Cerne Abbas Giant

It was firstly recorded in 1751 by Dorset historian, John Hutchins. Numerous theories exist to the origin of the giant. One of the more popular is that he is the Greek god Hercules, who is often represented with a club and an animal fur. The traditional name for the giant was Helith and recent excavations revealed that the figure used to hold an animal skin in its right hand.

According to local folklore a real giant once terrorized the area. After eating a large number of sheep, the giant fell asleep on the hillside.

The giant’s sexuality and virility was put to use in fertility folk magic. Local women who wanted to conceive would spend a night alone on the hillside and would sleep on the erect phallus, and young couples would make love on the giant's phallus to ensure conception.

Our greeting cards are 203mm x 152mm in size and printed on 380gsm matt card complete with 150gsm envelopes and wrapped in cellophane. The fine art prints are A3 297mm x 420mm and A4 210mm x 297mm in size and printed on 300gsm paper.

All printing is light fast to prevent fading. Our printers are members of the Woodland Carbon off setting CO2 emissions from production by planting native woodland, here in the UK, through the Woodland Trust and the Woodland Carbon scheme