The Green Man Cometh
via The Green Man Cometh.
I am a guest this week – what a novel experience that was! Many thanks to Dean Lombardo for inviting me – here is the opening :
“The next time you visit a cathedral, crane your head up to look at the ceiling, where the building’s arches lurk in shadow. What else do you see? You might need binoculars—but the older the cathedral, the more likely you are to find, nestling atop corbels and capitals, a singular face with leaves and branches climbing out of its mouth. Sometimes fierce, sometimes cheerful, mostly a trifle wild … this often-sculpted entity has been with us far longer than the cathedrals, and long before the Normans who built them, with a name that has regained resonance only recently: the Green Man…”
Post continues here …
Bustling along bookshelves . . . 
I hope many people read Greenwood Tree and take note. Have you seen Beverley Minster? Studded with Green Men.
February 10, 2013 at 2:08 pm
I hope so too ! 😀 Have you a photo you could post up of Beverley Minster? 🙂
February 10, 2013 at 3:04 pm
I’ll look for one.
February 11, 2013 at 3:09 pm
Thanks! I look forward to seeing it … 🙂
February 11, 2013 at 7:43 pm
Lovely post. Your wording was poetic at times. I wonder, does Peter Pan fit the mold of Green Man? He’s always in green and does defend the natural innocence of childhood. Not exactly the same perhaps, but maybe there was a subconcious connection in J.M. Barrie’s mind when he wrote Peter.
February 16, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Thank you! Most kind of you to visit again! Yes, Peter Pan is another character associated with the Green Man, one of the more recent literary embodiments, although I am not sure how subconscious or deliberate it might have been on Barrie’s part..
February 16, 2013 at 9:07 pm
All very fascinating stuff. I love the premise for “The Green Man Cometh”. Nice guest post 🙂 And I liked Kate’s comment. Peter Pan, easily the most recognized and familiar amongst the green men. 🙂
February 16, 2013 at 11:04 pm
Thank you too for popping back; so glad you liked it ! J.M.Barrie was a complex character; quite a long article on him here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3556421/How-bad-was-J.M.-Barrie.html
February 17, 2013 at 11:08 am