| Author |
Comment |
Lizzi
Unregistered User
(7/20/00 12:59:36 pm)
|
The Green Man
Dear All
Have any of you read some of the more recent theories on the Green Man?
Regards
Lizzi
|
Kerrie
Registered User
(7/20/00 2:32:41 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
Are you speaking of specific recent articles or asking regarding new developments in theory? I'm still new to the subject, but have learned little bits here and there through celtic studies and song, Endicott and this board. I can do a search if that's what you're looking for: oooo, research, research ::rubs hands together::
|
Stephen
R
Registered User
(7/20/00 7:27:53 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
Some time ago a friend sent me these sites:
www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/greenmen.htm
<www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/greenmen.htm>
www.apriori.net/~paz/jig.html
<www.apriori.net/~paz/jig.html>
Then there is the book "The Green Man" that I'm sure you must have seen (but I don't recall the author). Finaly, there's Lady Raglan's paper from the journal Folk-Lore from the first part of this century (Not exactly "new", but it is, I think the one that gave us the name "Green Man"). I hav a copy of Raglan around somewhere, but not where I can quickly ut my hands on it.
|
Stephen
R
Registered User
(7/20/00 7:28:54 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
Here's another link:
ourworld.compuserve.com/h...avid_lock/
ourworld.compuserve.com/h...vid_lock/
|
Hermes
Registered User
(7/20/00 11:34:24 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
There is a lovely little book by Mike Harding (who incidentally does the Folk on Radio 2 show here in the UK) called : A Little Book of the Green Man. But the definitive book is probably Kathleen Basford's : The Green Man.
I edit that section on the Open Directory and there are quite a few links at:
dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/...a-na-Gigs/
Hope this is of use
|
Lizzi
Unregistered User
(7/22/00 7:24:47 am)
|
Re: Well what I meant ...
... was that there is a lot of evidence to suggest that they were not pagan at all.
All the pagan theories are more or less from the last century and keep being pushed around whereas a lot of the modern research is ignored and pushed aside.
|
Stephen
R
Registered User
(7/22/00 7:02:15 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
Lizzi:
Well, now that you've brought it up, can you tell us about these theories? I'd very much like to hear them.
I have a new theory regarding the origin and function of Gargoyles, which appears in my book Medusa. I think the "apotropaic" theory isn't quite right (it's also used to explain why gorgon faces are often placed on buildings, especially the terra cotta antefix tiles, which is why I brought it up). Since "Green Man" faces are also placed on the sides of buildings, there might be some similarity of purpose there. But I've never heard anyone claim that Green Men were intended to "scare away evil influences" (which is what people usually claim gargoyles and gorgons are there for -- the claim I dispute).
|
Kerrie
Registered User
(7/23/00 8:53:21 am)
|
Re: The Green Man
I found the following sites quick that seemed interesting:
www.gardendigest.com/timegl.htm
750 AD
Use of the Green Man in art and lore becomes widespread in Christian Europe. Internet resources include: The Search for the Green Man and Who is the Green Man. Books on the subject include: Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth by William Anderson, 1990. The Green Man by Kathleen Basford, 1978. The Jack in The Green by Roy Judge, 1979.
emrs.chm.bris.ac.uk/morri...EENMAN.HTM
www.mikeharding.co.uk/gre...index.html
I also seem to remember my Italian teacher mentioning a large statue/sculpture/carving in Italy of a Green Man mask that, if you put your hand in his mouth, will determine if you are an honest person: if you are, nothing will happen, if you aren't his mouth will close upon your hand.
More later!
|
Marc
Unregistered User
(7/23/00 11:13:35 am)
|
The Green Man
Stephen, are you perhaps thinking of 'The Green Man' by William Anderson? It's worth checking out, even if this is not the book you mean. There's plenty of photography by Clive Hicks and its published by Harper Collins. We have a lot of churches around here (Devon) with green men carvings, there's even theories that a tree-cult once existed in the area
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(7/23/00 2:32:41 pm)
|
bocca della verite
Dear Kerrie,
Your Italian teacher was talking about the "Bocca della Verite", the mouth of truth. It's not a green man image--actually, it was an Etruscan sewer cover (modern day Rome in fact still uses the sewer system of antiquity!). It's a "fluvial" deity, with an open mouth. The cover stands upright in the little courtyard of a church (Santa Maria di Cosmedin)--where popular belief has it that it will bite off the fingers of liars. yes, I put my fingers in there--and boy was I sweating!
|
Stephen
R
Registered User
(7/24/00 6:30:30 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
The oddest place I've seen the "Mouth of Truth" is at EPCOT! The Disney people placed a reproduction in the Italian section, apparently believing that enough eople are aware of the legend. (It showed up in some circa 1960 movie set in Italy -- but I don't ecall which one).
There are a lot of Green Man figures of all sizes for sale at "Gargoyles and Grotesques" on Newbury Street in Boston. Thee are also quite a few adorning the amazing public library n Woburn, MA.
|
Heidi
Unregistered User
(7/25/00 8:47:07 am)
|
Mouth of Truth
The Mouth of Truth appears in "Roman Holiday" (1953) with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. The scene in which they "test" their honesty is quite fun, especially since the viewer knows both characters have secrets they are not sharing. This was Hepburn's first starring role. It made her a star and earned her an Oscar. The movie is still entertaining almost 40 years later.
|
Lizzi
Unregistered User
(8/1/00 10:39:16 am)
|
Re: The Green Man
Sorry this has taken so long but I forgot about my posting and it was following on from an interesting article in White Dragon magazine No 27 p20.
In summary it theorises that the Green Man is not a pagan deity but rather a Christian warning against sinning.
One of the references of the article is Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on medieval churches - Anthony Weir and James Jerman (Batsford 1996)
|
Hermes
Registered User
(8/17/00 11:38:55 pm)
|
Re: The Green Man
I haven't seen that book, but I am not sure that the Green Man is likely to have been, at least at first, a Christian symbol. The famous church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck is a remarkably preserved 12th century Norman church with a fantastic profusion of early carvings. Amongst the dragons, warriors and a beautiful Salamander is a green man. The Norman carvers don't seem to have been wary at all of incorporating pagan symbology into the church structure. That doesn't mean that it was not given a Christian gloss. The same thing happened in the 16th century with use of pagan classical themes in church decorations and monuments.
|
Terri
Unregistered User
(8/18/00 6:28:16 am)
|
Green Men
I wrote an article on Green Man symbology not too long ago, so my research on the subject is stiff fresh in my mind. The term "Green Man" for the foliate head symbol is a 20th century creation, and the validity of using this term for the symbol is still hotly debated by some folklorists -- but the foliate heads themselves go back at least as far as ancient Rome and were definitely incorporated into pagan structures. But the form really told hold and proliferated when the foliate head became a motif used in Christian architecture.
|
