The Green men of Exeter Cathedral

Hundreds of examples of the so-called green man exist in churches throughout the West Country, probably more than in any other area of the UK. 

But the image of a human or beast's body or head, either surrounded by foliage or with foliage coming from the mouth, eyes or nose, exists in  carvings, mostly in religious buildings, throughout Europe and indeed as far away as Asia.

There are over 60 images on misericords and on bosses, corbels and other vault carvings that do, or could, represent green men in Exeter Cathedral, the second biggest concentration to be found in the UK.

The green man is usually an image of a face or body with foliage coming from the mouth, nose or eyes. It is sometimes a mask of foliage through which eyes peer, sometimes a body, or the upper part of a body, surrounded by profuse foliage; other examples depict a head with a mound of foliage above it. The image always links foliage, life, with the human (and sometimes animal) form.

Originally a pagan image, possibly imported by the Romans, it was then a fairly basic fertility symbol, a symbol of the renewal of life, and was borrowed by Christian art in Saxon times. Its use in the cathedral is concentrated in the older, eastern, wing and it is found extensively in the Lady Chapel, eastern ambulatory, presbytery and quire, areas generally out of bounds to lay   people before the Reformation. 

Some of our visitors find former pagan symbols in the most sanctified areas of a church both sinister and offensive, although in mediaeval times the image held a significance for Christians that we can only speculate about. 

The fact that it is found beneath the figures of the Virgin and Child in a quire corbel of Exeter Cathedral, shows just how profound that significance could  have been.

Masons of course used their templates of bestiary creatures, Virgins with Child, crucifixions etc for bosses, corbels and other stonework decoration and doubtless templates existed for many forms of green men. Some green men encountered in churches are really sinister, and many of those in our quire  and the beast bosses at the west end of the nave fall into this category.

In Exeter Cathedral, far more images of the green man exist than images of Jesus Christ.

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