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The Green Man is a motif or theme that is associated with the Wild Hunt, which in
turn is linked to the mythology of Odin in its various forms. The Green man is a god of vegetation and appears
in stone masonry throughout Europe and
the British Isles. He is also virtually
the same character as the Jack in the Green or the Green Knight and is closely linked to the Savage Man, the Wild
Man, and Herne the Hunter.
The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guilley says that Herne is the leader
of the Wild Hunt, a nocturnal procession of the dead, and is linked to the old god Cernunnos.
These characters are closely tied to the agrarian year and seasonal festivals and to forests as their habitat. Some
of these characters are alleged to have once lived, such as Herne, and some are merely re-makes of archetypes that reach from the cradle of civilization
to our time. Even as late as 1990, this kind of festival is recorded taking
place in Hastings, England. We read of one such festival in The Green Man, the Archetype of Our Oneness With the Earth by
William Anderson:
"The Jack in the Green has erupted from beside the sea. He is escorted by several Green Men. They
are accompanied by a girl carrying a high spray of flowers. She is completely black and very comely. The crowd follows the
procession along the sea front and turns up to the castle on the cliff above the town for the purpose of the ceremony: the
release of the spirit of summer. This happens in the last dance, for which the Jack descends from his mound and bobs up and
down on the edge of a side of Morris dancers performing a stick dance. They crack their wooden swords together. Jack in the
Green falls dead" (9).
There are some
correlations in this theme with the primitive Norse funeral.
The Green Men of East Anglia
Gawain and the Green Knight
The
Green Man, a god of vegetation, appears in English legend. Also called Jack in the Green, the Green Knight, he is closely
linked to the Savage Man, Wild Man, and Herne the Hunter.
The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guilley says that:
"Herne
is the leader of the Wild Hunt, a nocturnal procession of the dead and is linked to the old god Cernunnos. These characters are closely tied to the agrarian year and seasonal festivals and to forests as their habitat.
Some of these characters are alleged to have once lived, such as Herne,
and some are merely re-makes of archetypes that reach back to the cradle of civilization to our time. Even as late as 1990 this kind of festival is recorded taking place in Hastings, England."
We
read of one such festival in The
Green Man, The Archetype of Our Oneness With the Earth by William Anderson:
"Having made the point that the evidence for linking the Green Man as he appears with the leaf-covered
figure of folk ritual is often patchy, the archetypal force behind both the Green Man of art and the leafy figures of custom
is the same. They are different manifestations of the same primal urge."
The sacrifice of the Green Men archetype ensures a fruitful harvest. The Green Man is
dead and reborn again and again, spring after spring. The harvest festival is
celebrated later in the year, and then the low period, Samhain, with its deep gloom appears near the time of winter's longest
days. In the spring, the people are once again happy to re-new their pact with
the pagan cult of fecundity and reenact the story, yet again: life, death, and rebirth.
In Riders to The Sea, Maurya's sons might be ghostly riders in a version
of the Wild Hunt. The two brothers may also be said to be racing in some sort of otherworldly Triple Crown race, or, to make
a pun - the Irish race.
There are Irish deities that celebrate horses and
riding too. Celtic Myths by Miranda Jane Green has this to say about the goddess Epona:
"Her imagery is distinctive: she is always depicted in company with horses, either riding
side-saddle on a mare or between two or more horses or ponies "(60).
The description of Epona riding between two ponies is interesting. Was she riding between
the two sons? Synge may have alluded to this goddess as if she were figuratively between the sons' horses.
The Green Man is found in stone and wood carvings, as is the "Carved
Head" pattern found as a pattern in needlepoint:
As the Green Man's face is usually hidden in the abundant foliage, the
Carved Head is similarly concealed in the abundant curly hair of the harmonious panel pattern design.
The Green Man and the Carved Head are relics of the old religion. The
Green Man and the Carved Head became symbolic of the Devil when Christianity became the established religion.
The carved Head is based on the carved oak panels...
There is a legend of the Green Children in Woolpit, England.
It is explained by some that these children emerged from pits dug to trap wolves, and others say they rose
from the graveyard. They were described as having a greenish tinge to their skin, eating only green vegetables, and speaking
an incomprehensible language:
"Various explanations have been put forward for the enigma of the
Green Children of Woolpit. The most extreme include that the children originated from a hidden world inside the earth, that
they had somehow stepped through a door from a parallel dimension"
(http://www.mysteriouspeople.com/Green-Children.htm).
Some accounts add more, saying that the children emerged
from a hole or trapdoor in the graveyard, and others say that they emerged from the wolf traps dug into the ground. They
might be linked to wild men legends, feral children, or even be a variation on stories about the "little people" who lived
in their own underground kingdom.
There
is evidence that the Wild Man theme is found in many of England's churches. For instance, in St. Mary The Virgin,
Hemingbrough, there is a:
"jester
on one of the pews, complete with cap and bells...assorted wild beasts, two-headed dragons and naked men in peculiar poses...
In
this church, there is also a gargoyle with pointed ears and "saw-edged teeth" (Timpson, 216-217).
The pointed ears suggest a beast such as a wolf, and the
jagged teeth of the Halloween Jack-o-Lantern.
The Green Children
The Green or Wolf Children were said to have emerged from a hole or trapdoor
in the earth. In a similar way, children were passed through a logan stone in a pagan healing ceremony and were thought
to emerge through the other side with their health changed for the better or cured from their illness.
Were there any other people in history or myth with green skin?
Many Egyptian paintings show Osiris with green skin.
"Osiris had green skin because he was a god of agriculture, vegetation, and fertility. As a god on earth, he was
the first pharaoh and taught his people how to grow corn and make wine from grapes and bread and beer from wheat."
https://www.neferchichi.com/egyptian-gods-osiris
Osiris with Green Skin
The Green Man as a motif is also found in other places besides Britain
and Ireland. For instance, in Sandro Botticelli's painting Primeravera, the figure identified as Chloris
has foliage emanating from her mouth, as she is grasped by the cold blue figure of Zephir, a wintery blast of air
from his mouth making the foliage emerge from Chloris' mouth. Some describe this as flowers spewing from her mouth
or vomiting flowers as she escapes from Zephir's grasp and turns into spring with its new sprouting foliage.
The painting is symbolic, Primavera meaning spring. Greek mythological characterers
are also in the painting with three dancing figures in a ring-around-the-rosie, representing the Three Graces. Chloris appears
to be the least happy of all the figures, and something about her person in gauzy dress suggests a kind of ambiguity.
Primavera
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