The Enigmatic Green Man: Discover the Surprising Reason Why This Mysterious Figure Appears in Cultures Across the Globe!
Occasionally the communities of the world tell similar ancient stories. A collective memory handed down through stories. Orally, at first at least, until writing came along. The most enduring make it into novels and eventually into modern media. Most famous of these collective memories is flood stories (Noah, Gilgamesh, Shatapatha Brahmana, the list is long). It would seem obvious to us why this is. A warning. Plain and simple. It could be related to tsunamis, glacial flooding or even a wrathful God. Depending on your worldview.
The Green Man appears to be just such a relic of our communal memories. He has been seen in carvings in Turkey, India, Great Britain, Malaysia and across continental Europe amongst others. In Lebanon and Iraq, depictions of the Green Man have been found dating from the 2nd century CE. He has even been found in Nepal and Borneo.
Unlike the heroes in flood stories, nobody seems to know where this archaic figure originates from. We know he is a symbol of rebirth and good fortune but nothing more.
Upon seeing a depiction of the Green Man for the first time, most feel his importance, a thread pulling at you from a time long forgotten. Encoded deep into your DNA. This effect is so powerful to some, they have dedicated their life to researching the Green Man. One such person is Mike Harding.
Mike has put incredible effort into his research, spanning more than 2 decades and a book. You can check out his site by clicking here. His interest was sparked after happening upon a crude carving of the Green Man in an folk shop in London. He immediately felt the pull of the thread. As I sit typing, I feel it too.
Historical Links
The Green Man has been linked to Gods and prominent folk figures across thousands of years. Including such legendary figures as Robin Hood himself. Tolkien is said to have been inspired to create the Ent race (like Treebeard if you’ve only seen the movies) due to the Green Man. Heck, even Peter Pan is said to be inspired by the Green Man. Below is a selection of notable Green Man adjacent figures.
Osiris
The figure of the green man has been linked to the God Osiris in Ancient Egypt. Osiris was often depicted with a green face and also linked to rebirth. Unfortunately, the origins of Osiris have been lost to the mists of time. We do know he started as a local God of Lower Egypt before taking prominence around 2400 BCE. For thousands of years he was a central figure in Ancient Egyptian religion and provides us with one of the oldest known links to the Green Man. Consider this fact, writing in ancient Egypt began around 3250 BCE and almost immediately we have the appearance of Osiris. He is incredibly ancient.
James Frazer, writing in 1906 said that Osiris, like other “dying and rising” Gods across the ancient Near East, began as a personification of vegetation. His death and restoration, therefore, was based on the yearly death and re-growth of plants.
Father Christmas
Not Santa Claus, because believe it or not, originally Santa and Father Christmas were two different people. It was a large drinks company in the 1930’s who helped to popularized the “modern” Father Christmas / Santa mix dressed in red. I’m sure we can all deduce which drinks company this was.
Father Christmas is part of an old pagan festival. Before being mixed in with the story of St Nicholas and the Norse character of Jul (who has a long white beard and gives gifts, also where we get Yuletide from) he wore a green hooded cloak and a wreath of ivy and would have looked similar to how he is depicted in this Victorian image.
Over time, starting in the 6th century CE he began to evolve, going through names such as King Winter, Father Time and King Frost before becoming Father Christmas. The myth grew with him. Pagan festivals had someone dress as Father Christmas and the locals would let him into their home for food and drink. In return, they would receive good blessings such as a mild winter.
In this we have the same story of vegetation rebirth as Osiris but now we have the addition of the foliage to the figure of the Green Man.
Al-Khidr
Picture by Seeroos123BigBoy – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 5
Al-Khidr is a prominent figure in Islam. He is said to have been a contemporary of Noah which puts him as living between 5000 and 3000 years ago.
William Anderson can explain the connection between Al-Khidr and the Green Man with more eloquence than I could hope to muster, so I’m going to let him.
There are legends of him in which, like Osiris, he is dismembered and reborn; and prophecies connecting him, like the Green Man, with the end of time. His name means the Green One or Verdant One, he is the voice of inspiration to the aspirant and committed artist. He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood. The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one’s normal capacities. In this there may be a link across cultures, because one reason for the enthusiasm of the medieval sculptors for the Green Man may be that he was the source of every inspiration.
William Anderson – Green Man: The archetype of our oneness with the earth
Honourable Mentions
Dionysus – Ancient Greek God of vegetation and fertility.
Freyr and Odin – Norse Mythology.
Jesus – Abrahamic Faiths. Comparisons have been drawn with the Green Man and it is thought that Jesus could be a re-telling of the Osiris story. Then you have the Crown of thorns (leaves), rebirth and miracles involving healing. Plus Christmas and its links to pagan rituals such as the Father Christmas story.
In media the Green Man has appeared in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th century CE romance detailing an Arthurian legend. Also in the Wind in the Willows, The Golden Bough, The Green Man and Summer’s Last Will and Testament (1600 CE) amongst many many others.
Who is the Green Man?
For me, he is the original seed of religion and the longest surviving polytheistic God. Also probably the first to be given the image of man. Over thousands of years his name and appearance has changed but at the heart of it, he persists all the same.
You can see his influence in all major religions. He even appears in the major flood myth of Abrahamic faiths in the form of Al-Khidr. Here in this seemingly unconnected collective memory, there he is.
This is why you feel the pull of the Green Man. Because he is there within everyone, religious or not. He is the cycle of life and death, of fertility, crops and their failure.
These three things: Life, Death and Sustenance are and always have been at the centre of what it is to be human. We are born, we reproduce and we die. While alive our main goal is to make sure we have enough food to survive. The Green Man, in my opinion, was simply the ancient worlds attempt to answer the question of nature itself.
He is us and we are him.