Evidence of the Green Man in Europe
Pagan Symbol of the Forest is Enjoying a Renaissance
The Green Man has festivals named after it in the United Kingdom, while the Burning Man festival in the United States had a Green Man theme in 2007. However, some of the earliest evidence of its worship is in continental Europe, and it dates back to pre-Roman and pre-Christian times.
The Green Man in Ancient Europe
The ancient Celts believed the head was the seat of the soul, and an armlet dating from the 5th century BC found in a male grave at Rodenbach in Germany has a decoration that culminates in an abstracted male head wearing a crown of yew-berries. This style of ornament was to become a popular representation of the Green Man over the following centuries.
The first record of a Green Man in a Christian setting was found on the 4th or 5th century AD tomb of Saint Abre in the Church of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand, Poitiers. The tomb is for a woman called Abre, who was the daughter of St. Hilaire, a pagan who converted to Christianity and became a renowned figure in the church.
The carving features a benign human face, like a sun, or a flower surrounded with petal or bracts. This example shows how a pagan converting to Christianity might have influenced the use of the Green Man motif in churches through memory of prior beliefs and experiences.
Another example of how pagan motifs might have entered Christian architecture on the continent is through the use of pagan materials by the church, as many of the old pagan temples and statues were adopted by churches rather than being destroyed.
An example of this is how Archbishop Nicetius of Trier recycled several Green Man statues from Hadrian’s Classical Roman temple in the 6th century and placed them on four pillars; they were on view for 500 years until restoration work covered them.
The Green Man in the Middle Ages
The only Green Man with a name attached to it is set amongst several statues representing Roman deities on a fountain at the Abbey of Saint-Denis in France; it dates to AD1200, and has the inscription Silvan. It is thought that it refers to the Roman forest god Silvanus.
During the Gothic architectural period (12th - 15th centuries) the human faces were often depicted as if in pain, and at odds with the foliage surrounding them, but they became more serene and stylised during the Renaissance (15th - 17th centuries), with the human faces looking more at peace with the foliage that surrounded them. There is evidence from both these periods in many parts of central and southern Europe.
Into the Victorian and Modern Eras
It is this Renaissance image of the Green Man that moved from churches to secular buildings in the late nineteenth century. The image of man and plants symbolising the union of humanity with nature has now been adopted by environmentalists campaigning for a more ethical treatment of the planet.
After residing in churches for centuries, the Green Man has returned to the forests.
Green Man Foliate Head
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Green Man Church Misericord
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