Who is the Green Man? This mysterious figure has a history soaked in speculation and misinterpretation. Today he is broadly recognised as a neo-Pagan icon and a modern symbol for environmentalism. However, his mythology is surpisingly modern and I invite you on a weird and winding trail that connects him to the biggest land grab in human history. Let the Green Man guide us along an astonishing ramble through endangered woodlands, Victorian journals, Christian scripture, Right to Roam, the Witch Trials and a royal coronation.

Is he truly worthy of his green deity status?

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Written and produced by Rosie May. You can support my work by leaving a lovely review, donating at the Wessex Hag Bandcamp and telling a hag-minded mate about the show!

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My recommended places and materials for tracing the Green Man:

VISIT:

Cothelstone church (Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Quantock Hills)

Crowcombe church (Church of the Holy Ghost, Quantock Hills)

Broomfield church (Church of St Mary & All Saints, Quantock Hills)

Hatch Beauchamp parish church (St John the Baptist, nr Taunton)

St Mary Redcliffe parish church (Bristol)

READ:

The "Green Man" in Church Architecture - Lady Raglan (aka Julia Somerset) https://www.jstor.org/stable/1257090?seq=1

Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You - Nick Hayes & Jon Moses (2024)

Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe - Ronald Hutton (2022)

Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm - Isabella Tree (2018)

WATCH:

The Wicker Man (1973) - obv!

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