In a guest post, Prof Javier Garcia Oliva and Revd Prof Helen Hall look at the “Green Man”  – the issue that arose in the recent consistory court case of Re St Edward’s Church, Kempley [2025] EEC Glo 1, in which their paper was cited in support of the conclusion that it is a Christian symbol.

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Introduction

This short paper seeks to examine:

• What has contemporary academic scholarship established about the origins, symbolism and interpretation of the Green Man image in English architecture, particularly in ecclesiastical settings.
• Why there are associations with the image and paganism in some parts of contemporary culture.
• Whether a Green Man image is permissible on a memorial headstone, in light of the applicable law and regulations.

 Origins, symbolism and interpretation of the Green Man image

The Green Man symbol, in the sense of the “foliate head”, begins to appear in England in the early 12^th century. The historian Ronald Hutton summarises its origins as follows:

“They were revealed to have been a motif originally developed in India, which travelled through the medieval Arab empire to Christian Europe. There it became a decoration for monks’ manuscripts, from which it spread to churches.”[1]

There are some earlier instances of humans or animals appearing with vegetation, but this is hardly surprising, given the inspiration of the natural world. It is also possible that some aspects of the artistic style of the foliate head designs were influenced by other societies, including pagan ones.[2] This is to be expected, given that neither decorative images nor cultural symbols ever arise in a cultural vacuum, and Christian spiritual buildings and objects frequently reflect this, e.g. consider the Pictish illustrations and illuminations in the Book of Kells.[3]

Nevertheless, it has now been convincingly established that the Green Men images as they appear in churches were understood by both their creators and observers as fitting within a Christian worldview.[4] Furthermore, it is reasonable to observe that Christian sacred art frequently depicts images intended to be perceived negatively e.g. Medieval depictions of Hell, or figures of demons tempting souls.[5]  The fact than an image or symbol might be appropriately displayed in a place of worship does not necessarily signify that it would be appropriate for inclusion in a memorial. It is therefore a material consideration that the Green Man was generally construed in a positive light.[6]

In a recent and highly detailed work, Miller demonstrates that the Green Man was it appears in church carvings is a distinctly Christian image, whatever antecedent influences it may have had.[7] He correctly observes that the Medieval worshipping community who produced the Green Man was well versed in both Biblical narratives and Christian lore, and would undoubtedly have made ready and sophisticated connections. He links the image with  stories about Adam, and the Garden of Eden, the Quest of Seth,[8] as well as meditations on the cross and crucifixion, for example, Jacobus Voragine’s The Golden Legend [9] and Honorius of Autun’s Imago mundi (an encyclopaedia and Christian world history).[10]

One narrative of particular relevance was the “Legend of the Rood”, an interconnected collection of stories derived from the overarching narrative of the Bible, demonstrating that even the Fall and expulsion from the Garden of Eden were part of God’s Divine plan, and that the wider picture of Christ’s death and resurrection.[11] As Adam lies dying, he sends his son Seth back to the Garden of Eden to beg a potion that will render him immortal. Unsurprisingly, he is refused entry by the angelic guard, and no elixir is forthcoming.  Nevertheless, mercy is shown, and he is given a seed from the tree bearing the fruit picked and eaten by the first humans. By the time that Seth returns, Adam has already died, so the grieving son places the seed under his father’s tongue and buries him in a place that will one day become Golgotha. A tree grows, which is eventually cut down. Over centuries, the wood is put to many uses, but it eventually becomes the cross of Christ. Thus, the eternal life lost by humanity through rejection of God is regained not through a magical elixir, but the painful sacrifice and glorious resurrection of Christ.

The Green Man would have connected more than one story and trope within the Christian cosmos, but above all else, was linked to the promise of rebirth. Trees had long been associated with the crucifixion in northern European Christian culture, and the symmetry of a tree as the vehicle for both the fall and redemption of humankind was stressed.[12]

Alongside the Scriptural narrative, there is there is the reality that deciduous trees are natural, organic symbols of rebirth. This also would not have been lost on the people making and viewing the Green Man images. Yet it is important to stress that they would have done so through the specifically Christian cultural paradigm in which they moved.   The people who gazed at Green Men in churches would not only have thought of winter and spring, but also made the connection between this seasonal death and rebirth, and the cosmic journey from death brought by the Fall to the life flowing from the crucifixion and resurrection. This raises the legitimate question, however: if the Green Man was clearly and profoundly a Christian symbol, why has it come to have pagan associations?

Associations with the image and paganism in some parts of contemporary culture

The answer to this question lies the wider quest of some folklorists in the early twentieth century to find evidence of an unbroken tradition of ancient pagan religion, that has survived the Christianisation of the British Isles. The work of Margaret Murray in respect of witchcraft was a notable example of this. Murray argued that the witches persecuted in Europe during the Early Modern era were in fact secret practitioners of a surviving pagan religion. For a while, mainstream scholarship embraced this idea, although it has now been conclusively disproven.[13] Nevertheless, it has retained a hold in popular culture and imagination.

The treatment of the Green Man by the folklorist Lady Raglan in 1939 is part of this broad trend within the discipline. She made connections between the Green Man figures in churches, and the unrelated phenomena of May Day processions and Jack-in-the-Green, as well as the popular “Green Man” pub sign. Research in the later twentieth century again unequivocally discredited this, illustrating the true origin of the foliate heads set out above, as well as the genesis of the other traditions mentioned (neither of which is of any great antiquity).[14]

However, the idea had attracted attention and gained a lot of support, including from many within the neo-pagan community. The Green Man came to be embraced by various neo-pagan writers and speakers, having an obvious connection with themes of nature and the changing seasons, important aspects of the spirituality of many people within these groups, as well as an apparent connection with pre-Christian faith.

In the current era, some pagans remain unaware of that these theories have been rejected by the academic community, whilst others reject these findings. There are also some modern pagans who are aware that the carvings have no direct connection to any ancient faith, and were made and used by Christian people, but nevertheless choose to retain the image because they find it helpful. Therefore, the Green Man continues to be found within Pagan circles.

The Green Man as an image on a memorial headstone, in light of the applicable law and regulations

Taking into account all of the above, the Green Man is very different from the Masonic symbols discussed in Re St Mary Canwell [2020][15] and the leading case of Re St Oswald’s Churchyard[16] The reasoning in both cases related to the questions about the compatibility of Freemasonry and Christianity, which have been acknowledged by the formal structures of the Church of England (although the judgments were careful to stress that they were not making any determination on that issue).

The Green Man is not a symbol from a movement like Freemasonry, nor can it really credibly be described as a pagan symbol which some Christians have adopted. It is a Christian symbol, carved in the stone of Church buildings because it would cause those who saw it to reflect on some of the core themes and stories of the faith. In light of this, it is difficult to see how it could be construed as being an inappropriate image for a Christian burial place.

It must be acknowledged that there will be some observers who may be unaware of the history of the Green Man and may misguidedly construe the symbol as pagan.    However, the weight of the scholarship is overwhelmingly that it is indeed Christian in nature.

Helen Hall and Javier Garcia Oliva, 16 January 2024

Bibliography

Boenig, Robert, Anglo-Saxon Spirituality: Selected Writings, Paulist Press (2000)

Caciola, Nancy Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages, Cornell University Press, 2006)

Corrigan, “The Function and Development of The Foliate Head in English Medieval Churches” University of Birmingham (2020)

Cate Gunn, ‎ Liz Herbert McAvoy, ‎ Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa, Women and Devotional Literature in the Middle Ages Boydell and Brewer, (2023)

Hutton, Ronald, “How Pagan Were Medieval English Peasants?” Folklore No. 122(3) (2011), 253

Le Goff, Jacques, “In Search of Sacred Time: Jacobus de Voragine and The Golden Legend ”Princeton University Press (2014)

MacDermott, Mercia, Explore Green Men, Explore Books (2006)

Muir, Lynette, The Biblical Drama of Medieval Europe, CUP (2003),

Netton, Ian Islam, Christianity and the Mystic Journey: A Comparative Exploration, Edinburgh University Press (2011)

Purkiss, Diane, The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth Century Representations, Routledge (1996)

Skipworth, Hannah, “Signs of Life: Images of the living world in Honorius Augustodunensis and Hildegard of Bingen” Monash University (2021)

Smither, Edward, Missionary Monks: An Introduction to the History and Theology of Missionary Monasticism Cascade Books, (2016).

Notes

[1] R Hutton, “How Pagan was Medieval Britain?” Gresham College 7 June 2023

[2] I Corrigan, “The Function and Development of The Foliate Head in English Medieval Churches” University of Birmingham (2020)

[3] E Smither, Missionary Monks: An Introduction to the History and Theology of Missionary Monasticism Cascade Books, 2016 72

[4] M MacDermott, Explore Green Men, Explore Books (2006)

[5] N Caciola, Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages, Cornell University Press, (2006) 165

[6] I Netton, Islam, Christianity and the Mystic Journey: A Comparative Exploration, Edinburgh University Press (2011), 25

[7] S Miller, The Green Man in Medieval England; Christian Shoots from Pagan Roots, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2022)

[8] Gunn, G, ‎Herbert McAvoy,L, and ‎Kukita Yoshikawa, N, Women and Devotional Literature in the Middle Ages Boydell and Brewer, (2023)154

[9] Le Goff, J, “In Search of Sacred Time: Jacobus de Voragine and The Golden Legend ”Princeton University Press (2014)

[10] Skipworth, H, “Signs of Life: Images of the living world in Honorius Augustodunensis and Hildegard of Bingen” Monash University (2021)

[11] Muir, L, The Biblical Drama of Medieval Europe, CUP (2003), 134

[12] Boenig, R, Anglo-Saxon Spirituality: Selected Writings, Paulist Press (2000) 272

[13] Purkiss, D. The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth Century Representations, Routledge (1996)

[14] R Hutton, “How Pagan was Medieval Britain?” Gresham College 7 June 2023

[15] Re St Mary Canwell [2020] ECC Lic 2

[16] Re St Oswald’s Churchyard [2016] ECC Car 5