A very old friend of Mother Nature has come out to play in the season once known as “The Month of Three Milkings.” With his origin hidden in mystery, he’s a lively legendary sort of fellow who enjoys cavorting around at May-time celebrations dressed head to foot in foliage. Older than recorded history, older even than ancient oral tradition, the conspicuously verdant character is called the Green Man.
Covered completely in a weave of leaves, garlands, bulbs, buds, blossoms, pine needles, ferns, vines, grass, weeds and whatnot, the Green Man shows up regularly at festivals in May.
As we in modern times have been wrung out and drained of any sort of pagan superstition, today we meet the Green Man with lighthearted amusement. Understanding that the Green Man is just a human dressed in vegetative costume, we giggle at the absurdity.
But way down deep in the triple-locked bank of primitive memory the Green Man has the power to stir up a sense of primordial eeriness. Seeing the leafy dude dancing around the maypole can still creep us out, no matter how desiccated by realism we have become.
As you might expect, people in the United Kingdom feel very comfortable with the Green Man. When the bushy bush (also known as Jack-in-the-Green and Green George in the British Isles) parades around to the music of fifes, bagpipes, fiddles and drums at springtime festivals, everyone cheers and dances right along behind him.
In May, while sipping on Whitsun-ale and saying hello to the daffodils, U.K. revelers remember that Robin Hood and Peter Pan were Green Man myths. They recall that the clever Oxford professor J.R.R. Tolkien wrote of giant tree-like Ents – lumbering creatures of lumber that served as shepherds of the forest – in his masterpiece The Lord of the Rings.
In Scotland the faeries, or fair folk, believe the color green belongs to them. Out of respect for that notion, the image of the Green Man appears on 100 carvings at Scotland’s Rosslyn Chapel. But the legend of “the face in the leaves” is not limited to the faerie-, elf- and fantasy-loving United Kingdom.
Known by different names in cultures across the world, the Green Man (“der grūne Mann”) will “tanz in den Mai” (dance into May) around bonfires and maypoles on Walpurgisnacht in Germany. On 700-year-old cathedrals in France many Green Man “tȇte de feuilles” (head of leaves) appear with vines growing from mouth, ears, eyes and nose. Across Italy, from the Vatican to the Doge’s Palace in Venice, the Green Man’s leafy presence abounds. He is remembered at an ancient oak grove at Dodona in Greece and has been celebrated for more than 1,000 years on May Day at Kleczanow Forest in Poland.
Symbolizing man’s reliance on, and cooperative union with Nature, the Green Man appears in India, where there are 100,000 sacred forests, as Kirtimukha (“face of glory”) stone-spewing carved leaves and flowers from his orifices on buildings across the land.
The Green Man as symbol of rebirth appears on columns in Turkey. As the “Disgorging One” his vine-pocked countenance graces churches in the Netherlands, is found on doorknockers and the corners of buildings in Finland, and hangs on cathedrals in Latvia and Croatia. As the magnificent “Foliate Head,” he is found on dishes and fetishes in Africa; and on Mugwort Day (also known as May’s illustrious Drunkards’ Day) his visage is nailed redundantly to trees in Romania.
He was Humbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest in ancient Sumaria; he was Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain and fertility; as Osiris, the god of renewal, he is seen in the art of ancient Egypt and remnants of the face of the Mesopotamian Green Man, sculpted in the 1st century B.C., can still be seen at the ruined desert city of al-Hadr in Iraq.
The big green galoot does get around.
Oddly enough, northern Native American mythology has no Green Man prototype. It was the Pilgrims and other New World-bound Europeans who gave him a ride over to what became the United States.
In our neck of the woods, the modern day Green Man has been mostly relegated to wind chimes, birdbaths and garden statuary. But in some venues in the U.S.A. he is joyfully squeezed and hugged as a symbol of environmental responsibility, among other worthy endeavors.
For example, the Beneficent Order of the Green Man in Hunt Valley, Maryland, is an organization dedicated to the sacredness of nature. Also in Maryland, the upcoming 9th Annual Greenbelt Green Man Festival will be in full flourish from May 4 to July 5.
There is a Green Man Brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, where the tasting room is open seven days a week – pretzels and Lusty Monk mustard gratis to beer buyers. At the Green Man Store in North Hollywood, Calif., we can roam among all things Wiccan and attend a workshop on how to improve digestion with herbs. And speaking of herbs, there is the Green Man Cannabis store in Denver where sacks of marijuana are sold by a variety of blend names, such as Juicy Fruit, White Erkle, Alien Dog, Afghan Bullrider and Ray Charles.
But the American genius for taking a good thing like the Green Man and making it even better aside, we must return to the British Isles to find the greatest and most famous celebration thrown in honor of our emerald-colored friend.
With plenty of time to make arrangements, check your calendar for traveling in August. If you are free from August 15 to 18, the desired destination will be the annual Green Man Festival held in the mystical Y Mynyddoedd Duon (Black Mountains) of Wales. Not only is this shindig a major folk-rock music bash, it is one of the few festivals in the U.K. licensed to offer both entertainment and booze around the clock. Eight bars are open 24 hours a day, which is an enormous incentive to pack the bags.
Just a three-hour car trip from London will take you to Brecon Beacons National Park near the Welsh town of Crickhowell. Once up in the mountains, expect to find 20,000 or more people engaged in activities that include tree-top singing inside a giant tree house, all-night bonfires, raw food cooking classes, didgeridoo and juggling lessons, yoga, Tai Chi, outdoor massages and hot tubs, wood-carving instruction, comedy and poetry performances, art and literature forums, and lectures on what to do when you encounter aliens from another planet.
Then out of the mists and into our midst the Spirit of the Natural World comes dancing by. When Henry David Thoreau wrote “spring is an experience in immortality,” could he have had the Green Man in mind?
“LEAF BY NIGGLE” SOUP
After creating this recipe in tribute to the Green Man, I named the soup after an allegorical tale written by J. R. R. Tolkien. In the piece Tolkien tells the story of the artist Niggle who paints a great tree on canvas, then in painstaking detail makes each leaf on the tree exceedingly lovely, perfectly exquisite. Niggle yearned after truth and beauty, as do we all.
Begin with heaping handfuls of any or all of the Green Things (should equal a pound or more), such as fresh parsley, beet greens, leafy tops of celery stalks, Spring Mix salad greens (kale, arugula, frisée), romaine lettuce, spinach, watercress, etc.
- 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- kernels of one fresh ear of corn
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 1 green tomato, chopped
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1 32-ounce container organic chicken stock
- 1 tsp. paprika
- dash of tamari (or soy sauce)
- dash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
- pinch of nutmeg
- salt and pepper to taste
- grated parmesan
METHOD: Wash and coarsely chop the green things. Put olive oil in a large saucepan, heat to medium high, add the greens and cook until wilted, about 8 minutes. Add the corn, jalapeño, garlic, onion and tomato. Simmer gently for 3 to 4 minutes. Do not overcook – we want to keep the soup green. Cool and puree in Cuisinart or blender. Set aside.
In the large saucepan melt the butter, stir in the flour and mix well. Add chicken stock a little at a time, whisking all the while until the liquid reaches a creamy consistency.
Add the pureed greens, stir and add the seasonings. Cook on medium low heat until ready to serve. Sprinkle a bit of parmesan at the center of the bowled soup. Serves 4 to 6.