h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm always moved by Gloucestershire's churches. And other places churches too, of course. Click through for links to photographs of Saxon carvings, and a church with a snake in the chancel and a Green Man hidden in the carving over the door...

These aren't my photographs, but do take time to have a look at them - they are the best I could find online of these particular churches.

Daglingworth has astonishingly simple and powerful Saxon carvings:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/395511

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/395512

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/395513

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/395518

Astonishing, aren't they? And so much more powerful than the 18th Century ornateness of the other wall memorial in the third one.

We also went to Elkstone, which has some decidedly pagan stuff.

This panorama makes me feel slightly giddy, but it gives you a feel for the scale of the church:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/panoramas/cotswold_churches_elkstone_360.shtml

The chancel is small and intimate space:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1571972

But I fell in love with the double-headed snake at a cousin't funeral, you can see him either end of the outer decoration on the arch:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/860432

And here:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/860420

But the real pagan stuff is outside.

This is the tympanium above the door:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JtkFz23RXD8/SGECikjurPI/AAAAAAAAAMo/q1pGUWp22Xs/s400/elkstone7.bmp

The outer row is just zig-zags, but the inner row is of faces, with every other face being a very disturbing beak-faced bird. The first two on the left are silenced by the figure between them, upside-down, with his skeletal hands clamped firmly round their beaks.

The snake appears again above and slightly to the right of the hand of god, and there is a green man, on the far right of the inner round of decoration, looking as if he's about to bite the lion on the backside.

What you cannot see in the photograph is the two heads on top of the pillars supporting the tympanium: decidedly pagan, both of them.

Oh do not tell the priest of god
for he would call it a sin
but we have been out in the woods all night
conjuring summer in.

I am always astonished by medieval churches.

Ben

Oh, and here's a good generic overview of Elkstone:

http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/glouces/Elkstone-Photos.htm

I really must get round to going round one of the local big churches - which is medieval in history. The Church of St Michael and All Angels, Mottram in Longdendale http://www.thornber.net/cheshire/htmlfiles/mottraminlong.html has some pictures but you don't see how this building imposes itself on the landscape. High on the hill overlooking Longdendale a landmark for miles around.

Quite interesting decorations at Elkstone - quite different to the most hideously overdecorated church I've been to. It was the pilgrimage church of Einsiedeln, Switzerland. Baroque style with practically everything covered in gold donated by local dignitaries to show how generous (read rich) and pious they were.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Kloster_Einsiedeln_kapelle_um_1900.jpg

The only interesting thing was their black madonna, as overloaded with gold as everything else:
http://www.wherewewalked.info/feasts/07-July/images/einsiedeln.jpg