The editor of this web site has to admit to a fascination with The Green Man, particularly where he has been portrayed in Stained Glass.

A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing or stained glass panel of a face surrounded by (or made from) leaves. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face, and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Commonly used as a decorative architectural ornament, Green Men are frequently found on carvings in churches and other buildings (both secular and ecclesiastical).

The Green Man motif has many different faces and variations. Found in many cultures around the world, he is often related to natural vegetative deities springing up in different cultures throughout the ages. Primarily he is interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, or "renaissance", representing the cycle of growth being reborn anew each spring.

Superficially the Green Man would appear to be pagan, perhaps a fertility figure or a nature spirit, similar to the woodwose (the wild man of the woods), and yet he frequently appears, carved in wood or stone, in churches, chapels, abbeys and cathedrals, where examples can be found dating from the 11th century through to the 20th century.

To the modern observer the earlier (Romanesque and medieval) carvings often have an unnervingly eerie or luminous quality. This is sometimes said to indicate the vitality of the Green Man, who was able to survive as a symbol of pre-Christian traditions despite, and at the same time complementary to, the influence of Christianity. Rather than alienate their new converts, early Christian missionaries would often adopt and adapt local gods, sometimes turning them into obscure saints!

Whatever his original significance may have been, many modern churchgoers are said to characterise the Green Man as "the archetype of our oneness with the earth"

 

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