The Fascination of Green Men: Winchester’S Contribution by Julie Adams

The Fascination of Green Men: Winchester’s Contribution by Julie Adams

For many hundreds of years, the green man has been an enigma. The term “green men” was only coined in 1939 when Julia, Lady Raglan wrote an article about them in the journal “Folklore” [1]. Before that, they had been known in England as foliate heads, and in France they are known as “Masques Feuilles”, literally leaf masks.

Many theories have been put forward as to what meaning they had originally, and whether they referred to a speciﬁc person or being. That has never been resolved, but similar images were used in various early cultures in different parts of the world, as widespread as Mesopatamia, Lebanon, and India, and they could simply be a way of personifying nature. The Romans were employing a similar image as a decorative device in the ﬁrst and second centuries A.D. and by the 6th century the symbol was being used on Christian sarcophagi, for example in Ravenna. Although the device has been used widely in western church architecture, it is not found in eastern churches, possibly because of the strong opposition to images in the orthodox church during the 8th century.

So green men predate Christianity; they had an earlier origin in other cultures, and later they were adopted as a Christian symbol. Some Christian authorities have suggested that the foliage issuing from the mouths of green men represents the life giving breath of the Holy Spirit [2], but more commonly they are associated with Spring and the giving of new life, analogous to Christ giving life through his cruciﬁxion and resurrection. Sometimes a green man may be found with acorns or berries rather than spring foliage or ﬂowers; acorns were used as a symbol of fertility, (Fig 1) so the messages are confused.

Fig 1 Green Man with oak leaves and acorns, adjacent to Wykeham’s chantry chapel

There are over 60 green men in Winchester Cathedral, hiding amongst the carvings high in the stone vaulting, and in the leafy wooden carvings of the Quire. It is rare to ﬁnd green women, but we do have two or possibly three examples (Figs 3, 5 and 7) which seem to have more reﬁned features than their male counterparts, and they all appear to be half of a 1 pair, one male and one female. One is usually totally hidden from view, on a 13th century stone frieze behind the triptych in the Langton Chapel, originally dedicated to St Birinus. Another is to the right hand side of the feretory screen with a male counterpart to the left, and one potential debatable candidate is on the frieze along the string course of the nave.

Fig 2 Green Man from Langton Chapel Fig 3 Green Woman from Langton Chapel

Fig 4 Green Man to left of feretory screen Fig 5 Green woman (?) to right of feretory screen

Fig 6 Green Man on Frieze to north of nave Fig 7 Green Woman (?) on Frieze to north of nave

2 There are four main types of foliate head, and Winchester Cathedral has examples of all four. The ﬁrst has a face which appears to be totally made up of leaves (Fig 8), the second has foliage spewing from the mouth and/or other oriﬁces of the face (Fig 9). The third has leaves instead of hair, (leaves occasionally replacing a beard or eyebrows), (Fig 10) and the fourth shows a face peering out from surrounding foliage (Fig 11).

Fig 8 Above a quire stall Fig 9 South nave aisle, Fig 10 Stall at west Fig 11 Eastern side of close to the quire screen bay 7 end of Quire quire screen, southern end All of the examples shown above are in close proximity to others, but sometimes the medieval craftsmen chose a relatively isolated position for the motif as is the case with the capital of a pillar in the nave, close to Wykeham’s chantry (Fig 12). It is the only pillar to have been decorated in this way.

Fig 12 Capital of pillar to the west of Wykeham’s chantry chapel

Foliate heads are principally a carver’s device, so three dimensional, frequently used to decorate churches or church furniture, but also used on secular buildings. Green men were used to decorate the Tudor stalls in the Quire (Fig 13), and something very like a green man motif can be found decorating the knees of the armour worn by James I and Charles I on their statues crafted by Hubert Le Sueur at the west end of the nave (Fig 14).

3 Fig 13 Green Men on Tudor stalls Fig 14 Motif on Armour, Le Sueur’s statues to north of Quire

Similar two dimensional images can be found in medieval manuscripts and occasionally in stained glass windows. The Mercure Wessex hotel was built in the 1960s (originally as a Trust House Forte hotel) on land belonging to the Cathedral. Within the Reception area, designed especially for the hotel by John Piper is a stained glass panel featuring multi- coloured green men with foliage spewing from their mouths (Fig 15).

Fig 15 The Stained Glass Panel in The Wessex Hotel, designed by John Piper

Green men appeared in England in the 12th century and were generally not used after the 15th century, except during the gothic revival of the 19th century. This explains why so many examples are found within the 14th century stone vaulting and the 14th century woodwork of the Quire. There are in addition some very strange examples of green men on a 17th century monument in the north nave aisle (Figs 16, 17, and 18), which also exhibit inﬂuence of the indigenous Inuit people of North America; some of them are adorned with face paint and they do have leaves, not feathers. This particular monument was of course erected after the discovery of the New World. 4 Fig 16 17th century monument Fig 17 Curious foliate head Fig 18 Gilded foliate head on north nave aisle with face paint As previously intimated, the majority of the green men in the Cathedral are found in the vaulting of the nave aisles and in the Quire. Indeed, half of them are concentrated in the relatively small area of the Quire. There is just one very unusual gilded image in the vaulting of the Lady Chapel (Fig 19), but that chapel also has two extraordinary green beasts spewing vines (Figs 20 and 21) at the western ends of the frieze running just above the Marian wall paintings.

Fig 19 Boss in Fig 20 “Green Beast” on south side of Fig 21 “Green Beast” on north side of Lady Chapel Lady Chapel frieze Lady Chapel frieze There is another isolated example in the north transept (Fig 22), which is the central boss of the vaulting in the middle of the east side, where at one time there was a small side chapel. The boss has had a hook placed in it, possibly to hang a lamp, and that makes it difﬁcult to identify the facial features of this green man.

Fig 22 Boss in the north transept 5 Green beasts occur in places other than the Lady Chapel; there are some on the feretory screen including green lions (Fig 22) and there is a single green lion tile just outside the Guardian Angels’ chapel (Fig 23). The use of a lion is signiﬁcant; medieval sculptors were obsessed with symbolism which is hard for us to appreciate today. The lion is sometimes used to represent God as it is said to sleep with its eyes open, and God never sleeps as he watches over his children. [3] The “Lion of Judah” is the symbol of the Hebrew tribe of Judah, consisting of the descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Lion of Judah is also mentioned in the Book of Revelations, in this instance referring to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. [4] In the 20th century the author C S Lewis created Aslan, a lion, to represent God in his stories about the Kingdom of Narnia.

Fig 22 Green lion on feretory screen Fig 23 Green lion on tile in Retroquire, by Guardian Angels’ Chapel

The head of a lion was one of four heads seen by Ezekiel on each of the cherubim during his vision [5], and St Mark, the Evangelist, has been assigned the lion as his symbol.

Even by looking at the photographs within this article, it is apparent that green men can exhibit a wide variety of facial expressions. Some look as though they are in pain, some look angry and others look benign, and we have to wonder why so many different expressions are used. Green men are often found at the entrance to a building or to a section of a building and the green man which ﬁrst greets visitors at the west end of the Cathedral, by the entrance desk appears welcoming. (Fig 24) By contrast, the one on the opposite side of the vaulting into the next bay is quite menacing, and it would not easily be seen unless one was leaving the building by the north west door. (Fig 25)

Fig 24 Welcoming Green Man at the Entrance desk Fig 25 Menacing Green Man in adjacent vault

6 The types of leaves shown on green man images also vary, often reﬂecting the local ﬂora. In Winchester, there is a tremendous variety of foliage represented in the Quire, including vine leaves, ivy, hawthorn and oak. Similarly, Winchester’s green men are shown with a variety of leaves (Figs 26, 27 and 28), and it is thought that the types of leaves used were part of the medieval symbolism, expressing positive or negative thoughts.

Fig 26 Surrounded by Oak Fig 27 Surrounded by Ivy Fig 28 Surrounded by Acanthus

The Green Man is a common name for English pubs although, surprisingly, it has only been in use since the 17th Century; most inn signs tended to depict a woodman, Jack-in- the Green (associated with May Day) or even Robin Hood, rather than a foliate head. Since Lady Raglan’s time, some of the signs have been replaced by the typical motifs we ﬁnd in church architecture. The Green Man on the corner of Southgate Street, and St Swithun Street in Winchester was partly rebuilt in 1888, to a design by local architect Thomas Stopher, and the pub sign used now is a very human head with a human beard surrounded by leaves. (Fig 31) A historic photograph of the previous building (Fig 29) shows there was a simple sign giving the name of the pub and the licensee, T. Knight, but no illustration of a Green Man.

Fig 29 The Green Man on the corner of Southgate Street and St Swithun Street before the rebuilding in 1888 Photo: Hampshire Record Ofﬁce: Hampshire Field Club Photographic Collection: 65M89/Z250/17

7 Fig 30 The Green Man Inn as it appears in 2017 Fig 31 The current pub sign for The Green Man Inn

Two green men which are unique to Winchester Cathedral are shown in Figures 32 and 33. Within the Quire we have a famous green man with a complete torso and limbs who carries a sword and shield. It is most unusual to show anything other than a head. Less well known is a small carving just behind the door to the crypt. It was carved by Bleddyn Hughes in 1993; he was head stone mason and shows a similar sense of humour to the medieval masons who worked in the 1300s!

Fig 32 Winchester’s Entire Green Man Fig 33 20th Century Green Man carved with sword and shield by Bleddyn Hughes in 1993

8 For the most part, green men remain a mystery and perhaps that is part of their enduring appeal? There are so many questions which remain unanswered, and that will probably always be the case.

Photographs With the exception of Fig 29, all photographs were taken by the author.

Acknowledgements I should like to thank David Rymill at The Hampshire Record for his assistance in supplying a copy of the photograph of the “old” Green Man Inn in Southgate Street.

References 1. Julia, Lady Raglan, The Green Man in Church Architecture, Folklore Journal, 50:1, March 1939, pp 45-57, 2. Mastin, Luke, www.greenmanenigma.com The Enigma of The Green Man 3. http://www.catholic-saints.info/catholic-symbols/lion-christian-symbol.htm 4. Revelations Ch. 5 v.5 "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." 5. Ezekiel Ch. 1 v.6 “And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.” v.10 “Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.”

Further Reading 1. William Anderson, Green Man: The Archetype of our Oneness with the Earth, Harper Collins, 1990 2. Kathleen Basford, The Green Man, D S Brewer, 1978, reprinted 2002 2. Mike Harding, A Little Book of the Green Man, Aurum Press, 1998

9 Appendix I Diagram Showing Positions of Most Easily Seen Green Men

10 Appendix II Easily Seen Green Men in Winchester Cathedral

1. North nave aisle Bay NN12, close to entrance desk

2. North nave aisle Bay NN11, in vaulting on junction with bay 12

3. North nave aisle Collection of heads on 17th century monument in bay NN5

4. North nave aisle Bay NN2, in vaulting at east end

5. North transept Central boss in central chapel on east side

6. Behind crypt door Modern carving by Bleddyn Hughes, 1993

7. Outside Guardian Tile displaying a green lion Angels’ Chapel

8. Lady Chapel Close to boss of God the Father, eastern end

9. Langton Chapel (i) On frieze behind the altar = Green Man

10. Langton Chapel (ii) On frieze behind the altar = Green Woman

11. Feretory Screen (i) Lower left of Icons

12. Feretory Screen (ii) Upper left of Icons

11 13. Feretory Screen (iii) Lower right of icons

14. Feretory Screen (iv) Upper right of icons, possibly a green woman, note headdress and ﬁne features

15. Quire (i) South side of quire

16. Quire (ii) North side of quire close to west end

17. Quire (iii) Pew end on north side of quire, west end

18. Quire (iv) Pew end near pulpit facing west on north side

19. Quire (v) Pew end near pulpit facing east on north side

20. Quire (vi) Full bodied man with sword and shield on north side

21. Quire (vii) Tudor Quire stalls on north side

22. Quire (viii) Misericord and many other examples similar

23. Quire (ix) Eastern side of quire screen on south side

24. Quire (x) Eastern side of quire screen on south side

12 25. Quire (xi) Pew end at the front of the quire stalls on north side

26. Quire (xii) Within a spandrel - many other examples of this type

27. South nave aisle SN2 on western end of vaulting, similar in style to example 4 in north nave aisle

28. South nave aisle SN5 One of three in a row

29. South nave aisle SN5 One of three in a row

30. South nave aisle SN5 One of three in a row

31. South nave aisle SN7 In vaulting close to window

32. South nave aisle SN8 One of three adjacent to Wykeham’s chantry

33. South nave aisle SN8 One of three adjacent to Wykeham’s chantry

34. South nave aisle SN8 One of three adjacent to Wykeham’s chantry

35. South nave aisle SN10 Above the scribe’s desk

36. South nave aisle SN10 In vaulting opposite the scribe’s desk

13 37. Wykeham’s Chantry (i) This head resembles a green man, although the ears look devilish

38. Wykeham’s Chantry (ii) This head resembles a green man or a green beast with foliage spewing from its mouth

39. Pillar adjacent to Pillar divides bay 8 from bay 9 Wykeham’s Chantry

40. Nave frieze north side Bay 5

41. Nave frieze north side Bay 8 - Possibly another green woman as the features are more reﬁned than its pair above

42. The armour worn by This perhaps stretches a point, but the James I and Charles I on decoration on the knee is very similar to the the statues by Le Seuer decoration on the Tudor quire stalls.