Customer Reviews

Walking With the Green Man

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If you are new to Green Man lore, this is an easy, enjoyable read by a psychologist steeped in folklore and well qualified to explore the significance of the foliate heads that "adorn both pub signs and cathedrals." Dr. Bob Curran's *Walking with the Green Man* is a "walk" through medieval churches and villages, Mediterranean and Near Eastern lore, South Asian and Mexican jungles, Mesopotamian temples, and contemporary mixed media. He writes: "It is a walk through the mythology, legend, and history that have shaped and molded us all as a people on the planet. And at its end, we may know something fundamental about ourselves. It is therefore a walk that is well worth taking" (17).

The book is divided into four chapters. The first, "The Thing in the Forest," is an overview of the history, lore, traditions, and interesting personages associated with the Green Man. The underlying focus is on humanity's "fundamental split with the Natural world." The Green Man is seen as an expression of our longing to reunite with that numinous yet fearful world of nature. At first I fretted over the book's lack of references, footnotes, bibliography, and index that are familiar in more scholarly works. Then I reminded myself that the book is aptly named -- it is a "walk," not a long, intense journey. On a leisurely walk, baggage would be a hindrance (a useful reading list is provided at the end, however).

Chapter Two, "The Lurker Amongst the Leaves," looks at pagan and Christian treelore in Europe and the Near East -- this includes Yggdrasil, the Garden of Eden, Herne, the Wild Hunt, Enkidu, Osiris, Dionysus, Merlin, and others. I especially enjoyed the lengthy sections on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"; Curran's fine interpretation of Ragnell as a Green Woman; the historical sources behind Robin Hood's life and death; and fascinating data on Rosslyn Chapel.

Chapter Three, "Echoes from the East," follows themes from the first two chapters into the rest of the world, although lore from Europe finds its way into this chapter as well (again, this is a "walk" -- it likes to meander and stray off-focus). So we meet Europe's dryads, satyrs, and oakmen along with some great Islamic information on djinns and Al-Khidir. We also encounter the Kirtimukha of Tibetan Buddhism and intriguing nature deities from India, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, ancient Mesoamerica, and Africa. Through these many beings/spirits/deities, Curran writes, "various cultures have sought to reestablish themselves with the Natural world in roughly similar ways, sometimes using roughly similar imagery and iconography [...] as a physical focus for such a yearning" (153).

Chapter Four (named "Unholy Terrors," but the content does not match the title) begins with more lore (e.g., the springtime goddess Eostre, tales of Green Children, etc), then turns to Green Man art in English churches and concludes with an overview of contemporary mixed media. The sections I most enjoyed were on the Victorian revival of interest in spiritualism, ancient festivals like May Day, lost secrets, foliate heads; and Curran's survey of Green Man themes in current politics ("Green" movements), advertising (e.g., "Jolly Green Giant"), books, films, TV, and a lengthy and especially fine look at comic books. Curran concludes: "There is still a notion, locked away in some almost forgotten part of our mind that old and powerful forces might still exist and that they can be experienced through the often-overwhelming power of raw Nature . . . In a very real and physical sense, the image of the Green Man addresses the mysteries of the cosmos and provides hope for the future" (195/204).

All in all, this is an enjoyable work, enlivened with Ian Daniels' often wonderful but sometimes suitably "creepy" B&W illustrations.

This is what happens when you're writing a book for the popular market and you don't want to take a more academic approach towards the material. You simply fill up the book with a bunch of material that has nothing to do with the title.

I found the author's attempts to tie the mostly Anglo-Celtic phenomenon of the green man in his carven and folkloric forms with a disparate bunch of fertility gods from the world over to be ill conceived. It makes me suspect it was done solely to meet a publishers minimum page count.

I flat out don't believe that Middle Eastern and Asian gods have any connection with the green man whatsoever. Nor do other European fertility gods and goddesses he unfortunately chose to include in this book.

All this goes to demonstrate the fact that Bob Curran is NOT a serious author.

I don't recommend buying this book. It's not worthy of inclusion in one's personal library. If you must read it, do it with a library card or while sitting in the cafe of your local Barnes and Noble or Borders. If you buy it you're only encourage him to write and publishers to publish more of this sort of dreck.

The illustrations are great, if you're into the science-fiction & fantasy styled genre of artwork.

I am really interested in the subject of the Green Man in religious history and lore, so I was looking forward to receiving this book. But I found several glaring errors within the first couple of chapters, and much superficial guessing and conjecture. Eventually, I decided that I couldn't trust anything this book is saying. From what I can tell this book is largely wishful speculation, based on perhaps much personal reading, but it has no real substance at all in an academic sense. It may well have been written by someone with a sincere personal interest in the subject, but I wouldn't rely on it for real information. Instead I would recommend "Green Man --the archetype of our oneness with the Earth" by William Anderson. Gorgeous photography based on exhaustive studies of Green Man throughout Europe. It is deeply thought-out as well as deeply felt. Now that's a book worth digging into! Compared to the Anderson book, this one is simply a waste of time.

If you want to know the history behing the Green Man this is the book for you!