The Green Man
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(b) Spretyon, Devon. St. Michael
Roof boss. 14th or 15th century.
Crowned Green Man. His bulging eyes are covered by the leaf stems.
75. (a) Melrose, Roxburgh, Scotland. Abbey Museum
Roof boss. 15th century. From Melrose Abbey (Cistercian).
This sandstone carving is labelled: "Mask with blood suckers at the eyes and mouth". The National Museum of Antiquities of Scoff and (Ancient Monuments Branch) were unable to trace the author of this description but recognise the figure as a Green Man. There are several other foliate heads at Melrose, dating from the 14th or 15th century, and they may well have been carved by masons from Yorkshire.
(b) Ottery St. Mary, Devon. St. Mary
Corbel. 14th century.
A particularly macabre Green Man. Leaves grow from the pupils of the eyes as well as from the nose and mouth.
76. Lostwithiel, Cornwall. St. Bartholomew
Font. 14th or 15th century.
Francis Bond (Fonts and Font Covers. Oxford University Press. 1980, p. 240) described this Green Man as "the head of a mitred bishop or abbot with foliage issuing from the ears and mouth". There is nothing sinister about this pleasantly rounded, rather boyish face, but is he really a bishop?
77. Norwich Cathedral
Roof bosses in the Cloisters. 14th or 15th century.
(a) A smiling Green Man with large leaves growing from the eyebrows and the sides of the nose (luxuriant whiskers).
(b) The eyebrows and whiskers on the high boned cheeks are transformed into leaves as in the first example (a), but the expression is quite different. The mouth smiles slightly but the eyes do not.
78. Norwich Cathedral
Roof bosses in the Cloisters.
(a) The outermost layer of leaves radiate from sides and bridge of the nose of this rather elvish face. It is one of the finest Têtes de Feuilles in England.
(b) Leaves grow from either side of the tuft of hair above the bridge of the nose and from the mouth. The moustache also changes into leaves. The eyes glare balefully.
79. Norwich Cathedral
Roof bosses in the Cloisters.
(a) Branches grow out of the mouth of this angry Green Man and weave under his long, hairy whiskers.
(b) A malevolent demon with his tongue hanging out. Leaves grow out of his ears as well as from his mouth.
80. Norwich Cathedral
Roof bosses in the Cloisters.
(a) The leaves develop from a bifurcated stem coming from the almost circular mouth. Is it the Green Man's double tongue?
(b) The head is not foliated but merely framed by the huge wreath hung round the neck and covering the shoulders and arms, which we must assume to be present since we can see the Green Man's hands below his leafy collar. Is he a medieval precursor of the Jack in the Green?
81. Langley Marish, Buckinghamshire. St. Mary
Corbels. 15th century.
(a) A leaf demon with ape-like features.
(b) A human face with a deeply serious expression.
Leaves grow from the outer comers of the eyelids as well as from the mouth.
82. (a) Mildenhall, Suffolk. St. Mary
Boss inside the porch, above the doorway. 15th century.
The nose and mouth parts are represented as the muzzle of an animal rather than as human features. It is perhaps a cat, crouching in the leaves, waiting to pounce on its prey.
(b) Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire. St. Mary
Boss in the porch. 15th century.
It occupies the same position as the foliate head at Mildenhall, some thirty miles away. This "face" in the oak leaves might also be a forest bogy. Reginald Scots tell us, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1548, that the "man in the Oke" was one of the bugbears evoked by maid servants to frighten children.
83. Whalley, Lancashire. St. Mary and All Saints
Misericords. 1418-34. Originally in Whalley Abbey (Cistercian).
(a) Foliate tricephalos.
(b) Green Man in a more typical form.
84. (a) Cumbria, Lancashire. Priory
Misericord (carved between 1416 and 1441.)
Crowned, deeply frowning foliate tricephalos.
(b) Paris. Bibliothèque Nationale
MS latin 11560 5 v°. 13th century.
Satan represented as triceps Beelzebub. (Photo. Bibliothèque Nationale. A. 70 1032.)
85. (a) Kings Lynn, Norfolk. St. Margaret
Misericord. (Carved between 1370 and 1377.)
Oak leaf mask with a squint.
(b) Ludlow, Shropshire. St. Laurence
Misericord. 1447.
Cross eyed Green Men as supporters. The principal subject is the Antelope Chained, the badge of King Henry VI.
86. (a) Llangwm, Monmouthshire (Gwent). St. Jerome
Corbel on the south side of the chancel. Probably 15th century.
Lady Raglan's original Green Man.
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(b) Llantilio Crossenny, Monmouthshire (Gwent). St. Teilo
Carving on the wall in the north transept. 14th or 15th century.
Leaves come from the nose and a large "bovine" tongue from the mouth. Lady Raglan pointed out that tongue hanging out is "a characteristic effect of hanging" and suggested it might refer to the sacrificial hanging of a man chosen to represent the spirit of vegetation. I think it more likely that it is an allusion to the "unruly" member than to pagan rites of spring. It may well evoke the text: "Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on the fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed by mankind. But the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison", James, III, verses 5 to 8. The imagery at Châteauneuf-sur-Charente (Plate 21(a)) could be directly based on this text.
87. (a) Crowland, Lincolnshire. Abbey
Roof boss. 15th century.
Green Man with the tongue hanging out. His plant is vine. Is it too fanciful to suppose a connection between the vine and the tongue?
(b) Queen Camel Somerset. St. Barnabus
Roof boss, probably 15th century.
88. Whalley, Lancashire, St. Mary and All Saints
Canopy in the choir stalls. It is probable but not certain that it is a 15th century carving; the canopies are partly restored so the Green Man with his tongue hanging out could be of a later date.
89. Astbury, Cheshire. St. Mary
Roof boss. 15th century.
90. (a) Silkstone, Yorkshire. All Saints
Roof boss. 15th century.
A nightmarish Green Man with staring eyes and a screaming mouth. Leaves spurt up from the tear glands as well as out of the mouth, and one might think that they sting him like nettles.
(b) Norwich Cathedral
Misericord. 1480.
A calm face with leafy eyebrows, moustache and beard. The leaves on the forehead suggest a crown.
91. Bishops Lydeard, Somerset. St. Mary
Bench end. 15th century.
The leaves coming down from the Green Man's mouth are linked with the leaves of the little tree growing up from the base.
92. Crowcombe, Somerset. Holy Ghost
Bench end. 1534.
The belligerent mermen (?) recall the monsters coming from the ears of the early medieval leaf demons. Their conflict may reflect the clamour in the Green Man's head. Perhaps the result of his intemperance? It is unlikely that the vine ever alludes to Christ, the True Vine, when it is associated with the Green Man.
93. (a) Hereford Cathedral
Carving on the lintel over the doorway of the Vicar's Cloister. 15th century.
(b) Bosbury, Herefordshire Holy Trinity
Monument to Richard Harford and his wife. 1578. One of a pair of villainous Green Men. Th
ese coarse featured faces are so large they overwhelm this curious memorial.
94. Ebrach, Upper Bavaria (former Cistercian Abbey)
Leaf mask at the base of the Monument of Abbot Holein, 1615, carved by N. Lenkhardt of Bamberg in 1618-19.
It is interesting to compare this 17th century leaf mask with a 2nd century leaf mask at Baalbek.
95. Bristol. St. Mary Redcliffe
Foliate skull at the base of the Sandford and Challoner Memorial. (la. Paty. Bristol, fecit). circa 1747.
Skulls and skeletons in medieval art (as in representations of the Legend of the Three Quick and the Three Dead) are symbols of vita brevis. In his illuminating essay: "Et in Arcadia Ego" (Meaning in the Visual Arts, Peregrine Books, 1970, pp. 340-67) Erwin Panofsky has shown that this meaning was well understood in the 16th and 17th centuries as demonstrated by Falstaff's reply to Doll Tear-Sheets' admonishing: "Peace, good Doll! Do not speak like a death's head; do not bid me remember mine end". (Henry IV, Part 2, Act II. Sc. IV), and by a picture by Giovanni Francesio Guercino, in the Galleria Corsini in Rome, painted between 1621 and 1623, which shows two shepherds in an idyllic pastoral landscape contemplating a skull left on piece of crumbling masonry that is engraved with the words: Et in Arcadia Ego. Even in that earthly paradise death is present. The green leaves of summer and the golden days of youth are not for long. It seems probable that the foliate skull on this 18th century Memorial was just such a memento mori.
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Index of Places
A
Aschaffenburg. Plate 35.
Astbury, Cheshire. Plate 89.
Aubazine (Corrèze). Plate 26b.
Autun (Saône-et-Loire). Plate 17b.
Auxerre (Yonne). Plates 27, 28, 29a.
Avignon (Vaucluse). Plate 16b.
B
Baalbek. Plate 2a.
Bamberg. Plates 37, 28, 69.
Beverley, Yorkshire. Plate 55a.
Bishops Lydeard, Somerset. Plate 91.
Bordeaux (Gironde). Plate 5b.
Bosbury, Herefordshire. Plate 93b.
Bristol. Plates 64a, 64b, 65a, 95.
C
Cadney, Lincolnshire. Plate 47b.
Cartmel, Lancashire. Plate 84a.
Castor, Huntingdon and Peterborough. Plates 18a, 18b, 18c.
Chartres (Eure-et-Loir). Plate 24a.
Châteauneuf-sur-Charente (Charente). Plate 21a.
Chester, Cheshire. Plate 70a.
Cividale del Friuli. Plate 13.
Claypole, Lincolnshire. Plate 51b.
Copenhagen. Plate 19b.
Coventry, Warwickshire. Plate 67a.
Crowcombe, Somerset. Plate 92.
Crowland, Lincolnshire. Plate 87a.
D
Dorchester, Oxfordshire. Plate 44b.
E
Ebrach (Upper Bavaria). Plates 39a, 39b, 94a.
Elkstone, Gloucestershire. Plate 20a.
Ely, Cambridgeshire. Plates 57a, 57b, 58a, 58b, 59a, 59b, 60a, 60h.
Évreux (Eure). Plate 5a.
Exeter, Devon. Plate 49, 50a, 50b.
F
Friedburg. Plate 40.
G
Gelnhausen. Plate 36.
Grantham, Lincolnshire. Plate 43b.
Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire. Plate 82b.
H
Halse, Somerset. Plate 51a.
Harpswell, Lincolnshire. Plates 52a, 52b.
Hatra, Mesopotamia (Iraq). Plate 2b.
Hereford. Plate 93a.
I
Istanbul. Plates 6a, 6b, 7, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10.
K
Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Plate 22.
Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Plate 85a.
Köningslutter an Elm. Plate 21b.
L
Langley Marish, Buckinghamshire. Plates 81a, 81b.
Leckhampstead, Buckinghamshire. Plate 56.
Lichfield, Staffordshire. Plate 55b.
Lincoln. Plates 68a, 68b.
Linley, Shropshire. Plate 20b.
Llangwm, Monmouthshire (Gwent). Plate 86a.
Llantilio Crossenney, Monmouthshire (Gwent). Plate 86b.
Lostwithiel, Cornwall. Plate 76.
Loversall, Yorkshire. Plate 67b.
Ludlow, Shropshire. Plate 85b.
M
Mainz. Plates 33a, 33b, 41a.
Marburg an der Lahn. Plates 61, 62a, 62b, 70b.
Maria Laach. Plate 34b.
Mars (Niève). Plate 19a.
Melrose, Roxburgh, Scotland. Plate 75a.
Mildenhall, Suffolk. Plate 82a.
Montier-en-der (Haute Marne). Plates 29b, 29c.
Much Marcle, Herefordshire. Plates 42a, 42b.
N
Nantwich, Cheshire. Plates 66a, 66b.
Norwich. Plates 77a, 77b, 78a, 78b, 79a, 79b, 80a, 80b, 90b.
Noyon. Plates 32a, 32b, 48a.
O
Ottery St. Mary, Devon. Plate 75b.
P
Paris. Plates 12, 31a, 31b, 31c, 84b.
Poitiers (Vienne). Plates 11, 25a, 26a.
Q
Queen Camel, Somerset. Plate 87b.
R
Rheims (Marne). Plates 16a, 24b.
Ripon, Yorkshire. Plate 44a.
S