Observations placeholder
Seven Ages of Man - 07 Man/Cro Magnon Man - Hawkes and Keightley
Identifier
021849
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Please note that the photos of the men here have been chosen because they seemed to represent the robust, solid and virile description in the text, there is no intention to cause offence as I have no idea who they are!
The Beaker Folk can probably trace their lineage back to Cro-Magnon man - a common name that has been used to describe the first early modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens) that lived in the European Upper Paleolithic.
Current scientific literature prefers the term European early modern humans (EEMH), to the term Cro-Magnon. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiocarbon dated to 43-45,000 years before present that have been discovered in Italy and Britain, with the remains found of those that reached the European Russian Arctic 40,000 years ago.
Cro-Magnons were robustly built and powerful. The body was generally heavy and solid with a strong musculature. The forehead was fairly straight rather than sloping like in Neanderthals, and with only slight browridges. The face was short and wide. The chin was prominent. The brain capacity was about 1,600 cc (98 cu in), larger than the average for modern humans.
In Folk Tales and in mythology they became legendary – not as giants, but as strong men, men who had the strength of many other sorts of men.
A description of the experience
Prehistoric Britain – Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
The Beaker Folk have been the subject of many word portraits, in which their virility is emphasised with powerful adjectives.
Their strong bones, muscularity, pronounced brows and determined chins have all been emphasised, perhaps over emphasised, while special stress has very properly been laid on the round form of their skulls.
Many ‘truths’ are hidden in so called fairy stories. Although over the years, the stories have become embellished and lost some of the symbolism, many contain information that upon close inspection turns out to have a basis in fact. Many plants, for example, have a naturally occurring amphetamine content and we find a number of folk tales that describe people who believed they had achieved super human strength as a result of taking a ‘magic potion’ – much as body builders do today with plants such as ephedra – the source of ephedrine. On the other hand, horns are symbolic.
from The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People compiled by Thomas Keightley
from The story of Swend Faelling
…..the Troll reached him a heavy iron bar and bade him show his strength on that. But not all Svend's efforts availed him to lift it; whereupon the Troll handed him a horn telling him to drink out of it.
No sooner had he drunk a little out of it than his strength increased.
He was now able to lift the bar, which, when he had drunk again, became much lighter; but when again renewing his draught he emptied the horn, he was able to swing the bar with ease, and he then learned from the Troll that he had now gotten the strength of twelve men.