While speaking of English stories, I may relate one told to myself and my friend, Mr. J. J. Foster, at Cearne in Dorsetshire. We were questioning a labourer as to the giant figure cut in the turf at that place. He assured us that it was supposed to be the representation of a Danish giant who led an invasion of this coast, and lay on the side of the hill to sleep; while asleep the peasantry tied him down to the ground and cut off his head, and the outline in the turf represents the place where the giant lay. Upon being asked how long ago this was supposed to be, the answer was, “About a hundred years.”
From ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine Library: English Traditional Lore’ 1868.
"......and lay on the side of the hill to sleep; while asleep the peasantry tied him down to the ground and cut off his head,......"
By the look of our priapic friend, he must have had an interesting dream rudely interrupted! Either that, or it was the tying down bit that got him going. (;>D)
Yeah it curiously dodges that doesn't it. Of course that could be Victorian editing for you.