Green Man Conversation
Created | Updated Apr 24, 2002
This conversation about the Green Man is taken from the British English thread:
Post 4092 by Pattern-chaser:
What does anyone know about the Green Man? All I know of is a plaque of a mysterious man who peeps out of the leaves at you. Some kind of ancient English demigod, or the like. Can you offer more? TIA.
Post 4093 by Belshazzar:
There's actually quite a lot to say about the Green Man and his relationship to the Green Knight and Greensleeves and other green things, but suffice for now to say that it is a Celtic symbol which some say represents fertility in nature and others say is the devil. Often to be seen as a Pub or Inn sign.
These days the Green Man is known to British children as the 'safe to cross' symbol when crossing the road at a pedestrian-controlled crossing. There is even a Green Cross Code to teach kids how to cross the road safely. I don't think it has yet been renamed The Green Person.
Post 4094 by Aljiis:
The Green Man was linked to the Devil because he was also known as The Horned One (Cernunnos) but unlike the Devil he had antlers not rams horns.
The GM is also linked to Robin Hood (Robin of the Green Wood).
The GM can be found on many churches as a grotesque head with foliage (usually vine leaves) issuing from the mouth. In the chapter house of Southwell Minster (Nottingham) there are several Green Men, one of which has vine leaves comming from the top of his head as well as his mouth. A bird sits either side of the head forming a triangle above the arch of a door (or window).
Post 4095 by Belshazzar:
Yes, Robin Hood. This is a link with the May Day celebrations in Olde Englande. Robin and Maid Marian came to preside as Lord and Lady of the May, and Robin Hood plays became a part of the May Day festivities. May Day was also the day of the London chimney-sweepers' festivities, when a boy would go about hidden inside a wooden frame covered with leaves and branches. The boy would be known as Jack-in-the-Green. Some say this is the origin of the Green Man as a pub sign, others that the sign represents a forester or perhaps Robin himself.
Post 4099 by Belshazzar:
And among the ruins of Pompeii are several carvings of the Greek fertility god Priapus, always depicted with a grotesquely massive phallus.
Post 4100 by Ictoan:
You know, having Gods like that must have really taken the fun out of being a young lad. I mean, what's the point of being rebellious and drawing rude symbols everywhere when you know that the temple down the road has loads of them, all in much greater detail than your scribblings?
there are several very different ideas about the origins and meaning of the green man.
Devil, Robin Hood, Fertility God - and we haven't even touched on 'little green men from space', the Jolly Green Giant (Hohoho!) or the green eyed monster of jealousy and envy.
