the coins were presumably copied over time in a sort of "Chinese Whispers" distortion.
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If it was seen as proclaiming local independence/strength, then it makes a lot more sense to maintain it as a matter of local pride.
Thanks for the You Tube link. that was interesting to see the resistivity survey plot.
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I believe the Hussite Movement in 15th century and then the Re-Catholicism (?) and strong nationläl oppression after 1648 might have influence our different way too...
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Some of the oldest chalk figures are horses - they may (though I don't know if we can say for certain) have links to old religions which might well have been in Europe as well.
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I'm really going to miss our landscape when we emigrate. I know NZ has history too, but it's just not as old.. and taking it from the other end I got some irritated murmurs when commenting that a pa looks much like our Iron Age hillforts like Badbury Rings. I honestly didn't mean anything like "hey, we build everything first!" - it's a practical design, for starters - but some took offence. Yay, colonial past.
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Embarrassed silence from mater, and connections firing in 12 year old brain involving picture on screen, father having once done the 100 meter non nonchalant dash across the landing having forgotten to take pyjamas to bathroom - and a magazine that was passed round on a school trip by the older kids- and quickly confiscated. *Loud* sound of penny dropping.
LOL. Before anyone blames the telly for underage pregnancy I would like to point out I was well over 18 before I put any of this knowledge to actual practical use. I still like the Giant though and would very much like to visit him.
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And I get to use my roundheads icon twice in one day--a new record! :-)
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