Lomography

The Green Knight by Jonathan Polkest

A GreenMan represented by a face sorrounded with leaves, branches or vines sprouting from the nose, mouth ears and parts of the face is seen as a common architectural ornament, mostly from antiquitary. Greenmen are found in church carvings and secular buildings, the name Green Man is frequently associated with taverns, inns and public houses. The motif is embedded in various cultures, in British culture yhe status fluctuates from being an ornamental English appropriation to that of a symbolic talisman from Celtic cultures where the emblem describes maintaining the individuals identity within the solitude of rural life and would be appropriately recognised by travelling farm-hands whose belief in the maverick at large links to the early Celtic Saints who identified themselves through pagan rituals and sacred elements in the rural landscape. Primarily it is interpreted as a symbol of rebirth or renaissance representing the cycle of growth each spring.Some speculation sorrounds the mythology of the Green Man developing independently in the traditions of separate ancient cultures evolving into the remaining evident variety found today. http://mikeharding.co.uk/greenman/green6.html