Yernagate

Yernagate is a legendary giant from English folklore, said to have been the guardian of the New Forest in Hampshire. According to tradition, Yernagate became enraged when people began taking too much wood from the forest. In one famous tale, he hurled a man so high into the sky that he landed on the moon. Another story claims that when Yernagate took a nap, the weight of his body pressed into the ground, creating a mound that became known as Yernagate’s Nap.

The legend of Yernagate may be an example of what Daniel Defoe described in 1724 as “the fable of giants in the woods” near Southampton. The origin of the name “Yernagate” is uncertain, but it may relate to older Anglo-Saxon names for the New Forest, such as “Ytene” and “Jettenwald,” later anglicised as “Ettinwood.” These names have been interpreted by some to mean “the wood of giants” or “giant’s weald.”

In some tellings, Yernagate acts as a protector of the Hampshire woodlands. When one man harvested so much timber that he nearly stripped the forest bare, Yernagate punished him by throwing him to the moon—offering a mythical origin for the figure often called the man in the moon. The place where Yernagate is said to have rested, flattening the earth beneath him, became known as Yernagate’s Nap.

Modern Ordnance Survey maps show Yernagate’s Nap as a small patch of deciduous woodland south of Little Linford Inclosure. However, older maps from the 18th and 19th centuries identify it as a circular Bronze Age earthwork located on a small hill within Little Linford itself.