This Green Man is the design of Gary McDanial of 3crosseswoodcarving.com. Gary has a great video on this carving. The Green Man is usually an image of a face or body with foliage coming from the mouth, nose or eyes. It is sometimes the face or body surrounded by profuse foliage. There is a rich history of the Green Man. Nobody actually knows what the original name was for the Green Man. The earliest records of this type of design were found on memorial monuments to rich citizens, somewhere around 100 A.D. It was then a symbol of the renewal of life. The Christian church borrowed this art in Saxon times. To the medieval Christian mind he became a symbol of the rebirth after death. It is found in churches and cathedrals all across Europe. The Green Man today has a different meaning for most where he represents the cycle of nature. With the Renaissance the symbolic use appears to have declined, and the Green Man was used more as a conventional decorative motif.
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