Would you like an audio guide? my husband asked as we entered the cathedrals of Northern Spain. Each time I shook my head. No. I had huge books on the Cathedrals of Spain; their architecture, their inspiration, how they cleaned the medieval glass with gin and each carefully labelled chapel with tortured saints. No. Nothing would explain the other things that crawled over the stone walls; namely hairy green men and women with open genitalia. The example above proves my point. ‘Hirsute woman with monkey’ was the sole curt comment on the audio.
Is it though? Is it a monkey? Where is its tail. An ape or wildman? The couple are chained together - bound by sin? If so - why are they either side of a heraldic shield. Why would you want this couple across your arms. They are surrounded by verdant green leaves and twining branches. Where are they? Who are they? Why are they?
This woman has an exposed breast and open vulva - see gallery below. She is not alone and green men are everywhere.
I would love to know who these people are and who they relate to our Sheela na gigs and wild men that live around us; embedded in cathedrals, castles , farms. They surround us but we are taught not to see them and the carefully curated guides pay them only the slightest glance as they hurtle round the rapt pillars and columns that teem with all things other than angels and saints.
What in the name of all that is holy are they trying to tell us?
Since writing this blog I am indebted to Peter Tolhurst’s book This Hollow Land - Aspects of Norfolk Folk Lore for his research on wild-men who are found across Europe.
‘Among the array of choir stall creature are several Wild Men or Wodewose, subduing a lion or fighting. Deep rooted in medieval iconography thesse Herculean figures, crowned and belted with leaves and covered in hair, became the epitome of brute force…By the late 16th Century guests in Wild Men costumes had begun to appear in courtly masques and as whifflers at civic pageants… where it was their responsibility to clear a way for the main event. At this stage the two traditions of Wild Man and Green Man were almost indistinguishable but for one thing. The role of the Wild Man was …to guard entrances, The Green Man was more a Bacchanalian figure to entertain the crowds.’
