Green Man

A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves was coined by Lady Raglan in 1939 ^[1]. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Commonly used as a decorative architectural ornament, Green Men are frequently found on carvings in churches and other buildings (both secular and ecclesiastical). "The Green Man" is also a popular name for British public houses and various interpretations of the name appear on inn signs, which sometimes show a full figure rather than just the head.

The Green Man motif has many different faces and variations. Found in many cultures around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetative deities springing up in different cultures throughout the ages. Primarily it is interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, or "renaissance", representing the cycle of growth being reborn anew each spring. Some speculate that the mythology of the Green Man developed independently in the traditions of separate ancient cultures and evolved into the wide variety of examples found throughout history.

Types of Green Man

Usually referred to in works on architecture as foliate heads or foliate masks, carvings of the Green Man may take many forms, naturalistic or decorative. The simplest depict a man's face peering out of dense foliage. Some may have leaves for hair, perhaps with a leafy beard. Often leaves or leafy shoots are shown growing leaves from his open mouth and sometimes even from the nose and eyes as well. In the most abstract examples, the carving at first glance appears to be merely stylised foliage, with the facial element only becoming apparent on closer examination. The face is almost always male; green women are rare. Green cats, lions and demons are also found. On gravestones and other memorials, human skulls are sometimes shown sprouting grape vines or other vegetation, presumably as a symbol of resurrection (see Shebbear, England).

Although the Green Man appears in many forms, the three most common types have been categorized as follows^{[original research?]}:

the Foliate Head — completely covered in leaves
the Disgorging Head — spews vegetation from its mouth
the Bloodsucker Head — sprouts vegetation from all facial orifices.

The term "Green Man" was coined by Lady Raglan in 1939. It appeared in her article The Green Man in Church Architecture, published in The Folklore Journal. The figure is also often referred to (perhaps erroneously) as "Jack-in-the-Green" or "Jack o' the Green".

Green Men in churches

Superficially the Green Man would appear to be pagan, perhaps a fertility figure or a nature spirit, similar to the woodwose (the wild man of the woods), and yet he frequently appears, carved in wood or stone, in churches, chapels, abbeys and cathedrals, where examples found dating from the 11th century through to the 20th century.

To the modern observer the earlier (Romanesque and medieval) carvings often have an unnervingly eerie or numinous quality. This is sometimes said to indicate the vitality of the Green Man, who was able to survive as a symbol of pre-Christian traditions despite, and at the same time complementary to, the influence of Christianity.^{[citation needed]} (Rather than alienate their new converts, early Christian missionaries would often adopt and adapt local gods, sometimes turning them into obscure saints.)

Whatever his original significance may have been, many modern churchgoers characterise the Green Man as "the archetype of our oneness with the earth".^{[citation needed]}

Later variations on the Green Man theme

Illustration of the sign which used to hang outside a public house in Covent Garden, London, in the 1970s

From the Renaissance onwards, elaborate variations on the Green Man theme, often with animal heads rather than human faces, appear in many media other than carvings (including manuscripts, metalwork, bookplates, and stained glass). They seem to have been used for purely decorative effect rather than reflecting any deeply-held belief.

In Britain, the image of the Green Man enjoyed a revival in the 19th century, becoming popular with architects during the Gothic revival and the "Arts and Crafts" era, when it appeared as a decorative motif in and on many buildings, both religious and secular. American architects took up the motif around the same time. The Green Man travelled with the Europeans as they colonized the world. Many variations can be found in Victorian-style Neo gothic architecture. He was very popular amongst Australian stonemasons and can be found on many secular and sacred buildings.

Related characters

Parallels have been drawn between the Green Man and various deities. In Thomas Nashe's masque Summer's Last Will and Testament (1592, printed 1600), the character commenting upon the action remarks, after the exit of "Satyrs and wood-Nymphs", "The rest of the green men have reasonable voices..." Mythical figures such as Cernunnos, Sylvanus, Derg Corra, Green George, Jack in the green, John Barleycorn, Robin Goodfellow, Puck and the Green Knight all partake of the Green Man's nature; it has also been suggested that the story of Robin Hood was born of the Green Man mythology. A more modern embodiment might be found in Peter Pan, who enters the civilized world from a nether land, not only clothed in green but wearing leaves as well. Even Father Christmas, who was often shown wreathed in ivy in early depictions, has been suggested as a similar woodland spirit.^{[citation needed]}

The Green Knight of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight serves as both monster and mentor to Gawain, belonging to a pre-Christian world which seems antagonistic to but is in the end harmonious with the Christian one.

Etymological research by the University of Wales into the meaning of the names of Celtic gods and goddesses shows that one Celtic deity, Viridios, has a name meaning "Green Man" in both Celtic and Latin, which are related languages.

Tom Cheetham identifies Khidr of esoteric Sufism with the Green Man. In his book about the work of Henry Corbin and others concerning the 12th-century Muslim saint Ibn Arabi, he develops the idea of the Green Man/Khidr as the principle mediating between the imaginal realm and the physical world.

The Resurrection theme is present in many of the independent figures linked to the green man. Foliate heads, and masks have served as images for Rome's Bacchus, Egypt's Osiris, Greece's Dionysus, Britain's "The Green Knight" and Jack in the in all of these separate artistic representations of foliate heads, with uncannily similar death/rebirth themes spanning millennia of time and all of the western continents. Green Men Masks and gargoyles can be seen in London's Westminster Abbey, The Spanish Alhambra, British "Green Man" houses, Moscow's Cathedrals, The ancient Egyptian Museum in Torino Italy, New York City's Brown Stones, and Mosques in India. The theme of rebirth has been so frequent throughout human mythology, that the extent of the Green Man's reach is almost universal in Western cultures. The personified leaf mask has been historically resurrected as a symbol for many western rebirth myths; perhaps due to cultural adoption, or mere chance.

Author J.K. Rowling has described the character of Hagrid of the Harry Potter series as a modern version of the Green Man - `Hagrid was always supposed to be this almost elemental force. He's like the king of the forest, or the Green Man. He's this semi-wild person who lives on the edge of the forest'. [1]

William Anderson's comments

"...There are legends of him (Khidr) in which, like Osiris, he is dismembered and reborn; and prophecies connecting him, like the Green Man, with the end of time. His name means the Green One or Verdant One, he is the voice of inspiration to the aspirant and committed artist. He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood. The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one's normal capacities. In this there may be a link across cultures, ... one reason for the enthusiasm of the medieval sculptors for the Green Man may be that he was the source of inspiration." — William Anderson, ". Green Man: The Archetype of our Oneness with the Earth"

Green Men outside Europe

In A Little Book of The Green Man (and on his website [2]) Mike Harding gives some examples of similar figures in Borneo, Nepal and India: the earliest is a foliate head from an 8th century Jain temple in Rajasthan. He also notes that heads from Lebanon and Iraq can be dated to the 2nd century and that there are early Romanesque foliate heads in 11th century Templar churches in Jerusalem. He tentatively suggests that the symbol may have originated in Asia Minor and been brought to Europe by travelling stonecarvers.

In Sanskrit the Green Man is cognate with the gana Kirtimukha or "The Face of Glory" which is related to a lila of Shiva and Rahu. The Face of Glory is often seen in Vajrayana Buddhist Thanka Art and iconography where it is often encorporated as a cloudform simulacrum; and depicted crowning the 'Wheel of Becoming' or the Bhavachakra (Beer: 1999).

Neo-Paganism

Wicca

In Wicca, the Green Man has often been used as a representation of the Horned God, a mix of ancient Pagan Gods such as the Celtic Cernunnos and the Greek Pan.

Trivia

On the recording Apple Venus Volume 1 by English band XTC, the 6th song is titled "Greenman".
The fifth track of Type O Negative's October Rust album is also titled "Green Man".
The Dancing Did released a single entitled "The Green Man and the March of the Bungalows" that concerns the destruction of the English countryside by greedy planners.
On the 1977 Jethro Tull album Songs From The Wood there is a track called "Jack In The Green" and in the track "Cup of Wonder" there is a reference to the Green Man.
The myth relating to the Green Man plays a key part in the books Lavondyss and The Hollowing by Robert Holdstock.
In the 1980 novel Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, the main character finds a picture of a Green Man (which he calls "Greanvine") in the destroyed Canterbury after dreaming of one.
A Green Man appears in the closing chapters of Robert Jordan's novel, The Eye of the World.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, on Davy Jones' ship, there are cannons which come out of the Green Man's mouth.
The Green Man is the name of the pub in the movie The Wicker Man

References

^ Lady Raglan (1939-03-01), "The Green Man in Church Architecture", Folklore, 50 (90990): 45–57 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Beer, Robert (1999). The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Hardcover). Shambhala. ISBN-10: 157062416X, ISBN-13: 978-1570624162

External links

The Beloved Order of the Greenman - Men's Fraternal Order dedicated to the image Hosting an extensive collection of links on the subject
Clun Green Man Festival
The Green Man in New Zealand
Alt.Religion - Green Man
The Green Man Tribe
The Breinton Morris - Who is the Green Man?
A Discussion of the Validity of the Green Man Myth
Green Man on bosses at Canterbury Cathedral
The Green Man in Birmingham
The Green Man and the Church
Green Man East Anglia
The Green Man: Variations on a Theme
Green Men and Triple Rabbits
Mike Harding's Green Man Page Many good pictures, including Asian examples
Sean Breadin's Green Man Page Alternative perspectives, striking images, together with several short films from a number of UK locations. See also:
The Devil in the Details Sean Breadin's 'Potted & Personal Overview' of the Green Man.
The Mythology of the Green Man
Oxford's Green Men
The name of the Green Man Research paper by Brandon S Centerwall from Folklore magazine
St. George: Christian Dragon Slayer or Pagan Green Man?
www.mythinglinks.org
Green Men of Manhattan, photos
The Green Man of Cercles Julianna Lees on Green Man sculptures in Romanesque Churches in France
Carved Green Man - various examples of native Australian style Green Men and play written about the Green Man
Green Men in Germany - catalogue of photos of Green men in Germany
The Green Man Festival at Clun, Shropshire
Green Men in The Netherlands - many neo-gothic and a few medieval examples
Greenmen and Foliate heads carved in limestone

[1] Lady Raglan (1939-03-01), "The Green Man in Church Architecture", Folklore, 50 (90990): 45–57 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

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