Location: On a hill above Cerne Abbas, which is 51 miles north of Dorchester. (ST 666017)
Ati aerial vieu of the Cerne Ahhas Giant, also showing (above his head) the small earthwork known as The Trendle, where May festivities were held.
'I'he Cerne Giant is cut into the hillside above the village and is 180 feet tall and 44 feet wide at the shoulders. His outline is marked by a trench 2 feet wide and as deep. Brandishing his 120-foot-long club and with his prominently erect phallus he epitomises energy, vitality and fertility. When the figure was made and by whom are unknown. .At different times it has been suggested that it represents a Celtic god Belinus, I lercules, or a Sa. xon prince. It was also said to have been cut by the monks of a local monastery as a joke against their abbot, d'hough this last suggestion is unlikely to be the answer, the respect for the figure and its maintenance over the centuries by the local people were tolerated if not encouraged by the religious house, which suggests that thev had an understanding and sympathy for the figure’s essential meaning and significance, d'he veneration of the phallus as a symbol of fecundity is very ancient and wide-
Spread and even today there are examples of carved stone phalli to be found in and near churches throughout Europe. Above the giant on the hillside is the small earth-banked enclosure called The 'I'rendle wherein the maypole was erected for the May Day festivities, which were again dedicated to the continuance of fertility.
World History
