The Cerne Abbas Giant: Drawing of a ‘Rude Man’ Erects Folktales of Fertility Enhancement

The Cerne Abbas Giant is a huge hill figure depicting a naked man wielding a club, its most prominent feature being its erect phallus, which has led to the speculation that the Cerne Abbas Giant functioned as some sort of ancient fertility god / symbol. But not everyone agrees on the story behind this enormous geoglyph.

The Cerne Giant, also known as the ‘Rude Man’, is one of the best-known hill figures in the UK. It is located close to the village of Cerne Abbas, in the Southwestern English county of Dorset, hence its name.

The Cerne Giant. (Dun.can/CC BY 2.0)

What Do We Know About the Cerne Abbas Giant?

Little can be said with certainty about the Cerne Abbas Giant. The information we do have about the hill figure includes its size and the technique used to make it. The Cerne Abbas Giant measures 55 meters (180 ft) long and 51 meters (167 ft) wide and was created by having shallow trenches cut in the turf, and then backfilling them with chalk rubble. This technique was also used to make other hill figures such as the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, and the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. Apart from this information, details such as the figure’s age, as well as its identity, have been, and still remain, a subject of debate.