Long Man of Wilmington

[Europa]

The Long Man of Wilmington is located on the steep slopes of Windover Hill in Sussex ( 50°48′35″N, 0°11′18″E), six miles (9.6 km) northwest of Eastbourne and is one of the two human hill figures in England. The other human figure is the Cerne Abbas Giant in Cerne Abbas, north of Dorchester. The Long Man is 227 feet (69 metres) tall, designed to look proportional when viewed from below.



The Long Man of Wilmington.

[Europa]

Origins

The origin of the Long Man remains hazy. Originally, the earliest record of the carving was in a drawing done by William Burrell when he visited Wilmington Priory, nestling under Windover Hill. However, an earlier record was found made by the surveyor John Rowley in the year 1710. The 18th century drawing suggested that the original figure was a shadow or indentation in the grass with facial features, rather than just a solid outline of a human figure. The staffs were depicted as a rake and scythe, and the head a helmet shape.

Before 1874, the Long Man was only visible after a light fall of snow in certain light conditions. In that year it was marked out with yellow bricks, though it is claimed that the restoration process distorted the position of the feet, and removed the Long Man's genitalia (there is no historical or archaeological evidence which supports the latter claim).

Archaeological work done by University of Reading suggests that the figure dates from the sixteenth or seventeenth century AD.

[Europa]

20th and 21st centuries

In 1925, the site of the Long Man was given to the Sussex Archaeological Trust (now the Sussex Archaeological Society) by the Duke of Devonshire. During the Second World War it was painted green to avoid it being used as a landmark by German aircraft.


Modern users

The Long Man plays host to Druid rituals on the Sunday closest to the each of the Eight Sabbats through the year, the most noticeable of these being Beltaine (May Day) and Lughnasadh (Lammas) where many Pagans and non-pagans gather to give thanks to nature.

The Anderida Gorsedd, facilitated by Damh the Bard and Cerri Lee , are the current regulars at the Long Man and have been for many years. As many as 112 people have attended these rituals for the Wheel of the year and handfastings and the numbers grow regularly as time goes on. [1]

During the Beltaine time of year the Long Man Morris Men can be found dancing there.

[Europa]

Pop culture

The Long Man features in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book series in the episode titled "A Midsummer Night's Dream". In the comic, the Long Man is named Wendel and guards a gate between the real world and the world of Faerie.

There is also a reference to the Long Man in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies.

[rockessence]

Why anyone would call the two poles "a rake and a scythe" is beyond me...!   A scythe would have the same kind of graceful curves that the body itself has.  The pair of poles are the implements of a surveyor in ancient times, I think.

[unknown]

good observation, Rocki

Well they don't look like a rake and a scythe to me by any means...

[rockessence]

"A line drawn from the Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southern most point of Hatterill Hill, Oldcastle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill castles." The ancient surveyors who supposedly made the lines were given the name "dodmen."

The above is from Europa's thread on Ley Lines; A Definition, a post titled "Alfred Watkins and The Old Straight Track".

Perhaps the Wilmington Man is a "dodman"....?

I googled dodmen dodman:

discusses dodman and suggests it might be because snails have the two eyes on their heads on stalks or staves.

OK from Wiki:

A dodman (plural "dodmen") or a 'Hoddyman Dod' is a snail, particularly in the Norfolk dialect, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The 'inventor' of ley lines, Alfred Watkins, saw in this term and the builder's hod a survival of an ancient British term for a surveyor. He saw the snail's two horns as mirroring a surveyor's two surveying rods. He also supported this with an etymology from 'doddering ' along and 'dodge' (akin, in his mind, to the series of actions a surveyor would carry out in moving his rod back and forth until it accurately lined up with another one as a backsight or foresight) and the Welsh verb 'dodi' meaning to lay or place. He thus decided that The Long Man of Wilmington was an image of an ancient surveyor.[1]

So Alfred Watkins and I agree.....