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The Green Man has become a very popular figure these days, but who is he? Well it is not my intention to tell you everything about him here. For further information I suggest you explore the links and books listed below (Please send me suggestions for good links and books). To me the Green Man has always been the man of the woods (my favourite habitat); a wild-man, a warlock, a nature spirit, but he is also so much else. He is the male counterpart to Mother Earth (after all she still needs a man if she doesn't want to produce anything but clones), and, as such, is often found displaying the fruits of maturity. In this sense, his verdant leafiness also shows his fertility and this ties in with his other main attributes of death and rebirth. Generally, these are his main attributes depicted in most surviving sculptures, where he is sometimes shown as a skull like or obviously dead face with the leaves and vines of rebirth growing from his mouth, eyes or nose. Most people find this view rather scary or unsettling, so they prefer jollier representations with the foliage growth appearing to be attached to the living face, in a sort of camouflage (this links nicely with my opening description of him as the man of the woods). Of course, the theme of death and resurrection is also obviously the main theme behind Christianity, so it is not surprising to find him depicted as Christ (see my plaque design based on a Green Man from Durham Cathedral). The Green Man also ties in with many other Christian themes such as the light of God and the hope of redemption (see the description to my Norwich Green Man Plaque) and through its adoption of some of the Pagan aspects of Father Christmas; who was always in green until Coca-Cola changed his outfit to red in the 1920s. And, of course, Father Christmas also represents the death of the Old Year and rebirth in the New Year. Nigel Rushbrook's website Canterbury Green Man website; - Link David Owner's Green Man in East Anglia website; - Link Clive Hicks photographs on his website; - Link Sean Breadin's Green Man website; - Link
Books "The Green Man, the Pitkin Guide" (2001) by Jeremy Harte, Jarrod Publishing "Green Man; The Archetype of our oneness with the Earth" (1990) by William Anderson, with photos by Clive Hicks, Compass Books
"The Green Man in Britain" (2001) by Fran & Geoff Doel, Tempus Publishing Ltd.
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