The Green Man

Here in England, and in fact throughout Europe, we have some beautiful medieval churches and cathedrals, one of the ideas being that a 'book' in stone could be created, so that certain information and knowledge could be passed on to future generations. One of the things that I like about the old craftsmen and artists was that their work was done anonymously, it being a time before one slapped a signature across such things and it also being before the ego developments of the more modern ages.

If one looks closely into the gloom of these old churches and cathedrals all sorts of wonderful and curious carved figures begin to appear. One such striking character is the figure of the Green Man, who seems to be an unusual choice of subject to be displayed inside a Christian church, him being a symbol of Spring and vitality and looking like a pre-Christian nature spirit of some sort.

These green men can be seen in most of the old churches in cities, towns and villages all over the country, being carved up until the nineteenth century in the forms of roof bosses, misericords and sometimes even on fonts and on bench ends, or anywhere else that decorative patterning may occur. The Green Man is widely felt to be an embodiment of natural fertility, a spirit of the primeval greenwood.

One has to look hard for these masks and figures, as they often seem to be just decorative leaf patterns, or they can be very high up, looking down at us from the roof of the church, or sometimes they can can be as small as just a few inches across.

Another aspect of the Green Man is that he seems to refer to the Green Language, otherwise known as the Language of the Birds. As David Ovason in his remarkable book on Nostradamus puts it:

"The original source for the term Green Language was the French Langue Vert. The Vert (Green) is almost certainly an example of arcane aphesis. In French, ouvert means 'open'. The Langue Ouvert was the open language, the tongue of ordinary men. When Ouvert became Vert by this aphetic change, it means the opposite of open, i.e. closed; the Langue Vert was therefore the 'closed language', the 'occult language', the 'hidden tongue'. The double science of the two languages - the sacred and profane, the closed and the open - is contained in this one French word ouvert. As a result, in this strange language, a word which may appear quite ordinary is invested with another, deeper meaning comprehensible only to those who anticipate such a hidden meaning...

In view of the meaning occulted in the word vert, we may legitimately ask if there is a link between the green of our language, and the enigmatic green 'leaf man' (le feuillu) of the French, the 'Green Man' (der Gruner Mensch) of the Germans. While the term 'Green Man' appears to have been introduced in its arcane context, in reference to the enigmatic floriated faces of cathedral art, into the English language only in 1939, the image of the Green Man face, with its floriated mouth, belongs to the same esoteric cathedral art as so much of the alchemical and astrological lore of the medieval period. There is probably no accident in the fact that the Green Language, like the Green Children and Green Man of Nordic mythology, emerged in the eleventh or twelfth century with the beginnings of what we now call Gothic Art. One of the many names for the Green Language was the 'argot', which, as Fulcanelli has pointed out, is a version of Art Gotique."

Curiously, all of the foliated faces in churches and cathedrals appear to be male, although foliate sprouting females do exist in art and mythology, for example in the form of Chloris in Botticelli's Primavera. In Greek mythology the nymph Daphne turned into a laurel tree when fleeing through the forest to escape the advances of Apollo. Lotis, another nymph who fled from unwanted advances, became the lotus tree. Then of course there are the Dryads (also called Hamadryads) who were nymphs who lived in trees and perished when their trees died or were cut down. One of the earliest English epic poems, Gawain and The Green Knight may refer to yet another manifestation of the Green Man as the God that dies and is reborn. Another variation is the Jack in the Green.

There are also the examples of faces manifesting in patterns, as Leonardo da Vinci describes in his notebooks, where he stares at a patch of mould on a wall and imagines fantastic landscapes and faces, this can also happen when one looks into the moving leaves of a tree whilst resting out in the woods, and so may be another possible origin for the leaf mask variety of Green Man.

There are many other unusual figures carved into churches all over the country, some of which suggest not only the earthy sense of humour and imagination of the masons and woodcarvers, but may also contain other hidden symbolism, though they may also be a sly poke at the prudishness of the established church.

Thanks to Nobody for pointing us towards this as a choice of subject. Quote taken from 'The Nostradamus Code' by David Ovason. Most photographs by Tina Manthorpe, whose flickr site is linked in the above title. I have some of my own paintings of the Green Man which I will try to put up here at some point.