See the Green Man blow his kiss from high church walls

[vovat]

My original plan for today was a post on Theseus, but listening to the song "Green Man" tempted me to find out a little about...well, I think you can figure it out. What's harder to figure out, however, is exactly who the Green Man figures were supposed to represent. The name "Green Man" wasn't coined until 1939, and refers to various stone faces with vegetation either surrounding them or as actual facial features. They might not all be depictions of the same guy, but the general consensus seems to be that they were fertility and woodland deities. The presence of such presumably pagan figures on English churches might be traced to the early Christian traditions of incorporating rather than eradicating pagan traditions, although this page suggests that they might have been regarded as demons by Christians in the Middle Ages. That's the case for a lot of pagan deities, though, so it's certainly possible that both are true.

The Green Man has been linked to any number of mythological figures related to plants and forests, including Odin, the horned god Cernunnos (note to self: do a post on horned gods at some point), the Roman Sylvanus, leaf-clad forest fairies, and even Robin Hood and Father Christmas. And with May coming up pretty soon, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the English May Day figure known as Jack in the Green. I'll probably have a little more to say about him once May Day actually rolls around.

So, what's next for my mythological post series? Well, I'm running out of more obvious ideas, but Theseus is definitely going to be the subject of one of them. And since St. George's Day is on Thursday, I might well have something to say about the dragon-slaying saint next week. I'd like to do an entire post on Ragnarok, and there's always the horned god idea I mentioned earlier in this entry. Any other ideas?

Comments

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Hmm...interesting. There's a pub in Asheville, NC called The Green Man, and the adjoining restaurant is Jack Of the Wood (which sounds a lot like Jack In the Green). Or maybe the reverse is true. Either way, I'd always wondered what that was about. Their sign displays a beardy man surrounded by lots of greenery so...yeah.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think The Green Man is actually a pretty common name for pubs.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

And that would go to show how much I know about pubs. :-)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

No, I don't either, but the Wikipedia entry on Green Men mentioned that it's a common pub name.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would love to have suggestions for you, but I don't have much of a brain this morning (as you'll see when you read MY last post).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, when you get your brain back, any suggestions you might have are welcome. {g}

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Since you covered the Green Man, you might also want to cover the feminine version of the same architectural idea: the Sheela-na-Gig.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Wasn't she a rock star from the eighties? {g}