The Anglo Saxon God Helith
As I am from Dorset I recently wrote a lengthy post about The Pagan Silver Well near the village of Cerne in Dorset. I mentioned that I wanted to hold Blot there and at the Cerne Giant. Several people cited various reports that the Cerne Giant was a recent creation (maybe 16th century) and thus wasn’t connected to pagan times. I had read a lot about the Cerne Giant over the years but wanted to collect my thoughts.
I would like to say a few words about a very early Anglo Saxon God Called Helith. This God was worshipped in what is now called the Dorset, Devon and Wiltshire areas in the Southwest of England. I nearly didn’t post this, as it has proven very difficult to get hold of copies of some of the paperwork. I’m glad we live in the information age!! The following words are mostly the words of several others who have written papers on this subject but also my own thoughts. I have tried to only include objective information from their works, leaving out a lot of the circumstantial and subjective data. I have included their names in the bibliography at the end (list of sources), though I haven’t gone as far as writing in-text references. I do have to admit though, I am biased and I am not a historian. Read on and make up your own minds, I only hope this gives you something more to think about than the cartoonesque Wikipedia entry and vague tourist information articles that have been written about the Cerne Giant? Wikipedia seems to find it more interesting to talk about jokes made by local men regarding politics and the Cerne Giant over the centuries rather than accounts by 10th century monks and later archaeologists….
For a long time now, people have argued over the origins of the Cerne Giant in Dorset. A huge chalk figure (180ft high) calved into a hillside. Whilst the figure that we see today is not actually that old, it has long been argued that the artists who created it did so based on their knowledge of an ancient Saxon God called Helith. A 1996 study found that some features have changed over time, concluding that the figure once stood over a disembodied head….. Whilst literary mentions of the Cerne Giant do not go back further than the 16th century, there have been literary accounts of The God Helith going back to the 10 century and before.
A noteworthy written reference to the Giant is from 1751, when the Reverend John Hutchings mentioned when he wrote to Dr Lyttleton, the Bishop of Exeter, that there was a figure on the hillside of vast dimensions which, he had been told by locals, had been carved or repaired in 1539. In 1764 William Stukely wrote that people in the area called the Giant "Helis". He also wrote of another writer who stated that up until the 6th century, the god Helis was worshipped at Cerne.
The historian, topographer and officer of arms William Camden (1551 – 1623) published after almost a decade of research the first edition of his written work "Britannia" in Latin which is a topographical and historical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. Camden also mentions the same 'Cerne' deity, but he uses the name „Heil” for it.
Helith has been called other names in English literature over the centuries such as Heia, Helio, Helid and 'heliae' which is an ecclesiastical Latin form for an Old English name. Perhaps the most likely is that it is a corruption of Old English hæle: 'man, brave man, hero. Most of these names are probably corruptions of the original name during different time periods. Etymology suggests the name basically means brave, hero and is a masculine word. Almost all of the words that these names possibly come from PIE *kailo-"whole, uninjured, of good omen" which gave us our words 'holy,' 'heal,' 'health,' and 'hail.'
A monk called Gotselin 1053 – 1099 who lived nearby in Salisbury wrote of a visit to Dorset by ‘St’ Augustine who was chased and beaten out of a local village by heathens who refused his doctrine. At some point after this ‘St’ Augustine renamed a local pagan well (probably the Silver Well) in honour of a local Chapel that was built and also made it written that the river and village’s name was the same as a Hebrew name that signifies God. So, just like modern ISIS extremists the xtians ‘did something’ to the local people to keep them quiet and renamed everything and built a chapel and later an Abbey!
Another monk wrote in the 13th century about St Augustine’s deeds in overcoming the pagans of Cerne! “In the county of Dorset are the abbeys of Cernel [Cerne] and Middleton [Milton]; and the nunnery of Shaston [Shaftesbury]; and in this county the god Gelith (Helith) was once worshipped; but preaching the word of God in that same place, St. Augustine saw in his mind's eye a divine presence, and having become overjoyed he said, 'I discern God, Who will restore His grace to us”
Sir Flinders Petrie (1853 – 1942) a famous archaeologist wrote “It thus appears that this enclosure was of a religious character, by the primitive pole worship being maintained there, and this throws light on the purpose of the figure of the Giant, with which the enclosure is obviously connected. Possibly a further light may be gained from Walter of Coventry, who wrote, in the thirteenth century, that Cerne was “in Dorsetensi pago”, “in quo pago olim colebantur deus Helith.” This may preserve the early mediaeval name of the Giant.
There is a ‘well’ known as St Austin's Well which was previously called the Silver Well. Apparently, the well existed there before the abbey of Cerne came into being. A story tells about a St. Edwold, a member of the royal family of the Mercians who died in 671 and was told in a vision to travel to Silver Well; when he came to Cerne, he gave silver pennies to a shepherd in return for bread and water, and the man showed him the well, which he recognized as fulfilling the vision.“ For centuries local women have prayed at the well for a husband to St Catherine. Indeed, there are many folk tales in relation to the well including its connection to Helith. The Silver Well is just over the hill from the Cerne Giant.
We should all note that an Abbey was built in such a quiet rural area right next to The Silver Well known since pagan times and The River Cerne which would have been ideal for performing pagan rites. The xtianised Anglo Saxons were famous for building churches in sacred places of pagan worship. King Alfred the great even went as far as transferring ownership of land next to rivers and bodies of water to the church to help in the fight against ‘paganism’. The name of the river and village ‘Cerne’ may be related to the Old-English / Anglo-Saxon term 'Cernan' which points to churning water or ‘living’ water.
Also, that several monks would write of ‘St’ Augustine banishing pagan practices from the area highlights a strong following of a local God. So, it sounds agreeable to accept Helith (Helið, .etc.) as a pagan god from early Anglo-Saxon England. The meaning of that name could point to words meaning 'hero, warrior'; a war-god, therefore, would not be a devious interpretation. The name could also derive from words related to words for health and healing, and therefore could denote a god of healing, perhaps we will never know? A late source (1820) "A Walk Around Dorchester" by James Criswick refers to the deity as the "Saxon Esculapius, or preserver of health."
The next time we do a blot to the Einheriar/heroes we will Hail to Helith and thank him for his inspiration in matters of war and wisdom in healing as our ancestors may have done so many centuries ago. We will hold blot at the Cerne Giant, at the Silver Well and at The River Cerne. There will be no "saints" and their mercenaries to drive us from our worship this time around!
Admin Gary Folkish Odinism Dorset
Bibliography: ***** Swain Wodening and GardenStone blog 2018 *****Gotselin 1053 – 1099 (A monk responsible for a great deal of literature based nearby with the Bishop of Salisbury in Wiltshire). *****William of Malmesbury a 12th century monk who lived in the Abbot of Malmesbury in Wiltshire (right next to Dorset). *****Walter of Coventry a 13th century Monk *****John Leland the poet and historian 1502 – 1552 John Leland specifically mentioned that The god Helith was worshiped in the village of Cerne *****William Camden 1551 – 1623 *****Reverend John Hutchings 1751 *****William Stukely 1764
