A Quest for the True Spirit of the Green Man...

We may count them and measure them, compare and categorise them, but we cannot enter the medieval minds of those who created them. There is no way to know what they were thinking as they chipped away at the stone or cut into the wood. We do not know why they were commissioned or the purpose they served.

There are no records mentioning the Green Man from the time. This has lead to much speculation. The popular view that the Green Man represents some pagan leftover from the distant past is difficult to substantiate.

It is doubtful that the church authorities would have permitted anything which went against its teachings, or that wealthy god-fearing patrons would have wished to finance such works.

Throughout the middle ages churchmen wrote with much vigour about their Christian flocks following ungodly pursuits. There is, however no mention in these writing of any form of pagan worship.

While the origin of the these carvings may be lost in depths of time, the application of the name Green Man to them is of more recent origin. It was first used by Lady Raglan in a paper appearing in the journal of the Folk Lore Society, entitled "Green Man", 1939. Prior to this date, when anyone chose to notice them, the usual term was "foliate head".

The Celtic scholar Anne Ross was also a member of the Folk Lore Society. In 1975 she collaborated with photographer Ronald Sheridan to produce the book "Grotesques an Gargoyles - Paganism in the Medieval Church". Ross uses both the name "Green Man" and "Foliate Head".

The new term was also adopted and popularised by Kathleen Basford in the first book on the subject "The Green Man", 1978.

Today the term Green Man is used to refer to any type of image in which a human face or mask is combined with leaves or foliage.

There are other carvings related to the Green Man which include full length human figures and animals. The most common of these being cats and lions.

Other names

• foliate head
• foliate mask
• Dutch - Groene Man
• German - Grüne Mann